By Lee Pfeiffer

Kino Lorber has released a Blu-ray edition of Richard Lester's zany 1967 military comedy How I Won the War. The film has long elicited debates among those who consider it a scathing and witty denouncement of militarism and those who dismiss it as a pretentious train wreck of a movie. Count this writer among the latter. The film plays like an extended  Monty Python sketch - with all the energy and talent, but none of the laughs. To be fair, one must take the movie into the context of the era in which it was released. Shot in 1966, the movie is seen by many as a protest against the increasing U.S. military presence in Vietnam. Although the anti-war movie didn't get into full gear until 1968, this premise is not unfounded because one of the characters makes a blatant reference to Vietnam by name. Set in WWII, the film follows the misadventures of a small unit of British soldiers stationed in North Africa. The central target of screenwriter Charles Wood, writing from a far more traditional novel by Patrick Ryan, is that the common soldier is used as cannon fodder for elitest, unqualified officers, who are uniformly presented here as ignorant dilettantes. This notion is personified by the character of Lt. Goodbody (Michael Crawford), a young man of privilege who seems blatantly jubilant about the prospect of heading into war. His ludicrous optimism makes him blind to the fact that he is hated by his own men.

The film is basically a well-photographed, but emotionally uninvolving series of juvenile gags and slapstick humor. Unlike films like M*A*S*H  and Catch-22, How I Won the War suffers from being completely surrealistic on every level, thus removing the audience from any real empathy with the characters. Goodbody talks directly to the audience, soldiers appear inexplicably in bizarre costumes and props appear out of nowhere to help set up a joke. The dialogue is so rapid-fire and spoken with such thick British accents that I could barely understand a word - and I've spent a good deal of my life traveling around England. Director Lester, whose lesser works I've often defended, squanders an excellent cast that includes Roy Kinnear, Michael Hordern and John Lennon, whose appearance here represents his only work in a non-Beatles film. That pop culture footnote actually makes more of his appearance than is merited. Although he acquits himself very well, Lennon does not have any stand-out scenes and his role could have been played by virtually any other actor.

The confusing story line, such as it is, follows the platoon from North Africa to Europe. Though at one point it implies they are part of Montgomery's disastrous invasion of Holland, the platoon suddenly appears near the Remagen Bridge in Germany. The latter part of the film plays better because Lester includes some semi-realistic battle scenes that are actually quite exciting. There is also an interesting sub-plot involving Goodbody being captured by the enemy and making friends with a German officer who is equally immune to the horrors of war. However, these factors are bit "too little, too late" to salvage the overall movie. One of the reasons the film didn't resonate with audiences at the time is likely because the British public could hardly relate to WWII as one of those useless, unnecessary conflicts. While it is true that Britain's involvement in the war was one of choice, the price of staying out of it would have meant the country would have existed only as a lapdog for a Europe completely dominated by National Socialism. Thus, using "The Good War" as a metaphor for a more controversial conflict such as Vietnam seems somewhat ill-advised in retrospect. Robert Altman's M*A*S*H succeeded using the Korean War as a backdrop because it was a situation the average  person never adequately understood or supported and it made for a more direct comparison to Vietnam.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray is most welcome but that doesn't mitigate the fact that this particular film is definitely for Lennon and Lester purists only.  

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By Lee Pfeiffer

Twilight Time has issued a new Blu-ray edition of Fritz Lang's classic 1953 film noir The Big Heat as a limited edition (3,000 units). The movie ranks among the top films in the noir genre and time has only increased its appeal. Glenn Ford is Dave Bannion, a dedicated police detective who begins to suspect that the apparent suicide of a fellow cop might be linked to department-wide corruption. His hunch proves correct as it becomes evident that virtually the entire police department, right up to the commissioner, is controlled by local crime kingpin Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby).  When Bannion receives warnings to lay off the investigation, he ignores them and continues to pursue leads. Before long, not only he but his beloved wife (Jocelyn Brando) and daughter are targeted for death. Lang's penchant for creating a dark, foreboding atmosphere is on display here. Most of the scenes are interiors or dank, dangerous locations. The film's central plot is mesmerizing from the shocking opening frames. As a leading man, Ford could usually be described as handsome, affable and reliable but "dynamic" would hardly be associated with his screen persona. In The Big Heat, however, Ford gives what is arguably the best performance of his career. As the gangsters take their toll on him, he becomes a man obsessed, menacing men and women alike. His only ally is Debby Marsh (wonderfully played by Gloria Grahame), a ditzy but lovable gun moll who suffers terribly from her attempts to aid Bannion. Director Lang brings real pathos to the proceedings. Bannion is the ultimate family man-- and he has a sexually playful relationship with his wife, something refreshing for a film from this period. When his wife and kid are menaced, Bannion's rage brings him to the brink of committing murder himself. Supporting characters are tortured, scalded, and even children are threatened. 

There are many memorable scenes in the film and most feature an impressive array of terrific supporting actors including Lee Marvin outstanding as a charismatic, but vicious thug who squares off with Bannion in the action-packed finale. Lang loved his adopted country, America, ever since he had fled Nazi Germany rather than serve as one of their propagandists. However, he was always dismayed by instances of injustice and often reflected these concerns in his films. The Big Heat might well have been the most daring expose of police corruption seen in any film until that time. The film remains a mini-masterpiece of its kind and all retro movie buffs should have it in their movie libraries. 

The Twilight Time Blu-ray presents a terrific transfer that does full justice to the outstanding camerawork of Charles Lang. The package includes the usual informative collector's booklet written by Julie Kirgo, but don't read it before watching the film as it is filled with spoilers. New features include on-screen separate  interviews with director Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann, who both provide valuable insights into why they consider this to be one of the greatest of film noirs. An original trailer is also included.  

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Occasionally we at Cinema Retro like to demonstrate that our interest in films doesn't end in the era when scripts had the fingerprints of Steve McQueen or Henry Fonda on them. Regular readers know that we try to promote worthy independent films by up-and-coming directors. Case in point: "The Heart Machine", an intriguing mystery that marks the feature film debut of  director/screenwriter Zachary Wigon. His film, originally released in 2014, is now available on DVD from Kino Lorber, a company that also tries to expand awareness of worthy indie films. The movie grabs you within the first few minutes, a necessary ingredient for any mystery. Cody (John Gallagher Jr.) is a 29 year-old, average guy who makes a modest living as a freelance writer. He lives in Brooklyn, which is now the center of the universe for hipsters. When we first see him he's engaging in a Skype video chat with Virginia (Kate Lyn Shiel), an attractive young woman his own age who resides in the same neighborhood he does.  The two make small talk and it seems they are in a committed relationship and that she is on a trip to Germany. We soon learn that they have actually never met although they consider themselves to be boyfriend/girlfriend. Virginia is ostensibly studying for six months at an institute in Berlin. Their flirtatious remarks inevitably lead to some graphic phone/video sex via Skype. (Thus demonstrating an unintended benefit of the advances in technology). Cody is clearly not only smitten but madly in love with Virginia and they talk about their impatience at having to wait months before finally meeting in person.  However, some disturbing suspicions enter Cody's mind. They begin when he hears an ambulance siren in the background on Virginia's Skype feed. He has recorded the chat and goes back to research what German ambulance sirens sound like (the wonders of Google!). He's even more disturbed to find that they sound nothing like what he has heard in his chat session with Virginia. The next day he is on a subway train to Manhattan and sees a young woman sitting opposite him who is an exact ringer for Virginia. She doesn't make eye contact with him but when he later mentions that he's seen her virtual twin on a train, Virginia acts a bit uncomfortable. Cody begins to suspect that the woman he saw was indeed Virginia and from here the plot segues into  a Gen X version of "Vertigo". Cody becomes increasingly determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. If Virginia isn't in Germany, what is her motive for carrying out his elaborate hoax? 

In his conversations with Virginia he maintains that everything is normal. However, when he throws out a couple of phrases in German and tells her he is studying the language she becomes inexplicably angry. Cody then begins an odyssey to try to prove that, like Sheila Levine,  she is indeed alive and well and living in New York. He becomes an amateur detective and uses his skills with social media to track her movements through old Facebook posts. He becomes obsessed with his quest and begins to frequent places she might have visited, hoping to find people who know her. (The film is certainly a cautionary tale reminding us that the price we pay for technology is an almot complete loss of privacy.) The story builds in suspense because the viewer doesn't know any more than Cody does at one particular time. However, Zachary Wigon, the screenwriter, does a disservice to Zachary Wigon, the director by tipping us off way too early regarding a key plot point. It certainly doesn't entirely ruin the sense of suspense but it surely diminishes it. Alfred Hitchcock made the same mistake with "Vertigo", at least in this writer's opinion, by letting us in on the fact that the woman who is the exact double of his former lover is indeed the same woman. I always thought that it would have been more effective for the script to hold that relevation until a bit later in the story. Nevertheless, if Hitchcock could make such a misstep, one can hardly blame novice filmmaker Wigon for doing the same. The problem with reviewing mysteries is that the reviewer must tread carefully so as to not reveal too much. "The Heart Machine" can't actually be termed a thriller. At no time is anyone is any real danger, but Zigon shows an admirable skill for generating legitimate suspense from seemingly nondescript situations. When Cody gains entrance to a young woman's apartment by feigning interest in her, his real quest is to confirm that she is a friend of Virginia's. When she goes to another room, Cody accesses her laptop and begins to scroll through her personal messages. The sequence is especially intense in terms of being nerve-wracking for both him and the viewer. Zigon also has the knack for capitalizing on the New York locations, thus giving the movie an air of authenticity. Rob Leitzell's stylish cinematography aids immeasurably.  Best of all are the performances. John Gallagher Jr. is gives a finely-tuned performance an everyday guy caught up in an extraordinary quest caused by his increasing obsession with a desirable woman (much like James Stewart in "Vertigo"). Gallagher is so good, in fact, that he loses himself completely in his character. His performance is quite remarkable. Although we see the object of his desire, Virginia, primarily through video chat screens, Kate Lyn Sheil is every bit his equal. She manages to be alluring, innocent and yet somehow foreboding all at the same time. You can well understand why Cody becomes obsessed with her. The supporting cast is peppered with fine performances from some very impressive young actors. The movie's conclusion and the resolution of Cody's quest is a bit unsatisfying in its ambiguity. Nevertheless, as both director and screenwriter, Zachary Wigon displays a great deal of promise. Here's hoping that in the "dog eat dog" world of indie filmmaking, he gets his chance to capitalize on that promise. I, for one, am very much looking forward to his future work. 

The Kino Lorber DVD has an excellent transfer and a brief trailer. Here's hoping they will one day issue a Blu-ray release with commentary track.

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It was forty years ago today that director Alan J. Pakula's landmark ode to journalism, "All the President's Men", opened in movie theaters. It was, of course, based on the best-selling book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, whose dogged investigation of a seemingly trivial break-in of Democratic Presidential candidate George McGovern's campaign HQ would turn the story into an international thriller that would ultimately bring down what Bernstein has called "the criminal" administration of President Richard M. Nixon. As with most scandals, the break-in itself was just the tip of the iceberg. By the time Nixon's embattled Presidency was over in August 1974, even Republicans had been calling for his head. Nixon was determined to face impeachment hearings. It fell to that symbol of conservatism, Sen. Barry Goldwater, to inform the President that the scope of the crimes committed during his administration would not be condoned by members of his own party: he had to resign because recent revelations about the cover-up convinced his fellow Republicans that they could no longer give him any benefit of a doubt.  Nixon did resign, ending his political career in disgrace just shy of two years since enjoying the greatest landslide re-election in American history. (Ultimately, dozens of his adminstration members would go to jail, some for crimes unrelated to Watergate. In the midst of the scandal, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned after pleasing "no contest" to charges he had been accepting bribes that were delivered directly to his office in the White House.) Pakula's film version of the Watergate investigation was released just two years after these dramatic events had occurred and they were very fresh in the minds of the public. In a new article for The Washington Post, writer Michael Cavna extols the importance of the film and interviews Woodward and Bernstein about their impressions of the movie. He also justly cites the role of cinematographer Gordon Willis in bringing to life one of the greatest suspense stories of our time. - Lee Pfeiffer

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“THE PRESIDENT’S REALITY SHOW”

By Raymond Benson

Robert Drew was a pioneer who changed the way we think about the documentary film. As first a writer/editor at Life Magazine in the 1950s, and then the head of a unit that produced short documentaries for Time Inc., Drew knew how to tell a story visually. When he formed his own company, Robert Drew & Associates, he was the guiding force for other talented (and later, more well-known) filmmakers such as D. A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back, Monterey Pop), Albert and David Maysles (Gimme Shelter), and Richard Leacock, among others. Together they invented a novel way to present a documentary film, something historians coined “direct cinema.”

Documentaries had previously been scripted, usually shot to order, and more often than not, were textbook dull. Drew and his colleagues developed the you-are-there style of following subjects around as they did their business, capturing significant moments as they occurred. Like today’s reality television.

The team’s work featuring President John F. Kennedy in the early 60s was especially influential and lauded with international film and journalism awards, and much critical acclaim. The Criterion Collection’s new release features four of these short films and an abundance of supplements.

First up, the most well-known title, Primary (1960). This was made during the Wisconsin primary race between Kennedy and rival Hubert Humphrey for the Democratic nomination. Cameras follow both candidates around the state as they campaign in various halls and meeting places. Both Kennedy and Humphrey agreed to the project, of course, for they and their staff are exemplary at ignoring the cameras and pretending the filmmakers aren’t there. Surprisingly, there is no self-consciousness on the part of the subjects. Besides the historical significance of seeing a young presidential hopeful—whom we know will be dead within four years—it is striking to see how differently a primary race was handled in 1960 as opposed to today.

Adventures on the New Frontier (1961) captures a day in the life of the president, filmed around a month after Kennedy took office. We see how his day begins, who his close assistants in the White House are, how meetings are handled, and how he makes some tough decisions. The cameras also then follow the various men to whom the president has given orders, and we see how those missions are carried out. Most of the day’s concerns regard an airline strike and conflicts in Africa. At one point, JFK has to take a break in his busy schedule to sign a bunch of photographs—for his sister’s family.

Crisis (1963) is the most engaging film because it’s the most dramatic. There are cameras not only in the White House, but in Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s home and office, and the residence and office of Alabama Governor George Wallace... during a tense time in the history of the civil rights movement. Wallace is attempting to block two black students’ entry into the University of Alabama (even though the students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, had already been accepted by the school). A Federal court order has been issued to allow the students to attend, and Wallace is ready to stand fast. Will the National Guard be called out? Will the Feds have to arrest a standing governor? We now know, of course, who was on the right side, but watching the drama unfold in real time is fascinating. It’s also a kick to see that everyone is smoking—cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos... The clothing, furnishings, and automobiles truly capture those same years featured in Mad Men.

Faces of November (1963) is a very short montage of images from Kennedy’s state funeral, more of a poetic silent movie than a documentary. Again, recognizing the young faces of Jacqui, Bobby Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Peter Lawford, and even JFK’s children, is a remarkable experience.

The first three films are fifty-three minutes each, the fourth only twelve. There is also an alternate twenty-six minute cut of Primary, edited by Richard Leacock. No director is credited on any of the pictures—only cameramen, editors, and other technicians. The Blu-ray features new 2K digital restorations of all five documentaries.

Supplements include an audio commentary on Primary with excerpts from a 1961 conversation between Drew, Leacock, Pennebaker, and film critic Gideon Bachmann. Robert Drew in His Own Words is a new documentary with archival footage of the man at work; there’s a new conversation between Pennebaker and Jill Drew, Drew’s daughter-in-law and general manager of Drew & Associates today; Outtakes from Crisis is just that, discussed by historian Andrew Cohen, author of Two Days in June; particularly interesting is an interview/discussion with former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder and Sharon Malone (Holder’s wife and sister of Vivian Malone, one of the students featured in Crisis); an interview with Richard Reeves, author of President Kennedy: Profile of Power, in which he points out the disparities between the worlds of Washington D.C. then and today; and footage from a 1998 event at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, featuring Drew, Pennebaker, Leacock, and Albert Maysles. An essay by documentary film curator and writer Thom Powers appears in the booklet.

The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates is a spellbinding look into the past with a microscope on one of our country’s most charismatic and eloquent presidents. The films provoke a sobering speculation of what the world’s history might have been like had the events of November 22, 1963 not occurred.

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BY FRED BLOSSER

Kino-Lorber has released John Frankenheimer’s “The Holcroft Covenant” (1985) in new Blu-ray and DVD editions, superseding a previous DVD release on the MGM label in 1999. Frankenheimer fans will be pleased to see this relatively obscure title available in remastered Hi-Def. Privately, even they may have to admit that it’s deservedly obscure because it’s a clunker, marking a sad decline from the excellence of “The Manchurian Candidate” two decades before. With that 1962 masterpiece, Frankenheimer and scenarist George Axelrod benefited from superlative source material, Richard Condon’s razor-sharp Cold War political thriller. “The Holcroft Covenant” was adapted from lesser stuff, a bestselling but stumble-footed 1972 suspense novel by Robert Ludlum. Multiple screenwriters are credited: George Axelrod, Edward Anhalt, and John Hawkins. The problems with the movie suggest a combination of Ludlum’s lame storytelling to begin with, additional troubles in trying to turn the rambling, 528-page potboiler into a leaner, 100-minute-long movie, and questionable choices by Frankenheimer himself.

Noel Holcroft, a German-born New York architect, learns that he is the main trustee of a covenant drawn up 40 years before, in the last hours of the Third Reich, by three officers of the Nazi High Command. One of the officers, General Clausen, was Holcroft’s father. Once it’s signed by Holcroft and the children of the other two officers, the covenant will release $4.5 billion from a secret Swiss account, a fortune accrued over four decades from Nazi funds diverted by the three officers during the war. Clausen’s posthumous directive specifies that the trustees are to spend the fund for beneficent purposes, to atone for Hitler’s atrocities. Holcroft must locate the other trustees -- the son and daughter of General Tiebolt and the son of General Kessler -- so that the covenant can be activated. His mother Athene (Lilli Palmer), who had fled Clausen and Germany early in the war, cautions Holcroft to walk away from the arrangement because his father couldn’t be trusted and neither can the directive: “He was a Nazi through and through.” But Holcroft idealistically proceeds anyway, joining in Berlin with the Tiebolt brother and sister, who have taken the name Tennyson, and the Kessler son, a symphony conductor now calling himself Maas. Mysterious characters enter the story in Zurich, New York, London, Berlin, and finally Zurich again, seemingly intent on derailing the covenant, as bodies begin to pile up around Holcroft.

Did I mention that Holcroft is played by Michael Caine, because, well, if you need an actor to play a German-born New Yorker, you want Michael Caine? As Frankenheimer notes in a director’s commentary track repeated from the 1999 DVD, the “New York” scenes in the film were actually shot in London, so why not simply transfer the phony U.S. setting to the U.K., ignore the character’s New York upbringing from the novel, and make him a German-born Londoner to match Caine’s accent? Reportedly, Caine was a last-minute replacement for James Caan, who walked off the movie, so Frankenheimer may not have had time even for minor script adjustments. A good trouper, Caine honestly appears to invest a lot of energy in the part, accent aside. But it hardly matters because Holcroft is a dolt who does anything he’s asked to do without a second thought, no matter how inconvenient, nonsensical, or dangerous. Drop everything and fly to Zurich at the behest of a total stranger who claims to be a representative from an international bank? Wouldn’t you? Hop over to London at the request of another total stranger and agree to meet yet a third stranger in Trafalgar Square at 5 p.m. tomorrow? (“And don’t look for him. He’ll find you.”) Sure, why not. Rendezvous at a church with a mysterious woman in a bad disguise, and then hide out with her in a sleazy Berlin brothel to avoid the bad guys? I’m on it.

Speaking of the Berlin brothel, Frankenheimer clutters several scenes with unnecessarily eccentric background details. The brothel business leads to a chase in and out of a nighttime street festival of prostitutes and cross-dressers. In his commentary, Frankenheimer says he wanted to use the brothel and the street festival, which provide an excuse for some unattractive, R-rated nudity, to evoke classic novels and films about the decadent Berlin of the 1930s. Instead of distracting the viewer so you’re less likely to notice that the scene itself makes little sense, the clutter only underscores the absurdity. When Holcroft first meets his fellow heir Maas (Mario Adorf), Maas is conducting a symphony rehearsal -- because, Frankenheimer says, he always wanted to film a scene of a symphony orchestra performing. Simpler would have been better, had Frankenheimer merely told his actors hit their marks, deliver their lines, and move on. It doesn‘t help that Adorf is miscast as a conductor (physically, he looks about as much the part as Jack Black or John Goodman would), and that most of the other actors are undistinguished. Only Victoria Tennant and Anthony Andrews emerge relatively unscathed, even though Andrews enters with an unflattering mustache that seems to be part of a disguise, except that he never gets rid of it. It took me a while to realize that, more than likely, it was an attempt to make Andrews look older so that the age difference between him (37) and Caine (52) would not be so obvious, since their characters are supposed to be contemporaries.

The story turns on a “surprise twist” about the real purpose of the covenant and the real motives behind Andrews‘ and Tennant’s characters. I saw it coming about 20 minutes into the picture, without even trying. Frankenheimer stages the climactic scene in Alfred Hitchcock fashion, with Holcroft and the chief villain struggling over a revolver in a chaotic crowd setting, in this case a press conference. There’s even a Hitchcockian close-up of Caine’s hand clamped desperately over the cylinder of the gun to keep it from turning, inter-cut with shots of the two men struggling and the crowd surging around them in panic. It’s the only scene in the film that comes even remotely close to the gripping visual style of “The Manchurian Candidate.”

Younger viewers (admittedly, not a likely audience demographic) may smile when the characters marvel over the $4.5 billion in the covenant. It was probably an impressive sum in 1985 but now it seems like pocket change next to Bill Gates’ $77.7 billion bank account. I’m reminded of Dr. Evil’s comment in one of the Austin Powers movies, “Why make trillions when we can make . . . billions?” The bad guys‘ ulterior purpose for the $4.5 billion? “To consolidate every terrorist group in the world into one cohesive, overwhelming force to create international crises and chaos . . . until the world is reduced to a state of anarchy, ready to accept a strong new leader who can restore order and take command.” Given the past 15 years’ experience of 9/11, the global economic meltdown, unending catastrophe in the Middle East, the growing chasm between the haves and have-nots in the United States, and the rancid tenor of the 2016 Presidential campaign primaries, reality has left Ludlum’s and Frankenheimer’s pulp fantasy in the dust. Never mind a neo-Nazi conspiracy. Our perfectly legitimate financial, political, judicial, and military systems have brought us nearly to the same end.

The Kino-Lorber Blu-ray disc’s 1920x1080p image is less than pristine but acceptable. In addition to the director’s alt-track commentary, there is a trailer gallery and menu, but unfortunately no English captioning for the hard of hearing. Given that any audience for the film is likely to fall into the age range for which captioning is a welcome bonus, this is an unfortunate omission.

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“A UNIQUE SIX-GUN MISFIRE”

By Raymond Benson

Robert Altman in the 1970s was a force to be reckoned with. Mostly his work displayed unconventional experimentation with form, narrative, and especially sound—and too often his stylistic choices failed to connect with a large, general audience. The iconoclastic director made some truly great pictures (M*A*S*H, Nashville) and some eccentrically inventive ones (Brewster McCloud, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Long Goodbye, 3 Women, A Wedding). He was often hit-or-miss, and certainly more on the miss side when he got into the 1980s. The 90s found Altman back on stable footing with a couple of additional brilliant films (The Player, Short Cuts), and more misses.

I was, and still am, a Robert Altman fan. I “got” what he was trying to do in his ensemble pictures—the ones featuring a large cast and a loose, improvisational storyline. However, in 1976, when Buffalo Bill and the Indians was released, I was not impressed. I remember intensely disliking the picture, especially after Nashville had been my favorite film of the previous year. I wrote off Buffalo Bill as one of Altman’s misses, and I never saw it again over the next forty years.

Having now viewed Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray release, I feel as if I’ve just seen a completely different movie from what I remembered. Granted, Buffalo Bill is still not one of the director’s classics—it assuredly belongs in the “miss” category (or rather, in this case, a “misfire”)—but it is much more fascinating and entertaining than it was for me in 1976.

“Inspired” by Arthur Kopit’s Broadway play Indians, the film attempts to be a revisionist satire on show business, myths and legends, and the Wild West itself. The opening titles proclaim it as “Robert Altman’s Absolutely Unique and Heroic Enterprise of Inimitable Lustre!” Set in the 1880s, Buffalo Bill focuses on William F. Cody himself (wonderfully played by Paul Newman) and his “Wild West (Show)” that toured the country and Europe, “re-enacting” famous Indian battles and other historical events in front of an audience. It was the “Medieval Times” of its day. The entire movie takes place at the arena where the company performs.

Cody, aka Buffalo Bill, was a man whose exploits were turned into myths by journalist/writer Ned Buntline (played in the film by Burt Lancaster), and he has come to believe them. Egocentric to the nth degree, Cody rewrites history for the benefit of showmanship. Newman is often hilarious in the role, but he gives the character a disturbing layer of madness. His entire team—his producer (Joel Grey), his nephew (Harvey Keitel), his publicist (Kevin McCarthy), and others in the troop— treats him like royalty, and Cody won’t have it any other way.

But things change when none other than Sitting Bull (Frank Kaquitts) is hired to be a performer. The fearsome Sioux chief (who really did perform in Buffalo Bill’s actual Wild West show for a few months) turns out to be a small, silent man who speaks through his large, imposing interpreter (Will Sampson). Sitting Bull eventually causes Cody to face the hard truths of his “lies.” By his insistence on recreating history as it actually happened, Sitting Bull symbolizes the plight of the Native Americans at the hands of the white conquerors.

Heady stuff for a movie released in America’s bicentennial year.

The performances are top notch, especially those of Newman, Grey, and Geraldine Chaplin as Annie Oakley. (There are also fine cameos by Altman regulars Shelley Duvall, Pat McCormick, John Considine, and Allan Nicholls.) The picture elicits quite a few laughs throughout, and the overall look and feel of the piece is dead on. What doesn’t work is the haphazard structure, the Ned Buntline interludes, and the bizarre finale in which Sitting Bull comes back from the dead to haunt Cody. It’s an acquired taste, something I apparently didn’t achieve back in 1976 when I first saw the picture. I like to think I’m older and wiser now, and therefore today the movie made more sense.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray looks all right, very colorful, if not pristinely restored. The extras include a not-quite five minute behind-the-scenes featurette, the teaser trailer, and the theatrical trailer.

The new release is a purchase for Robert Altman and/or Paul Newman fans, and, if you’re like me, someone who hasn’t seen the film since its original release. It might be time to give Buffalo Bill and the Indians a revisit.

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MAN ON A WIRE By Howard Hughes

One of seemingly dozens of Universal westerns released in the 1960s and early ‘70s, ‘A Man Called Gannon’ is a remake of the tough Kirk Douglas western ‘Man Without a Star’ (1955). Rather than using Dee Linford’s novel of the same name as its source, the film uses the screenplay by D.D. Beauchamp and Borden Chase from the 1955 version, with additional writing from Gene R. Kearney. Tony Franciosa stars as Gannon, a drifting cowboy without a horse. While riding the rails west by locomotive cattle car, he meets young Easterner Jess Washburn (Michael Sarrazin). The pair end up working as cowhands on the Cross Triangle ranch, where the tough old hand teaches the tenderfoot from Philadelphia how to ride and shoot like a pro. They both become romantically involved with the ranch’s owner, Beth Cross (Judi West), which causes friction, while Jess also clashes with the ranch’s bullying ‘top hand’ Capper (John Anderson). The open range is being fenced in by the cattlemen and with the arrival of a massive consignment of barbed wire, Gannon and Jess end up facing each other on opposite sides of the fence.

It’s unfair to compare the film to ‘Man Without a Star’, which benefits from Frankie Laine’s snappy title song and a cast filled with memorable, seasoned performers like Jeanne Crain (as rancher Reed Bowman), William Campbell (as greenhorn Jeff Jimson), Richard Boone, Jay C. Flippen, Mara Corday, Sheb Wooley, Paul Birch, Roy Barcroft and the great Jack Elam. In ‘A Man Called Gannon’, Tony Franciosa is good in the title role, as a drifter ‘ex of Texas’, aimlessly wandering the range. Like Kirk Douglas’ Dempsey Rae, Gannon is tormented by his bad experiences of barbed wire – his little brother Jim was killed when he was caught on a fence in a cattle stampede – which allows Franciosa a grandstanding ‘drunken trauma’ scene. I like Franciosa. He was an agreeable screen presence in everything from the Raquel Welch spy vehicle ‘Fathom’ (1967), to Dario Argento’s bloody giallo ‘Tenebrae’ (1982). My favourite of his roles is the wily cutthroat Rodriguez in the gunrunning western ‘Rio Conchos’ (1964) and you can see why he was reputedly up for the role of Manolito in ‘The High Chaparral’ TV show (he lost out to Henry Darrow).

There are some familiar faces in the ‘Gannon’ cast – such as Sarrazin, Anderson, James Westerfield and Gavin MacLeod – but otherwise it’s not the best-known cast. Emmy-award-winning TV director James Goldstone uses trippy overlaid double exposures for some scenes (in the manner of Peter Fonda’s acid western ‘The Hired Hand’) and also rapid cross-cutting in moments of tension, like a spaghetti western. According to Judi West, who played rancher Beth Cross, Goldstone had her voice dubbed, even though she was an accomplished actress who had numerous film, TV and theatre credits and had taught acting classes. The jaunty cowboy title song ‘A Smile, a Mem’ry and an Extra Shirt’ was sung by Dave Grusin. The narrative ballad ‘commenting’ on Gannon’s adventures is very 1950s in method, if folksy 1960s in style. Grusin also worked on ‘The Graduate’ (1967) and wrote the narrative ballad ‘Code of the West’ for the James Coburn comedy western ‘Waterhole #3’ (1967).

BY HOWARD HUGHES

New to DVD in the UK is ‘Arabella’, an Italian period comedy set in that hotbed of hilarity, pre-WWII fascist Italy. Virna Lisi stars in the title role – known variously in the film as Arabella Danesi and Arabella Angeli – who determines to save her grandmother from destitution by finding ingenious ways to pay off her elderly relative’s crippling tax bill.

The film is structured rather like those 1960s Italian portmanteau comedy-dramas, such as ‘Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’, ‘The Witches’ or ‘Woman Times Seven’. Such films were intended as vehicles for one female star, be they Sophia, Silvana or Shirley, to demonstrate their versatility in a variety of roles. But instead of separate stories, with different characters, ‘Arabella’ has one continuous story arc, with Lisi’s sexy heroine adopting various costumes, personas and wigs to seduce and blackmail her way through a string of lovers, who are then conned out of cash to pay off granny’s debts. Some of her victims are played by Terry-Thomas. It is he who gets to show off his comedy skills in a variety of roles, though despite costume and make-up changes, they all resemble Terry-Thomas – there’s no disguising that tooth gap. He plays a girdle-wearing, monocled British general Sir Horace Gordon, an Italian hotel manager angered by the installation of a public urinal in the street outside his swanky establishment and the rich duke who hires Arabella to ‘cure’ his gay son Saverio. Terry-Thomas and Lisi had already worked together to great success on the Hollywood black comedy ‘How to Murder Your Wife’ (1965) and he’s clearly enjoying himself here in the various roles.

The cast of this Italian-UK co-production – shot in Rome, Naples and Venice – is an interesting one. Margaret Rutherford plays Arabella’s debt-ridden granny, Princess Ilaria, James Fox is Arabella’s mysterious, louche shadow Giorgio, and Rutherford’s old partner Stringer Davis from the big-screen 1960s Miss Marple films shows up in an amusing cameo as Ilaria’s gardener, Nazzareno. Giancarlo Gianni played Saverio, who pretends to be gay, so that his father continues to send in alluring women to try to ‘cure’ him. Familiar Italian supporting players appear, too – Renato Romano played General Gordon’s batman, Renato Chiantoni is one of the tax inspectors hassling Ilaria, Giuseppe Addobbati is a hotel guest and Ugo Fangareggi is a policeman.

‘Arabella’s disjointed, jumpy plotting bears the signs of considerable cutting for international distribution and it eventually falls to pieces as a movie – in exactly the same way so many very good 1960s Italian films that have been edited and dubbed for international audiences fall to bits. The film was released internationally by Universal Pictures and its associate producer was Dario Argento’s father, Salvatore, before he began producing his son’s legendary gialli thrillers. The big plusses are the art direction (by Alberto Boccianti) and superb 1920s period costumes by Piero Tosi (Visconti’s designer on ‘Death in Venice’ and ‘The Leopard’), so visually the film is splendid. Of most interest to me was the chance to hear one of Ennio Morricone’s many little-heard scores of this period. ‘Arabella’ was directed by Mauro Bolognini, whose dramas ‘He and She’ (1969 – ‘L’assoluto naturale’), ‘Un bellissimo novembre’ (1969 – ‘That Splendid November’) and ‘Metello’ (1970) are all worth a look, or rather a listen, for their memorable Morricone scores. Bolognini also directed the erotic period drama ‘La Venexiana’ (1986), aka ‘The Venetian Woman’ starring Laura Antonelli and Jason Connery, which also benefits from a lovely Morricone score. The maestro’s score here is a mixture of lush period orchestrations and comedic, clockwork themes which resemble early drafts of Morricone’s title cue to ‘Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion’ (1970). The descending flute trill from ‘A Fistful of Dollars’ makes a brief appearance, but in the main, this is a playful score, befitting the material, with a lovely violin theme for the Venetian scenes towards the end of the movie.

The Region 2 DVD from Simply Media is presented in 4:3 screen ratio, which looks cropped at the sides. This seems to be the case, as the IMDB lists the aspect ratio as 1.85:1. The film was 105 minutes in Italy, but cut drastically to 88 minutes for US release. Simply Media’s habit of printing the US running time in promotional material continues here, as the UK DVD actually runs 84 minutes. The picture quality has nowhere near the sharpness and clarity of some of Simply Media’s other releases – notably its Universal westerns such as ‘A Man Called Gannon’ and ‘Calamity Jane and Sam Bass’. ‘Arabella’ is rated 12 (for ‘moderate sex references’). 

For 1960s Commedia all’Italiana, Terry-Thomas and Morricone completists this is worth a look, but others might find it hard going. A definite curio however and a long-lost one at that.

By Hank Reineke

Though this welcome Scream Factory issue marks the first time Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971) and The Dunwich Horror (1969) have been made available on domestic Blu-ray, both films enjoyed a previous release on DVD as part of MGM’s long-suspended “Midnite Movies” series. Rue Morgue was first paired with Cry of the Banshee (1970) in 2003, with Dunwich and Die Monster Die! (1965) following in 2005. Though both of these earlier sets are now technically out-of-print, copies remain generally available. Regardless, the more discerning horror-film aficionado would be well advised to seek out this new Blu edition. Not only does Scream Factory’s HD master offer a significant upgrade in visual presentation, the studio has also restored bits of censored footage missing from the Y2K releases.

H.P. Lovecraft’s short story The Dunwich Horror was written in the summer of 1928 and first published in the April 1929 issue of the appropriately titled Weird Tales magazine. It’s likely the best known of the celebrated author’s horror tales, having been recollected and reissued throughout the 20th and 21^st century in any number of literary horror anthologies. Though A.I.P. and director Daniel Haller (a well-tested art director on many previous films for the company) have taken a number of liberties bringing Lovecraft’s original tale to the screen, the author’s basic premise is mostly preserved.

Wilbur Whateley (Dean Stockwell) is the great-grandson of Oliver Whateley. The elder Whateley was a practitioner of the black arts who, two generations earlier, had been hanged for his heresy by vigilantes in the otherwise sleepy village of Dunwich. The Whateley’s have long been a bane to the frightened residents of the ocean-side community, shunned and ostracized as devil-worshippers. Technically, this is a misunderstanding as the family worships neither God nor Satan. They spend most of their nights secluded in a creepy cliff-side home on an otherwise postcard-pretty coastline. The Whateley’s mostly putter about the old house trying to summon the “Old Ones” who, we are told, are an amorphous super-race of beings from another dimension that will bring an end to mankind.

Wilbur’s grandfather (Sam Jaffee) has actually backed-off a bit on the family’s over-zealous determination in this regard. He’s understandably wary as his own quarter-century old attempt at summation – one which involved Wilbur’s mother, Lavinia –had gone horribly wrong. The strange and dangerous rumblings of a creature still imprisoned behind a locked closet door will attest to that. But Lavinia’s surviving twenty-five year old progeny, Wilbur, has not gone soft; he’s determined to succeed where his ancestors have failed. The young man needs only two components to achieve his goal. He first requires access to the Necronomicom, an ancient and priceless book of which only two copies survive. Conveniently, one copy sits in a not terribly protected glass display case in the University library in Arkham, only a mere forty miles up the road.

More problematically, Wilbur requires a female virgin; and good luck trying to find one in the summer of 1969. This is where Bayonne, New Jersey’s own Sandra Dee, best known for her healthful and morally salutary screen-image, comes in. It seems only a pure virgin can serve as the conduit through which the “Old Ones” can, at long last, emerge. With her post-Gidget acting career stagnant, Dee was desperate to hone a new screen image at decade’s end. Here she is effectively cast both with and against type as the beleaguered Nancy Wagner. Not all of the former teenage star’s innocent ways were so easily expunged. The actress had her limits and was modestly body-doubled in a number of brief nude scenes. Her antagonist is the wild-eyed, nearly non-blinking Wilbur Whateley, and Stockwell plays him as a complete nutcase, mysterious, emotionally remote, and not particularly charming. It’s somewhat difficult to believe that Nancy would fall for him so hard though it’s suggested a combination of hypnotism and drug-laced tea keep the young woman in tow. The drugging would also explain the trippy, psychedelic dreams she suffers following her first share of the teapot with weird Wilbur.

It’s actually the addition of this central damsel-in-distress element that causes Haller’s film to deviate wildly from the original Lovecraft tale. With the exception of the aforementioned Lavinia, there’s nary a central-character female present in the original short story. The movie’s climatic birthing of the “Old Ones” on a sacred altar atop the cliff-side “Devil’s Hop Yard” is a near complete invention of the filmmakers. In what was an already a customary A.I.P. tradition, executive producer Roger Corman, and producers Samuel J. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson were no doubt hoping to exploitatively piggy-back off of the surprising success of Polanski’s classic Rosemary’s Baby (1968).

As was the studio’s modus operandi, A.I.P. rolled out The Dunwich Horror in a sweeping west-to-east geographic fashion, supporting this new release at drive-ins and theaters with one or two other fiendish films from the company catalog: The Tomb of the Cat (a more pronounceable re-title of Roger Corman’s The Tomb of Ligeia), The Oblong Box (1969), and even Destroy All Monsters (the legendary 1968 production of Japan’s Toho Productions, but issued in the U.S. by A.I.P. in the late summer of 1969.)

BY LEE PFEIFFER

In addition to being a reliable and fairly popular leading man, Ray Milland also showed some talent as a film director. In total, he directed five movies- among them "The Safecracker", a 1958 low-budget British film noir made by MGM.  The fast-moving story concerns one Colley Dawson (Milland), an expert safecracker who uses his skills for a home security company. He is hired out to design safes for wealthy clients that can be deemed impossible to crack. Although regarded as a genius in his field, Colley is in a deep funk. He's in his fifties, has no home to call his own and still lives with his doting, aging mother (Barbara Everest) in a small home in a nondescript street in London. When Colley lands a major, lucrative contract for his company, his skinflint boss "rewards" him with a bonus of a measly five pound note. Colley's fortunes change when he is contacted by Bennett Carfield (Barry Jones), a wealthy man who divulges that he earns his income through trading in stolen antiques. He entices Colley to use his safecracking skills to form a criminal partnership with him in return for 50% of the profits. Colley doesn't need much persuasion. Feeling he is on the road to nowhere, he is eager to finally enjoy the finer things in life and has no ethical reservations about how to acquire them. Before long he is sneaking into affluent people's homes and relieving the owners of prized possessions. He adopts a dual identity. During the work week, he remains the wimpy employee of an ungrateful boss. On weekends, however, he tools around in a fancy sports car, dates a glamorous, sexually-charged minor actress and bets extravagant sums on horses. Things come to a crashing halt, however, when Scotland Yard gets wind of his activities. Carfield urges him to stop his safecracking because he is under suspicion but the arrogant Colley insists on pulling off one more caper- which he does with disastrous consequences. He soon finds himself in jail facing an eight year sentence. However, two years into his term, England is at war with Nazi Germany. He is approached by military intelligence with a tempting offer: accommodate a team of commandos on a highly dangerous mission in occupied Belgium in return for a full pardon. The plan revolves around a list of German secret agents in England that is being stored in safe inside a heavily guarded country chateau. The plan is to infiltrate the house, have Colley and the team penetrate the safe and photograph the list. If it works, the Nazis will be none-the-wiser that their agents' identities are now known. Colley agrees to go but proves to be a handful for the unit in which he will serve. He's not only long in the tooth, he's got tusks. Still, he completes a crash course in parachuting techniques and before long finds himself behind enemy lines but separated from his companions. From this point, the plot revolves around Colley meeting up with his team because their mission is useless without his participation. As director Milland manages to milk some occasional suspense out of the proceedings and sensibly turns his age into an asset. He can't keep up with his younger companions and his newly-found playboy lifestyle intrudes when his attempts to romance a Resistance girl almost compromises the mission. The final scenes of the film, set inside the chateau, are handled well and the ironic ending is rather moving. 

"The Safecracker" is definitely "B" movie fare, but that isn't meant as a knock. It's quite entertaining throughout and Milland gives a highly amusing performance as a rogue who finds himself serving his country's war effort with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. The film features a fine cast of British character actors with Barry Jones particularly impressive. The Warner Archive release features considerable artifacts but they are a minor distraction. Most annoying is the fact that the night footage (much of it derived from newsreels) is so dark that you feel as though you are peering into an inkwell. Still, this is consistently entertaining film that will have cross-over appeal for lovers of crime movies, spy flicks and WWII films. A weather-beaten original trailer is also included. The DVD is region-free.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

The Vinegar Syndrome video label continues to unearth obscure examples of 1960s erotica. None is more bizarre than "Infrasexum", a 1969 concoction by director/actor Carlos Tobalina, who would ultimately be regarded as one of the more prolific hardcore filmmakers. Back in '69, however, it was still difficult to get theatrical showings of hardcore films, which were generally relegated to 8mm film loops sold in adult book stores. Tabolina tried to push the envelope with "Infrasexum" but was still confined by the dreaded "community standards" obscenity laws that mandated only soft-core movies could generally be shown without causing a major legal flap from local conservative groups that had routinely declared war on pornography.  "Infrasexum" (I have no idea what the title means and apparently neither did Tobalina) attempts to tell a poignant story about the toll the aging process takes on sexual libido. The film opens in the offices of Mr. Allison (Eroff Lynn), a fifty-something successful business executive who is despondent over the routine lifestyle he is leading. He has money galore but exists in a gloomy state of mind. He's also depressed (in this pre-Viagara era) about his inability to perform sexually with his bombshell wife (Marsha Jordan), who prances about their penthouse clad in a see-through nightee. Determined to start a new life, Allinson sends his wife a goodbye letter, turns the control of his company over to two trusted employees and takes off for parts unknown. He immediately feels liberated from the day-to-day grind. He ends up in Las Vegas and almost reluctantly wins $250,000 in cash. He doesn't need the money but for the first time in ages he feels he's on a winning streak. He drives to L.A. where he has a chance encounter with Carlos (Carlos Tobalina), a somewhat kooky but charismatic man who routinely grubs money from him but also introduces him to a new lifestyle with his hippie friends. Before long, Allison is taking in rock shows in discotheques on the Sunset Strip and experimenting with pot. Carlos tries on several occasions to cure Allison's sexual problems by setting him up with willing young women but the result is always frustrating failure to launch. At one point an unrelated sub-plot is introduced in which Allison is kidnapped by two thugs who threaten his life and shake him down for big money. They also murder a helpless young woman in his presence. In one of the lamest action sequences ever filmed, Allison breaks free and kills both men in an unintentionally hilarious manner. Allison treats this presumably life-altering incident as though it's a minor distraction and before long is taking up his lifetime's goal of becoming a painter. An admiring young woman invites him back to her house but, once again, Allison can't seal the deal between the sheets and he has to call Carlos over to act as his stand-in!

It's difficult to say exactly what Tobalina expected to accomplish with this film. Is it an attempt to present a poignant look at the frustrations of the aging process with some full-frontal nudity tossed in? Or did he intend to simply dress up a sexploitation film with some legitimate dramatic story line aspects? In either case, the result is downright weird.  Tobalina's insertion of a gruesome murder also seems like an after-thought designed to appeal to horror movie fans. It's got plenty of gore but is so unconvincingly shot and directed that the sequence elicits more laughter than chills. Whatever early talent Tobalina might have conveyed on screen is compromised by the bare bones production budget, which was probably close to zero. Technical blunders abound. In some scenes you can see the shadow of the cameraman in center frame. In others, people's voices are heard even though their lips aren't moving. Still, the film at least aspires to be superior to most soft-core grind house fare of the era. As a trip back in time, it has merit. It presents some wonderful, extended views of the Las Vegas Strip, for example, and we can relish the marquees extolling such performers as Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Don Ho and Little Richard. Tobalina also gets out of the bedrooms long enough to take us on a scenic tour of local L.A. sites as well as the Sierra Nevadas. Tobalina is at his best when he gets out of the boudoir and shows us travelogue-like footage.  On a coarser level, the film also provides an abundance of good looking young women who romp around starkers. The movie would be primarily of interest to baby boomer males who want a trip back in time to an era in which such fare was considered daring and controversial. It's bizarre qualities will also appeal to fans of cult sexlpoitation films. 

The Vinegar Syndrome release looks great and the remastered print even shows us the grit and dirt that occasionally appeared on the camera lens.  An original trailer is also included that is truly a laugh riot, in that a God-like voice virtually commands us to see "Infrasexum" because it's a "classic". 

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

The dividing line between a film being an homage and a rip-off is sorely tested with "Forsaken", a 2015 Canadian Western by director Jon Cassar, who is best known for his acclaimed, award-winning work in television. This is a rare venture into feature film making for him and the result left me with decidedly mixed emotions.  The film marks another collaboration between Cassar and actor Kiefer Sutherland, who starred in Cassar's wildly successful TV series "24". That the two men are comfortable with each other's style is immediately apparent from the first frames of the film. We want to extend kudos to them for bravely venturing where few in the movie industry dare to tread any longer: the realm of the Western, a genre that has been routinely neglected for decades. Despite the success of Westerns such as "Unforgiven", "Dances With Wolves" and "Open Range", studio chiefs can't seem to get over the ""Heaven's Gate" syndrome, the monumental 1980 Western that almost sunk United Artists. Even hardened criminals are punished less time than the poor Western genre,so we extend our respect to anyone who tries, no matter modestly, to revive it. The problem with "Forsaken" is that a lot of talented people are doing fine work in a film that is so blatantly inspired by Clint Eastwood's Oscar winning "Unforgiven" that it comes close to bordering on parody. The initial blame begins with screenwriter Brad Mirman, who depends far too heavily on elements from Eastwood's magnificent production. Let's start with the title, which is a transparent attempt to evoke "Unforgiven". (In fairness, Eastwood himself was less-than-original in his use of this title. He changed the film's title from "The William Munny Killings" and replaced it with the name of an unrelated John Huston Western from 1960, "The Unforgiven".) Then there is the movie's protagonist, John Henry Clayton (Kiefer Sutherland), who carries similar baggage to Eastwood's William Munny. He is haunted by a violent past and a penchant for committing bloodshed. He has returned to his hometown after a period of years and hopes to live his life as a pacifist, a lofty goal that the viewer will recognize as being doomed from the get-go. He soon finds that the town is populated by cowardly people who are letting a greedy land baron, James McCurdy (Brian Cox) use a mercenary gang to intimidate or even kill any homesteader who refuses his offer to buy their land. As in "Unforgiven", our hero is initially slow to anger and resists his inner demons. In Clayton's case, he is routinely abused, insulted and beaten by the mercenaries, who are led by Frank (Aaron Poole), who is so vicious that he even gets chastised by his employer, McCurdy. I kept waiting for a character to appear who would emulate Richard Harris's English Bob, the aristocratic gunslinger from "Unforgiven". Sure enough, along comes Gentleman Dave Turner (Michael Wincott), who displays the wit and gallows humor of dear ol' English Bob. Not helping matters is director Cassar, who aids and abets this pantomime by insisting that Sutherland pretentiously pose like Eastwood in "Unforgiven", as well as speak like him (distinctive, barely audible voice) and dress like him (he even wears a hat that is more than coincidentally similar to Eastwood's from that film). The "homage" syndrome goes into overdrive in the film's violent conclusion, which- to the surprise of no one familiar with "Unforgiven"- also takes place in a saloon, where a heavily-armed Clayton enters and engages a small army of bad guys in a one-man massacre. At times, it appears to be a frame-by-frame remake of the Eastwood film.(In fairness, Cassar does dip a bit outside of the "Unforgiven" pool long enough to replicate a sequence from the climactic barroom shootout from "The Shootist".)  The epilogue imitates "Unforgiven" in an unforgivable manner, with scenes at an isolated grave while a narrative fills us in on the fate of the main characters.

Despite all of these reservations, it may come as a surprise to you that I liked and admired "Forsaken" very much. The script does introduce a few original elements. When Clayton returns home many years after experiencing the horrors of the war, he discovers that his former lover, Mary-Alice (Demi Moore), had presumed he was dead and ended up marrying a local man. They now have a small son and although Mary-Ellen professes to be perfectly happy, it's quite apparent there is still a spark between she and Clayton. More intriguingly, there is Clayton's relationship to his father, William (Donald Sutherland), the local reverend, who welcomes his estranged son back by informing him that his mother died and that her last hope was to see him but he never came. The two men settle into a tense domestic situation until John finally unburdens himself about a terrible secret that has been haunting him and that has inspired him to renounce violence. He also blames himself for the accidental death of his brother when they were kids. Ultimately, the clearing of the air leads both father and son to form a close bond but it is threatened by McCurdy and his men- and we know it will only be a matter of time until  John takes up arms again. This plot element (the reluctant gunslinger) has been a staple of the Western genre for many years. (Think "The Gunfighter", "Shane", "The Shootist") but it still provides ample dramatic circumstances for a good director to capitalize on- and Jon Cassar is a good director. He has a real feel for the Western genre and elicits uniformly excellent performances from his entire cast, including Demi Moore who is refreshingly cast in a mature, non-glam role. To credit screenwriter Mirman, he capitalizes on the first screen teaming of both Sutherlands by providing realistic and engrossing situations and dialogue. The two actors bring a certain emotion and pathos to their on-screen relationship that is obviously enhanced by their real-life status as father and son. The movie is also gorgeously photographed by Rene Ohashi and features a fine score by Jonathan Goldsmith. Perhaps because I've seen "Unforgiven" so many times and have written about it extensively, I may be more sensitive to the similarities between the films, which I did find admittedly distracting. More casual viewers will probably not encounter this dilemma and enjoy "Forsaken" for what it is: a superior entry in the Western genre.

The Blu-ray from Entertainment One features only one bonus extra: a "making of" documentary which consists of the usual bland observations by people who were interviewed while a movie is still in production. (Who is going to say anything negative when they have to still work with each other?) Although director Cassar and Kiefer Sutherland acknowledge they emulated the traditional Western film elements in the making of the movie, neither man comes clean by mentioning "Unforgiven" specifically, which is a little like ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the saloon.

There have been a few effective "non-traditional" Westerns of recent vintage, "The Hateful Eight" being the most prominent but I would also highly recommend the Kurt Russell-starrer "Bone Tomahawk". However, if you have been starving for a Western that sticks with basic elements, this is the best I've seen in a number of years.  

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Sofia Coppola is said to be preparing a remake of director Don Siegel's "The Beguiled", a Gothic drama set during the American Civil War and set in a dilapidated school for young women in the war-torn South. Clint Eastwood starred in the original film which was released in 1971. It marked a rare boxoffice bomb for Siegel and Eastwood, who would team again for the smash hit "Dirty Harry" later that year. Eastwood played a wounded Northern soldier who is given shelter and care by the students in the school and their headmistress, played by Geraldine Page. Over a period of weeks, the Eastwood character realizes that the women around him are all sexually frustrated and that he can manipulate them into doing his bidding. Before long he is carrying on multiple affairs but jealousy inevitably rears its head and leads to some ghastly developments. The film was a bold departure for Eastwood, as he played a manipulative and unsympathetic character. Although the movie was under-appreciated in its day, its stature has grown with critics and film scholars, some of whom regard it as a major achievement in both Eastwood and Siegel's careers. The Coppola project is said to have an impressive female cast lined up that includes Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning. We're told this will be a "new take" on the original film. We're tempted to say "Uh oh", but Coppola is a skilled director so we'll give her the benefit of the doubt until more information is released. Pivotal to the film's prospects will be the casting of the male lead, which has not been announced yet.

(For full analysis of "The Beguiled", see Cinema Retro's special issue "The American Westerns of Clint Eastwood". )  

BY DOUG OSWALD

Rock Hudson is an American commando sent to blow up a dam in “Hornets’ Nest,” a 1970 WWII action adventure set in 1944 Italy as the Allies advance on the German occupation force. Directed by Phil Karlson (“Hell to Eternity,” “Kid Galahad,” “The Silencers,” “The Wrecking Crew” and “Walking Tall”), the movie was an American-Italian co-production filmed in Italy with a mostly all Italian cast and crew.

The movie opens as the residents of Reanoto are massacred by German soldiers after they refuse to give up the location of Italian resistance fighters. Meanwhile, American commandos parachute in on a mission to blow up a nearby dam, but all are killed except for Capt. Turner (Hudson). A group of boys hiding in the hills when the German’s murdered their families rescue Turner and hide him from the Germans. Turner is running a fever from his wounds and the boys convince a local doctor, Bianca (Sylva Koscina), to help Turner. Von Hecht (Sergio Fantoni) is the officer in charge of a local contingent of German soldiers searching for Turner.

Mark Colleano is Aldo, the leader of the boys. He’s understandably angry and wants revenge against the Germans who murdered his family and the families of all the other children. The boys form a band of partisans seeking to convince Capt. Turner to teach them to shoot so they can kill Germans. They have guns and ammunition hidden in a cave in the hills where they’ve been hiding. Turner convinces the boys to help him retrieve his radio in order to contact his headquarters and then complete his mission of destroying the dam. It’s not precisely clear why the dam needs to be destroyed because the American forces link up with him within minutes after the dam is blown up.

Italian actor Sergio Fantoni (with dyed blonde hair) is unconvincing and miscast as Von Hecht, but he’s a familiar face to fans of a pair of classic WWII movies from the era. He was Capt. Oriani in “Von Ryan’s Express” and Capt. Oppo in “What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?” It’s odd seeing him as a German officer in “Hornets’ Nest” and it doesn’t really work. It’s also not quite clear if Koscina is supposed to be playing a German doctor or an Italian doctor in service of the Germans, but that’s quickly forgotten soon after she’s taken prisoner by the children and joins Turner in blowing up the dam. Koscina was cast after Sophia Loren passed on the movie.

Another obvious criticism of the film is one I have for other movies and TV series from the period. Hudson’s hair is too long and the sideburns and handlebar mustache, while stylish in the 1970s, would not have been acceptable for military service during WWII through to today. Koscina’s big hair, like Hudson’s hair, is strictly from the late 60s and early 70s and the boys look like they were plucked off the streets of Rome circa 1970 and wear the clothing they had hanging in their closets at home.

The movie moves at a brisk pace with plenty of action and Colleano is sympathetic as Aldo. Hudson is good as Capt. Turner and this would be his final military action role before settling into the successful TV series “McMillan & Wife” which ran from 1971-1977. Koscina is beautiful and gives an acceptable performance as Bianca, but she has little to do other than react to the boy’s vengeance driven behavior, a rape attempt, having her clothing ripped, nurture the small children and look enticing. Apart from Hudson, Apart from Colleano (American father and English mother) and Karlson, the rest of the cast and crew are made up of Italians and Yugoslavians. Italian second unit director Franco Cirino even received a co-director credit on Italian prints of the movie.

The story, written by S.S. Schweitzer and Stanley Colbert, was based on an actual incident during the American advance in Italy. The screenplay is standard fare for the era and among the last of this type of war movie. Critics at the time disliked the depiction of children killing, being killed and participating in war. I remember seeing this movie as a kid and I loved every minute of it. As a fan of WWII movies and TV series, I wanted to be one of those boys fighting the Nazis.

The Kino Lorber release is the first time on Blu-ray for “Hornets’ Nest” and features the trailer for this and two other Kino military- themed releases as the only supplements. The movie clocks in at 110 minutes, looks and sounds great with an outstanding score by Ennio Morricone. Originally released in theaters by United Artists in September of 1970, the movie became a must see movie for me when it turned up on TV throughout the 70s.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Actress Patty Duke, who won an Academy Award for her performance as young Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" has died at age 69 from complications relating to an intestinal disorder. Duke was 16 years old when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting actress opposite Anne Bancroft in the classic film. Duke also starred in the popular 1960s sitcom "The Patty Duke Show" and went on to star in the feature film "Valley of the Dolls", which was lambasted by critics but which proved to be a major boxoffice success. However, Duke suffered from mental health problems and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1982. Duke's tumultuous personal life extended to her love life, which saw her marry four times. Her husbands included director Harry Falk, rock promoter Michael Tell, actor John Astin and Michael Pearce, who was not in show business. She was the mother of actor Sean Astin, who took the Astin name due to Duke's belief that John Astin was his father. Biological testing later proved this was not the case and that Michael Tell is his real father. Despite her personal problems, Duke worked steadily throughout her career and also became a leading advocate for curing mental health disorders. For more click here. 

BY LEE PFEIFFER

No matter what you think of the porn films created in the old days, their producers had an instinct for capitalizing on the hottest trends in mainstream movies. Take for example "Sensual Encounters of Every Kind", which was released in 1978, a year after Steven Spielberg's blockbuster "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". The film was promoted with marketing materials that implied it would be a sci-fi spoof but, alas, that promising premise ended with the posters. In fact the movie only has only a dotted line link to a supernatural premise. The plot centers on an ancient necklace that has the power to make its owner sexually irresistible to those around him or her. The caveat is that it only works once and then it must be passed on to another unwitting owner. Good thing it only works once because the benefits of the necklace might well result from death by exhaustion if the sexual action were to be engaged in on a regular basis. The plot line, such as it is, consists of several humorous vignettes loosely linked by the aforementioned premise. First up is a young, wealthy and bored young beauty (Lesile Bovee) who is bemoaning her dormant love life. Fortunately, the benefits of the necklace kick in just as three hunky gardeners are working at her estate. When they start to show a communal interest in her, she resists their advances but since this is a male-oriented porn flick she quickly has a change of heart and ends up having the time of her life with all three simultaneously. The next story centers on genre legend Georgina Spelvin ("The Devil in Miss Jones") as a tutor for teenage brother and sister who are spoiled rotten and prove to be snarky and disrespectful. Adding to their bizarre sense of "family relations" is their sexual relationship with each other, which they demonstrate in front of their tutor who predictably can't resist participating. Another vignette is the broadest in terms of comedy with a U.S. senator carrying on with his sensuous secretary (Serena) when his wife returns home unexpectedly. The belabored premise might work well with Peter Sellers or David Niven as the protagonist, however, it's as flat as a pancake here- and just as erotic. The final chapter has porn veteran Jamie Gillis as the male coach of a female college athletic team who is seduced in a gym by two of his students. The film's premise of an anthology of stories connecting diverse characters around the same object could have worked. (Think "The Yellow Rolls Royce" with hardcore orgies thrown in.) However, the comedic aspects are undone by weak writing and generally poor performances with only Spelvin delivering something akin to a performance (she had Broadway training and appeared in "Funny Girl"!) On the plus side, the real raison d'etre for the film is the sex scenes and the director, Richard Kanter, at least has the instinct to generally cut the lame jokes during these scenes and manages to make them quite erotic. 

Vinegar Syndrome has released the film on DVD and it boasts a pristine transfer that probably makes it look better than it did at the time of its original release. An interesting bonus is a rather garbled phone interview with porn actor Jon Martin, who appears uncredited in the film.  His conversation is feature-length and he provides some interesting insights, not only about the porn industry of the era, but his own career as well. (He studied with Stella Adler and Uta Hagen, though it's doubtful those legendary acting teachers envisioned exactly how he would end up employing his talents.) In all, another winning package from Vinegar Syndrome. 

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Cinema Retro has received the following press release regarding the film “Culloden” and “The War Game”.

These startling and controversial films by Peter Watkins, first broadcast on BBC TV, have been newly remastered to High Definition and will be released on Blu-ray for the first time on 28 March 2016, presented together in a Dual Format Edition (contains Blu-ray and DVD discs). An array of special features includes a new interview by film editor Michael Bradsell, who worked with Peter Watkins at the BBC, audio commentaries for both films and short films about each one.

Hailed as a breakthrough when it was first broadcast in 1964, Culloden â€“ which brilliantly reconstructs the famous battle of 1746 – stunned viewers by approaching its historical subject matter in the style of contemporary TV news coverage.

Watkins’ The War Game, about a limited nuclear attack on Kent, blended fact and fiction to create a disturbing vision of the personal and public consequences of such an attack. Banned from TV screens for twenty years, it was through its cinema release in 1966 – and its Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1967 – that it gained a loyal and vociferous following.

Special features

Newly remastered and presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition

Michael Bradsell Interview (2015, 21 mins): the film editor talks about working with Peter Watkins at the BBC

John Cook audio commentary on Culloden (2002)

Culloden on Location (Donald Fairservice, 1964, 8 mins): colour footage of the cast and crew during the filming of Culloden, with a 2002 commentary by John Cook

Patrick Murphy audio commentary on The War Game (2002)

The War Game: The Controversy (2002, 19 mins): Patrick Murphy charts the production history, banning and eventual distribution of The War Game

The War Game book: on-screen gallery of the complete 1967 book, published to accompany the film

Illustrated booklet with new essays by John Cook, David Archibald and William Fowler, and full film credits

BY DARREN ALLISON

It’s great to see Vocalion continuing to release a further addition in their remarkable series of original library music. Last year the label launched a new series of Bruton music releases to add to their catalogue and further strengthen their commitment to the genre. Vocalion has released a new CD featuring a superb collection of music from the archives of, arguably the most famous of all library music labels, KPM. Flying Start - a collection of contemporary scores from the KPM 1000 Series (1968-1978) (CDMSL 8516) is an excellent compilation featuring 28 of the finest 1000 Series compositions. The focus here is very much on their majestic orchestral and big band sounds with contemporary rhythm. But there is also so much more, romantic interludes, avant-garde spacey jazz, and abstract underscores all equate to a varied and rewarding listening experience. Keith  Mansfield’s ‘World Series’ will be instantly recognisable to thousands, and was used for years as the signature tune of BBC Television’s athletics coverage.

In addition to Mansfield, there is a whole host of KPM stalwarts including Neil Richardson, David Lindup, Nick Ingman, John Dankworth and Johnny Pearson. The CD has a genuine filmic feel to it and crammed with exquisite orchestrations. Vocalion’s audio quality is stunning, and reflective of the mastering process (taken directly from the original stereo analogue tapes). Thankfully, Vocalion’s packaging for this release is of the standard we have come to expect, consisting of an eight-page booklet with a lengthy essay detailing the background of the KPM 1000 Series as well as composer biographies and a discussion of the music itself. Overall, it’s another wonderful addition to a marvellous series of releases.

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By Lee Pfeiffer

Twilight Time has released a Blu-ray edition of "The Hawaiians", which was released in England under the title Master of the Islands. The 1970 big budget movie was a critical and commercial failure in its day, but evaluating it after all these years leads the viewer to accentuate its many positive elements. The story is actually an official continuation of James Michener's Hawaii, which was made into a major film in 1966 that curiously also underwhelmed critics and public. This sequel doesn't have the epic proportions of its predecessor, but it does boast some impressively lush production values and a typically enticing score by Henry Mancini. For this film, Heston reunited with director Tom Gries, with whom he made the vastly under-appreciated 1968 Western "Will Penny" which Heston regarded as one of his most satisfying artistic accomplishments. He is cast against type here in a somewhat unsympathetic role during a period of his career in which he was typically cast as a stalwart heroic figure. Heston plays Whip Hoxworth, a hard-nosed sea captain who transports luckless Chinese immigrants to Hawaii where they become cheated, abused and enter into what amounts to indentured servitude. The opening sequence finds the Chinese crammed into the sweltering hold of the ship and falling victim to illness and malnutrition. Hoxworth only adds to their misery by applying beatings and coldly calculating his human cargo in terms of acceptable deaths, 'lest his ultimate profits fall short of expectations. Hoxworth is the black sheep of a wealthy family. He is cut out of his father's will and has a contentious relationship with his siblings, who have little use for him. Barred from further sea duties, he is relegated to a failing plantation which he is determined to turn into a success, if only to spite his relatives. Geraldine Chaplin is his half-Hawaiian wife, whom he adores but who, for reasons never satisfactorily explained in the script, turns frigid after their son is born.

The film tells a parallel story about the plight of two immigrants who work on his plantation: Nyuk Tsin (Tina Chen) and Mun Ki (Mako), two people who, through necessity, live as man and wife even though Mun Ki tells Nyuk Tsin that the children she has borne him will not be considered hers. Instead, Chinese tradition dictates that they will ultimately return to China where his wife will assume the mantle of mother and Nyuk Tsin will be relegated to the status of an aunt. The couple's hard work appeals to Hoxworth's generally dormant sympathies and he allows them to prosper financially, especially when they successfully grow the first pineapples on Hawaii - a development that makes Hoxworth rich. However, the film piles crisis upon crisis on each of the major characters, including political intrigue, armed revolution and, in particulalry affecting sequences, outbreaks of leprosy and plague. John Phillip Law appears late in the 134-minute film as Heston's grown son, whose humanitarianism brings him into direct conflict with his father's Machevellian ways.

The Hawiians is big-budget soap opera at every level, but it's a consistently engrossing one. Heston excels playing part that takes him into new territory as an actor. The supporting cast is equally good, with both Mako and Tina Chen giving outstanding performances. It can't be said that the film is an unqualified success, but it's never boring and it probably seems more impressive today than it did at the time of its initial release.  It should be mentioned that the movie has a fine score by Henry Mancini. There are worse fates than spending a couple of hours with Heston under any circumstance.

The Twilight Time limited edition Blu-ray (3,000 units) is right up to the company's high standards. It includes a trailer and the usual informative liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo. 

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By Todd Garbarini

In the mid 1980’s, I caught ABC-TV’s premiere broadcast of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) and it changed me forever. I became a huge fan of both Stanley Kubrick’s and Stephen King’s work, as well as classical music. Despite the protestations of many a film reviewer regarding the casting of Jack Nicholson, I greatly admired his performance in the film, and eagerly sought out all of his films that I could find on home video and television at the time. Among them was a film that I had not heard of before, the story about two Navy lifers transporting a convict to the “brig”, a military prison, for having stolen $40.00 out of the Polio contribution box (the Commanding Officer’s wife’s favorite charity – oops!!). Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail (1973), which opened in New York on Sunday, February 10, 1974 (having premiered in L.A. in December of 1973) , contains my favorite film performance by Jack Nicholson, which is saying a lot considering that his turn as R.P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) is the role that most critics think of when they discuss his work. Here he plays Billy "Badass" Buddusky, a U.S. petty officer who, along with Richard "Mule" Mulhall (the late Otis Young), is tasked with escorting a sailor, Larry Meadows (Randy Quaid), from their home base in Norfolk, VA to Portsmouth Naval Prison up in Maine. On the surface, this looks like a fairly routine affair as Buddusky and Mulhall go through the motions of taking Meadows by train to his final destination. Initially by-the-book and aloof, they begin to feel sympathetic towards the nebbish Meadows following a shoplifting episode. He’s obviously a kleptomaniac and, even though he’s only 18, probably feels as though his life is over. Along the way, they start to think of the things that Meadows will miss out on – his first sexual experience, having his first beer, and getting into all sorts of fun trouble. Buddusky takes on the role of the leader, and he sets out to show Meadows a good time. They break into laughter following Buddusky’s outburst at a bartender (the language his uses in this scene could very well have been a first for the time) and Meadows looks like a kid rang someone’s doorbell, ran off and has gotten away with it. He’s obviously enjoying himself with his newfound “friends”. They get beer on their own and get drunk, then spend the night in a hotel room and laugh to their heart’s content.

As time progresses, Buddusky and Mulhall cannot help but take a liking to Meadows, and eventually start to feel sorry for him, feeling that he got a raw deal. They take time to seek out his mother during a stop in Philadelphia (they don’t find her), and then they watch him attempt to ice skate in Rockefeller Center in New York and fight with Marines at Penn Station (which looks completely different than it does today). In Boston, they take Meadows to a whorehouse for his first sexual experience (Carol Kane plays the prostitute). Michael Chapman, the cinematographer who shot the movie, plays the taxi driver who gives the boys a ride (Mr. Chapman would go on to shoot Taxi Driver for Martin Scorsese in the summer of 1975, and actually appears as a cab fare in that film). They also sit it on a session with Nichiren Shoshu Buddhists and Meadows attempts to put into use the chant that he is taught in order to obtain good fortune. The late Luana Anders makes an appearance in this scene, as does the late Gilda Radner; they both died of cancer in 1996 and 1989 respectively. Another party they end up at features a very young Nancy Allen, who is told by Jack Nicholson in a very funny speech about why he loves his uniform. Even director Ashby shows up: he can be seen sitting at the bar in the dart-throwing sequence, sporting glasses and his trademark white beard. By the end of the film, we know that inevitably they must follow their orders, and it’s painful to see Meadows incur Buddusky’s wrath following a failed attempt to escape. The ending is poignant, but a far cry from the tremendous downer that ends the novel of the same name by Daryl Ponicsan upon which the film is based. Thankfully, the film is a tad more upbeat.

By Hank Reineke

There are, at a minimum, three important lessons gleaned from the outrageous 1970 sci-fi thriller The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant. The first and most obvious lesson is that the adage “two heads are better than one” is simply not necessarily true. The second is that mad scientists, the most bitter and misunderstood members of the medical profession, tend to a more liberal interpretation of the Hippocratic Oath they’re sworn to. The last and perhaps most important lesson: if you and your best gal find yourself necking in an automobile on a remote lover’s lane, it might be best to spoon under a good-old fashioned hardtop. Convertibles are too easily shredded by two-headed maniacs.

Let’s be frank. Anthony M. Lanza’s The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant is one weird movie. It’s not without merit, but it’s surely a film that invites parody and guffaws over a Coke and tub of hot popcorn. This, I imagine, is the reason Kino Lorber has offered the choice of a genuine “RiffTrax” audio commentary as an optional supplement. In the interest of full disclosure, I didn’t listen through the mocking supplement in total. Truth be told, while I enjoy a cheap laugh or a well chosen barb as much as anyone, I’ve never been a big fan of the “Mystery Science Theater 3000” or “RiffTrax” phenomenon. It’s not that I don’t find such commentaries humorous or even, on occasion, insightful… at least when enjoyed in the privacy of one’s own home. But one can’t ignore that such burlesque has inspired several generations of idiots to ruin public theatrical screenings with lame attempts at imitation.

Though a genuine 1970s drive-in theater-exploitation-horror movie in nearly every regard, The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant differs from most as it offers not a single spooky nighttime scene. This might be the only horror film that I know of that takes place entirely in broad daylight. Co-screenwriter James Gordon White conceived the film “as a tongue-in-cheek take off on Frankenstein,” but I suppose that can be said of practically any horror/sci-fi film featuring a body on an operating gurney. In some ways the film, reportedly shot on a budget of $350,000 and a money-spinner for A.I.P. within six months of release, is an oddity even among that studio’s deep-catalog of low-budget horrors. Writer White sees the film as a classic “B” production, while star-player Bruce Dern has infamously dismissed it as a “Z” picture.

It must be said that nearly everything about the film is schizophrenic, and this extends to the movie’s soundtrack. There’s an early dash of background instrumentation that offers a Seventies ghetto-soul vibe. But this then contemporary musical element seems somewhat out of place when juxtaposed against the film’s entirely tranquil Californian countryside setting. Odder still is the film’s main title song, “Incredible,” a pleasant but out-of-sync bossa nova vocal number sung by the otherwise obscure singer Bobbie Boyle. Both interludes start the film off on a weird, discordant note.

Screenwriter White (The Glory Stompers. The Mini-Skirt Mob) admits that while writing the non-union scenario for American-International, he had visualized horror-film maestro Vincent Price in the role of the crazed Dr. Roger Girard: the part, for whatever reason, went to a young, lithe Bruce Dern instead. A great actor by any standard, Dern turns in an uncharacteristically aloof and workmanlike performance in The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant. In his memoir Things I’ve Said but Probably Shouldn’t Have, Dern admits he wasn’t at all thrilled about the role, but the offer of $3,500 for ten days work was enough for him and his fiancé to get married on so he signed up. Regardless of the star’s dubious commitment to the project, director Anthony M. Lanza keeps the film moving along at a good clip, and it must be said the movie suffers no moments of padding.

The film certainly wastes no time in getting one involved. We’re instantly transported to a suburban home where a ghastly act of violence is in progress. With several bloodied bodies littering the floor, a crazy-eyed psychopath – one with an unfortunate propensity for sexual violence - is in the process of lasciviously terrifying a young girl. Thankfully, she’s saved from a lurid fate at the last minute when the police arrive and subdue the madman. Though a prudent judge commits the murderous rapist, Manuel Cass, (played with wild, eye-rolling fervor by Albert Cole) to a mental institution “until sanity is restored,” there’s little chance of that happening anytime soon. It’s not long after his confinement that Cass murders an attendant and drives off into the countryside in a sporty 1961 Dodge Comet.

The scene shifts to a seemingly more tranquil environment. Though wife Linda is adamant that her husband is a “fine surgeon” who could very well enjoy a thriving “marvelous practice” if only he… well, put his head to it, Dr. Roger Girard (Bruce Dern) seems pretty determined to remain less than respectable. Dr. Girard is a man obsessed: he’s single-minded in his determination to transplant a second head on a human subject. He’s also pretty confident in his ability to accomplish such a task. He’s already succeeded in this endeavor - as any number of twin-headed caged animals and serpents kept in his home laboratory can attest. For what purpose, you might ask? Well, the doctor’s preoccupation in this matter is never adequately explained. He’s obviously self-interested in creating an unassailable reputation as one of the scientific greats, but as for the moral complexities of his twin-head experimentations… well, “future generations” can sort it all out. The doctor’s suspicious, cagey elder mentor-assistant Max (Berry Kroeger) mutters something early on about his protégé being the only one who can restore his damaged hands “and the body needed to go with them,” so there’s some surgical motive there as well. Dr. Girard, at least at first, doesn’t come off quite as crazy as Max, but he too is something of a nut case, quick to impart bitter, disparaging missives on the small-minded dullards he once worked beside at the local hospital.

Not counting the paying audience, the true victims of The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant are Pat Priest’s beleaguered Linda Girard and John Bloom’s Danny. As the not-so-good doctor’s luscious wife, any on-screen appearance of Priest, the lovely and curvaceous former Marilyn Munster, is welcomed. Sadly, without the kindly Uncle Herman or Grandpa to watch over and afford her a measure of familial protection, Priest’s lonely afternoon of poolside sun-bathing is interrupted when she’s spied upon, kidnapped and near-sexually assaulted by the psychopathic escapee. Her preoccupied husband didn’t hear her screams as he was, as usual, puttering away with bad intent in his hacienda-home laboratory. As awful as Cass manhandles Priest during the kidnapping, it must be said that the treatment she receives from her own husband is barely better. In the course of the film Dr. Girard (all in the interest of scientific secrecy, of course) locks his wife in his laboratory, gags her mouth, ties her to a bed, performs a needle injection against her consent, feeds her tranquilizers, and imprisons her inside a large steel cage… and this is not to mention the not inconsequential emotional abuse she’s made to endure. But the doctor promises his wife a nice vacation (“anywhere you want”) after he finishes up his experiments, so all is good.

Director John Badham dissects the original trailer for John Ford's "Stagecoach" starring John Wayne in his star-making role. Here is his analysis from Joe Dante's "Trailers from Hell" web site. By all means, check out hundreds of other classic trailers reviewed by filmmakers and historians by clicking here. 

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Anchor Bay:

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – (March 22, 2016) â€“ Award-winning filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar’s (The Others, The Sea Inside) latest psychological thriller Regression arrives May 10 on Blu-rayâ„¢ and DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment and Dimension Films, and Digital HD and On Demand from Starz Digital. Regression features an ensemble cast led by Academy Award® nominee Ethan Hawke (Boyhood, Training Day, The Purge), and Emma Watson (Harry Potter, Perks of Being a Wallflower). Hailed as a “carefully-crafted tale of collective psychosis” by the Hollywood Reporter, Regression also stars David Thewlis (Harry Potter,Anomalisa), Dale Dickey (“True Blood”) and Devon Bostick (“The 100”, Diary of a Wimpy Kid).  

Minnesota, 1990. Detective Bruce Kenner (Ethan Hawke) investigates the case of young Angela (Emma Watson), who accuses her father, John Gray (David Dencik), of an unspeakable crime. When John unexpectedly and without recollection admits guilt, renowned psychologist Dr. Raines (David Thewlis) is brought in to help him relive his memories and what they discover unmasks a horrifying nationwide mystery.

Regression will be available on Blu-ray and DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment for the suggested retail price of $26.99 and $22.98, respectively.

To learn more about the film, please visit www.anchorbayentertainment.com. 

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“THE CROWN JEWEL OF ITALIAN NEO-REALISM”

By Raymond Benson

The Criterion Collection released the wonderful Bicycle Thieves on DVD in 2007 and now finally presents a marvelous new 4K digital restoration of the Academy Award-winning picture (1950, Honorary Award for Foreign Language Film) on Blu-ray. The movie was known in America for decades as The Bicycle Thief—but the literal translation of the Italian title is plural, and this also makes more sense in the context of the film’s story. There is more than one bicycle thief, and the revelation of the second one’s identity is what gives De Sica’s picture its emotional power.

Italian neorealism was a movement that lasted from 1945 to about 1952, and it was highly influential for filmmakers around the world. There would not have been a French New Wave in the early 60s had Italian neorealism not served as a stylistic and thematic launching pad. Film scholars generally acknowledge Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1945) as the first true Italian neorealist picture, for it presented a striking naturalistic depiction of life among the lower class and the poor in post-World War Two Italy. Strict realism had been attempted previously by other European filmmakers (e.g., Jean Vigo’s L’Atalante), but nothing had prepared the world for the harsh, yet affective, truthfulness of Italian neorealism.

Stylistic traits of the movement include working with extremely low budgets; shooting on-location in the streets of war-torn cities often with hand-held cameras, creating a documentary-like visual style; avoiding artifice in editing, camerawork, and lighting in favor of a simple “style-less” presentation; using non-professional actors in many cases; and adapting conversational, non-literary dialogue. Thematically, the films focused on the plight of the poor and lower class as they struggled to climb out of the horror that the world war had brought; a new democratic spirit with emphasis on the value of “ordinary” people; a compassionate point of view; humanism; and a focus on emotions rather than abstract ideas.

Bicycle Thieves is an exemplary entry of the movement; it is indeed the crown jewel. The story is simple—Antonio, a poor man, finally gets a job that will pull his family, which consists of his wife, his son Bruno (around eight or nine years old), and newborn baby, out of poverty. But the job requires a bicycle that would enable Antonio to move around Rome. All goes well for a day or so, until a thief steals the bike. For the rest of the film, a desperate Antonio and Bruno scour the streets of the city looking for the thief and the stolen bicycle, encountering a variety of characters who try to help (or hinder) him. Yes, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure was an homage of sorts to Bicycle Thieves.

De Sica cast a shoe factory worker, Lamberto Maggiorani, as Antonio. For a non-actor, his performance is exceptional. However, the real find was Enzo Staiola as Bruno, who delivers arguably one of the greatest performances by a child actor in the history of cinema. In many ways, the story is seen through his eyes, and it is Bruno’s outlook of the world around him that defines the film.

The direction is masterful, as is the script, which was written primarily by De Sica and frequent collaborator Cesare Zavattini, who was responsible for the screenplays of several important Italian neorealism pictures. De Sica presents the characters’ poverty with a matter-of-factness that ultimately hits home when Antonio’s impulsive actions nearly result in tragedy. It may be a depressing film, and one that will cause the viewer to shed a tear or two, but in the end there is a statement of humanity that each of us will recognize.

The new Blu-ray looks terrific, as is the gold standard for Criterion. The film contains an uncompressed monaural soundtrack. The disk supplements from the original DVD are ported over with nothing new added. They include: Working with De Sica, a fascinating collection of interviews, including one with Enzo Staiola, who is now an old man—and yet he still looks exactly like little Bruno!; Life As It Is, a piece on Italian neorealism with scholar Mark Shiel; and a documentary from 2003 on screenwriter Zavattini. There is an optional English-dubbed soundtrack. The booklet contains an essay by critic Godfrey Cheshire, plus reminiscences by De Sica and his collaborators.

Bicycle Thieves is truly one of the great motion pictures. I screen it every semester for my Film History class at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. The picture is required viewing for anyone interested in world cinema and the movements that shaped modern filmmaking.

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BY DAWN DABELL

If you were going to write a script following the further adventures of two Shakespearean characters, it's a safe bet Rosencrantz and Guildenstern wouldn't be the first names to spring to mind. For those who don't know, they are two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet. They become the focus of Tom Stoppard's 1966 play Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, adapted for the big screen in 1990. The title is taken directly from a line spoken in Hamlet.

It is a fairly shapeless, existential film. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Gary Oldman and Tim Roth) travel around the wilderness, partaking in nonsensical debates about fate, chance, life and death. They seem unsure of where they are going or why, and often muddle up their own names as if they are not entirely certain of their identity.

They stumble across a travelling acting troupe fronted by the Lead Player (Richard Dreyfuss). He gives them cryptic hints about their place in the bigger picture, but much of his meaning is lost on them. Occasionally, they find themselves flitting into the events happening at the Danish castle of Elsinore, where young Prince Hamlet (Iain Glen) is descending into madness following the death of his father and the subsequent marriage of his mother (Joanna Miles) to his scheming uncle, Claudius (Donald Sumpter). When involved in the fineries of Hamlet's story, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern suddenly become different men - they become more articulate and purposeful, and have a better understanding of their place in the world. When the action moves away and they are left alone once more, they slip back into nonsensical and often stupid character traits, as if they have been stripped of their personality and understanding.

The film often focuses on the off-stage aspects of Hamlet, wherein Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are mostly confused by the small snippets of information they glean from their position at the edge of the main action. They try hopelessly to piece together what is happening in Hamlet's life (and the lives of other characters) during their absence, but only come up with fanciful theories to explain situations which lie beyond their grasp. The technique raises an important question for the audience: what role do we play in other people's lives? Our friend's lives, our family's lives, don't cease to exist just because we aren't present - yet we don't know what is happening to them or what they are experiencing at any given time unless we are there to bear witness. Ultimately, lives carry on regardless and our understanding of any situation is dictated and shaped by whatever snippets we see for ourselves.

It's a clever device which enables us to relate to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. We see that, like them, we are merely minor characters on a much larger stage - called 'Life'. The two main characters are constantly mistaken for each other by those around them; even between themselves they often forget which one is Rosencrantz and which is Guildenstern. In some ways, Stoppard is mocking the way they are written in the play, indicating they are so similar that they might as well have been rolled into one, since there is not enough discernible difference between them.

One can imagine that adapting the play for the big screen would present a daunting prospect for many directors. It comes as little surprise, then, that Stoppard himself directed the film version. As he pointed out in an interview with the Los Angeles Times: "It began to become clear that it might be a good idea if I did it myself—at least the director wouldn't have to keep wondering what the author meant. It just seemed that I'd be the only person who could treat the play with the necessary disrespect." He does a commendable job here, and it seems surprising this was his one and only film directing assignment. With over 40 writing credits to his name, it would have been interesting to see him adapting and directing one of his other plays.

During the casting stages, Stoppard approached Sean Connery to play the Lead Player. Once Connery's name was associated with the production, Stoppard was able to secure funding for it. Unfortunately, around this time Connery was having problems with his throat, leading him to visit a specialist who discovered abnormal cells which had to be surgically removed. Connery pulled out of the feature to concentrate on his health. Stoppard reacted angrily, informing the actor he had committed to the film and the producers would take the matter further. In the end, Connery settled the matter out of court. It's not difficult to visualise Connery in the role: he would have had fun with the character and his voice would have suited the prose beautifully, but alas it was not to be. Richard Dreyfuss makes a perfectly worthy replacement, full of energy and mischievous humour in the flamboyant role.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Through a distribution deal with the Warner Archive, many Paramount titles are being reissued on DVD. Among them: "Hustle", a 1975 crime flick starring Burt Reynolds and Catherine Deneuve. The film is definitely of an era when cop and gangster movies largely defined the medium. Directed by Robert Aldrich, "Hustle" doesn't rate high on the achievement scale of any of the participants but that isn't to say it doesn't have redeeming values that make it worth a look.  The film opens on a sobering note with a group of grammar school kids rejoicing in a field trip to the beach- only to immediately discover a body in the surf. Turns out she is Gloria Hollinger, a wayward teen who had been living a troubled life. L.A. police Lt. Phil Gaines (Burt Reynolds) and his partner Sgt. Louis Belgrave (Paul Winfield) are assigned to investigate the death. The coroner quickly dismisses the death as a suicide. Gaines and Belgrave accept that verdict but they are then confronted by Gloria's grieving parents, Marty and Paula Hollinger (Ben Johnson and Eileen Brennan). Marty is an emotionally unstable man who has never recovered from traumas suffered in the Korean War. He has a short fuse and an explosive temper. His wife tells Gaines and Belgrave that although their daughter's promiscuous ways caused them anxiety, Marty was extremely close to her. He becomes obsessed with finding the person or people he believes murdered his daughter. He locks horns with the cops and accuses them of being complicit in a cover-up. Meanwhile, Belgrave starts to have second thoughts about the suicide theory. Initially, his pleas to re-open the case are rejected by Gaines and their boss, Captain Santoro (Ernest Borgnine) but eventually he relents and begins to investigate further. The trail leads to Leo Sellers (Eddie Albert), a  sophisticated business tycoon with a penchant for wining and dining prostitutes- including Gaines's own girlfriend, Nicole Britton (Catherine Deneuve), who is a high priced call girl. Gaines learns that Sellers did indeed have contact with Gloria and that he arranged for her to star in porn films for his own pleasure. He denies having anything to do with her death, however. Marty Hollinger isn't buying the denial and sets out to avenge his daughter- an act that leads to a dramatic confrontation with Sellers. 

"Hustle" strives to be more complex and intelligent than many of the low-end cop films from this era. To a degree it succeeds. The script by Steve Shagan does accentuate relationships and character development over major action sequences. However, the script is also problematic because the story line never really engages the viewer on an emotional level. The victim of the alleged crime is already dead when we first see her so there is little emotional resonance toward her character. Much of the screen time is taken up with the ups and downs of Gaines's relationship with Nicole. Theirs is more than a love affair of convenience. He is clearly smitten by her but harbors resentment over her lifestyle as a hooker. Nicole, for her part, is quite comfortable with her line of work. She will only give it up if Gaines marries her, something he is reluctant to do, having already been in a failed marriage. Reynolds and Deneuve defined charisma and glamour on screen in the 1970s. Not surprisingly, director Aldrich has plenty of bedroom scenes with his attractive leads but they are strangely bland and anything but erotic. Writer Shagan attempts to delve deeply into Gaines's psyche. He's sarcastic and cynical toward his job and superiors (in the tradition of all '70s cinematic cops) and he seems cold and unemotional. He also harbors fantasies about returning to Rome, where he once visited in relation to an investigation. He even keeps a calendar from 1968 on his wall to remind him of his goal to return to Italy. There are also references (not very well explained) of his obsession with "Moby Dick". The latter two personality quirks are supposed to be endearing but come across as rather pretentious in the scheme of the story. As for Deneuve, she is largely used for window dressing. We see her sauntering around the apartment and occasionally profiting from engaging in an obscene phone call with a client. In reality, her character could easily have been removed from the script without any major detriment to the overall story line.  

The film meanders through some rather innocuous sequences before leading to the climax, which is quite intriguing and much better than most of what proceeded it. Reynolds and Deneuve are in fine form but the best performances come from Eileen Brennan and Ben Johnson as the distraught parents. Johnson, in particular, is a frightening force of nature and gives a riveting performance. Ernest Borgnine is largely wasted in a couple of short sequences that are rather weakly written. Paul Winfield gives the film an additional emotional core as the antithesis of Gaines in that he is a man of compassion and honor.  Eddie Albert, always an asset to any film, is spot-on as usual, but also under-utilized. Other familiar faces in supporting roles include Catherine Bach and Jack Carter. The film, photographed by Joseph Biroc, has a grainy look that is compatible with many action movies of this period and composer Frank De Vol's score ranges from disco-like themes to schmaltzy romantic mood music. 

The Warner Archive release contains no extra features.

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"Batman v. Superman": potential blockbuster or "Cleopatra Redux".

BY LEE PFEIFFER

The heavily-hyped Warner Brothers super hero epic "Batman V. Superman:  Dawn of Justice" is one of the most heavily promoted films in years. It's also one of the most expensive. Variety estimates that the film's $250 million production budget plus ancillary marketing costs will make it necessary for the movie to gross $800 worldwide just to break even. You read that right: $800 million. One industry analyst says that anything less than a gross of $1 billion will be considered a disappointment. Warner Brothers contends that those figures don't take into consideration ancillary revenues from video and merchandising. Fair enough, but if a film bombs, generally speaking, the merchandise and video sales do, too. If you doubt it, how many people did you see walking around with "Waterworld" or "Howard the Duck" T shirts? Veteran screenwriter William Goldman once said of the film industry "Nobody knows anything." That was decades ago and it's still true today. The major studios are so devoid of any original ideas that they can only keep upping the ante in hopes of milking the current passion for big-budget comic book hero productions. It seems that if "Hamlet" were to be brought to the big screen nowadays, the famed soliloquy would have to be delivered by some guy in a cape and mask. Warner Brothers says that the fate of the studio doesn't depend on "Batman vs. Superman", but the fact that they would have to make such a statement indicates how high the stakes are in terms of this film delivering the goods.

Short-sighted studio executives have always been suckers for mega-budget would-be blockbusters. After the success of "Ben-Hur" and "The Ten Commandments" in the late 1950s, studios churned out any number of big-budget roadshow productions. Some worked out well ("The Sound of Music", "Patton", "The Longest Day"), some did okay ("The Alamo", "The Sand Pebbles") while many more lost substantial sums of money ("Mutiny on the Bounty", "55 Days at Peking", "Reds",  "Hello, Dolly!", "Cleopatra",  "Paint Your Wagon" and the notorious "Heaven's Gate"). That isn't to say that most of these boxoffice bombs weren't good movies. In fact, some were great movies, but from a sound business standpoint, their budgets should never have been allowed to jeopardize the health of the entire studio. When James Cameron's "Titanic" went over-budget and ended up costing $200 million back in 1997, industry executives swore they would never put themselves in such a precarious situation again. Guess what? The film became a blockbuster and all caution was thrown to the wind. Before long, directors who were deemed to be hot could get a virtual blank check if they could convince studio bosses that they had the next "can't miss" formula. That included Cameron, who ended up dropping $300 million on "Avatar", which managed to denounce capitalist corporations even as Cameron sought millions from the same entities to finance his already-forgettable blockbuster. (Cameron had learned never to sink your own money into your own production, regardless of how passionate you are about it. It was a lesson learned the hard way by John Wayne on "The Alamo" and Francis Ford Coppola on "Apocalypse Now".)  However, the truth of the matter is that the industry is relying on fewer and fewer blockbusters to carry the baggage for other costly productions that either under-perform or bomb outright. The jury is not yet in on "Batman v. Superman" but how it stacks up in terms of quality isn't the most relevant factor. If the movie doesn't open huge there will be at lot of pants wetting in the corporate boardroom. (Word of mouth on the film is worrying. Apparently, trailers aren't testing that well with the fan boy base the studio needs to woo.)  

Here's a suggestion: how about cutting back on productions that have budgets equivalent to some nation's entire gross national product and get back in the business of making modestly-budgeted movies that are designed to make modest profits. Studios never bet the ranch on mid-range westerns, war movies and spy flicks. Kate Hepburn, Jerry Lewis, Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster and Marilyn Monroe never starred in high risk blockbusters but their films could always be relied upon to make a decent profit. In the rare cases they did not, the losses were never very substantial. Remember when classic sci-fi movies like "Planet of the Apes" could be completed on relatively small budgets even with major talent involved? Today, insane salaries for overpaid talent have driven the costs of films sky high even before shooting even begins. This, despite the fact that unlike days of old, there are precious few genuine "stars" still left in the industry. What defines a star? Someone whose name on the marquee virtually guarantees a film's success, regardless of the quality of a film. Try thinking of how many actors today meet that criteria. The studios have learned nothing since the era in which Fox bet its very future on the fate of one film: "Cleopatra". It's a practice akin to the average person betting their life savings on a sure bet at a casino.  I dunno. I'm just a guy with a blue collar background from Jersey City but I think I could run a studio boardroom more responsibly than some of the folks who are now doing so-- and so could you. Nobody knows anything. 

BY DOUG OSWALD

Tough as nails CIA agent Nick Pirandello (James Belushi) recruits milquetoast insurance agent and suburban family man Bob Wilson (John Ritter) to save the world in “Real Men,” a 1987 equal parts action comedy, spy movie, road movie and buddy movie now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. Buddy movies dominated the action genre throughout the 70s and 80s in theaters and, on TV and just about every male star appeared in at least one. The “Lethal Weapon” movies starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover typified the genre with the apparent mismatch of personalities who eventually work together to bring the plot to a satisfying resolution.

Belushi is no stranger to the buddy movie, having starred in a few throughout the 80s including “Red Heat” with Arnold Schwarzenegger. While the two leads play it mostly straight, the movie does provide laughs, action and also veers into science fiction as it builds on one odd scene after another. Just as things start to move in one direction, the movie takes a new turn into weirdness which is a big part of the fun. It’s basically a series of non-sequiturs sequenced to bring about a satisfying conclusion. Somehow it all works.

Bob happens to look exactly like a recently killed CIA agent and Nick is sent to escort him from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. in five days to complete the dead spy’s mission by Friday. Nick calmly explains their mission as he assembles a nail-firing machine gun from parts found in Bob’s garage in order to fend the group of unknown agents trying to kill them. Nick reveals their mission which is to meet up with extra-terrestrial visitors (Nick calls them Ufoes) seeking a glass of water in exchange for the “good package” or the “big gun”. The bad guys want the big gun but the good package will save the earth from the effects of a recent toxic waste accident which will result in the end of mankind. Bob proves hard to convince and attempts escape at every opportunity, but Nick pulls out every trick in the book to convince Bob that their mission is important to America and the world, as they’re confronted by several groups of agents including Russian KGB, rogue CIA agents and clown assassins.

After escaping and driving through the night, they make a pit stop in Las Vegas. Nick tries to prove the truth of his mission by showing a still doubting Bob a pen inscribed by the Ufoes with, “To Nick from his Friends Far Away.” Still unconvinced, Nick hammers the pen through a baseball after which it levitates, sprouts antennae, spins and flies away. Russian agents show up and, after Nick fails at negotiating a truce with a sultry female Russian agent, the shooting begins again. Just as things start looking grim, the Russians stop shooting for their lunch break. The duo calmly walks away from the halted firefight and end up at Nick’s parents’ home where Bob meets Nick’s mom (a cameo by Barbara Barrie) and dad. Nick explains that dad has gone through some big changes in his life and is very happy now as a woman. Dad is played by Dyanne Thorne, best known to fans of 70s exploitation cinema as the star of the Ilsa exploitation series, in a funny sequence that ends with Thorne reminding Bob to call.

By Thursday they’re in Indianapolis where they pick up a special glass to hold the water for the Ufoes. They also engage the CIA killer clown unit. Nick is a crack shot and seemingly has eyes in the back of his head. After falling in love with a dominatrix he meets in Pittsburg, Nick briefly loses interest in the mission, but by then Bob has gained the confidence Nick has lost and completes the mission.

John Ritter was good at playing the type of character portrayed in the past by Bob Hope, Danny Kaye and Don Knotts; the cowardly loser who comes through in the end and gets the girl. In this case he earns the respect of his wife and kids when he goes after the neighborhood bullies who stole his son’s bike. Jim Belushi is also very effective as the relative straight man. He’s tough, confident and plays it cool throughout, but also come across as a bit of the slippery con man ala Bud Abbott and Dean Martin. Belushi and Ritter have good chemistry and it’s a pity they didn’t do another film together.

Released by United Artists in 1987, this is the sole directing credit for Dennis Feldman who also wrote the film’s screenplay. Known as a writer and producer, his previous credits include “Just One of the Guys,” “The Golden Child,” “Species” and “Virus.” In some ways the movie is a precursor to “Men in Black” where government agents also have secret knowledge of extraterrestrials and compete in an effort to garner favors from their advanced technology. The movie underperformed at the box office, but did find life on cable TV and home video release. Miles Goodman provides an entertaining score which does a fine job underscoring the strange elements of the film.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray looks and sounds great. The only extra is the trailer, but it’s worth a look because it’s simply a series of scenes between Nick and Bob explaining what makes a man a “real man.” The movie is definitely an acquired taste, but Belushi and Ritter are very good very likable as a team. The movie isn’t for everyone, but it’s unique, entertaining and worth a look.

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BY DARREN ALLISON

Neal Hefti’s soundtrack compositions always seem to define a sense of good safe ground. Throughout the 1960s, Hefti provided light but always memorable scores including TV’s Batman (1966-68), How to Murder your wife (1965), Barefoot in the park (1967) and The Odd Couple (1968). Perhaps rather less memorable were the comedies Boeing Boeing (1965) and Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s hung you in the closet and I’m feelin’ so sad (1967). Boeing Boeing marked the last strains of Paramount’s association with Jerry Lewis and co-starred Tony Curtis. A romantic comedy farce, the film is set in Paris, and Hefti’s loungey, easy-listening feel makes it an enjoyable experience. There are of course certain familiarities.  Hefti’s signature sound is hard to ignore: smooth brass and witty electric keyboard motifs all signify a certain 60s charm. Vocalion’s new release (CDLK4578) marks Boeing Boeing’s first venture on CD. At just 28 minutes, it’s a straight forward re-release of RCA’s original 1965 LP. Nevertheless, Vocalion have sensibly paired Boeing Boeing with Hefti’s soundtrack album, Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung you in the closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad (1967). A much darker comedy and based upon the stage play by Arthur L. Kopit, the film version starred Rosalind Russell, Robert Morse and Barbara Harris. Hefti’s music offers a rather bizarre mix of flavours, with its main theme song (a kid’s ditty of sorts) performed by a children’s chorus. There is also a good deal of Bossa Nova beats and a rather nice Latin infused love theme. Again, it is typical of that very comfortable Mancini Sixties environment. Listen out in particular to the track ‘This is Mother’ and you might just pick up more than a hint of Hefti’s Batman’s backbeat. Hefti’s Oh Dad is another short score, and another straight reworking of the original album - coming in at just 24 minutes

It’s probably fair to assume that either of these scores (in their individual capacity) would tend to struggle. However, as a pairing they actually work very well and complement each other seamlessly. They achieve a rather nice balance and as a result, a very enjoyable collection of Neal Hefti’s film music emerges. The accompanying booklet consists of just a 2 Panel (4 page) insert containing the original album notes – which is a shame. Thankfully, Vocalion’s excellent audio production of the two albums makes it a worthwhile purchase.

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Nancy Sinatra posted a tribute to her brother on her Facebook page.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Frank Sinatra Jr, the only son of the iconic singer and actor, has died at age 72 from cardiac arrest. A consummate performer who was described by the Washington Post as the "Keeper of his father's flame", was on tour when he fell ill. Sinatra Jr.'s story is not dissimilar to that of other children of legendary entertainers in that his last name opened certain doors and helped him establish a career but also posed challenges in terms of his ability to establish an identity of his own. Sinatra Jr. always had a checkered relationship with his father. While not actually estranged, the young man found his father to be a remote figure who was content to have his son educated in expensive boarding schools. The elder Sinatra never tried to mentor his son or advise him as to what profession to enter. Sinatra Jr. discovered early in life that he also had a gift for singing. In the 1960s he made the decision to follow in his father's footsteps by crooning traditional love songs accompanied by a big band. His father neither encouraged or discouraged that decision. Sinatra Jr. was bucking the trends of the 1960s counter culture, an era in which hard rock music was all the rage among people his age. Yet he never embraced it and in fact denounced rock and roll. Over the decades Sinatra Jr. doggedly worked to establish his own identity- an admittedly difficult task considering he was mostly singing numbers made famous by his father. Sinatra Jr. made headlines in 1963 when he was kidnapped and held for ransom. Ironically, one of his kidnapper's was a friend of his sister Nancy. The situation made international news and involved such disparate figures as Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, F.B.I. chief J. Edgar Hoover and mob boss Sam Giancana. He was eventually released unharmed and the kidnappers were arrested. In 1988 he was shocked and delighted to be asked by his father to serve as his conductor for his live concerts. Sinatra Jr. indicated that this was the closest he would ever get to his father, traveling and working with him over a period of seven years. The two men were never close but Sinatra Jr. was clearly grateful for the opportunity to work with his father in a professional capacity. After his father's death, Sinatra Jr. resumed his big band concert tours, winning over appreciative audiences. He candidly told the media in 2006 that "I was never a success", pointing out that he never had a hit record or movie. However, he did take satisfaction from performing in front of his own fans and working diligently with his sisters to ensure the Sinatra legacy through official documentaries and books. In that respect he was indeed a success. 

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BY JOHN M. WHALEN 

“A Bullet for Joey” (1955) with Edward G. Robinson, George Raft and Audrey Totter is one of those “Red scare” movies from the mid-fifties that combines elements of a crime plot with espionage and the evils of communism. It was the Cold War era and people were digging bomb shelters and practicing “duck and cover” air raid drills, while at the same time, congressional committees hauled in suspected Communist Party members, including actors, writers and directors, to testify and name names. Hollywood did its part, in turn, by black listing suspected commies and turning out anti-communism films like John Wayne’s “Big Jim McClain” “The Woman on Pier 13 (“I Married a Communist”), and “I Was a Communist for the FBI.” “A Bullet for Joey”, despite having two of Hollywood’s toughest tough guy actors in the cast, is one of the weaker examples of this sub-genre.

It concerns a conspiracy by Communist agents who want to kidnap a nuclear scientist named Macklin who is living in Montreal and has developed some kind of secret atomic weapon. The Reds want to take him and his device to Moscow. It’s not a bad story idea on the face of it. But who do you suppose they enlist to carry out such a risky venture? Some skilled KGB agent? Some steely-eyed Russian veteran of the Cold War? No. They get the crack-brain idea to go to Portugal and contact Joey Victor, a deported American gangster played by a tired-looking George Raft. They give him money, fake ID papers and send him to Canada to snatch the scientist. Sure, I guess if you want to pull off a super-secret international kidnapping, why not hire a nondescript guy like Public Enemy No. 1? Makes sense to me. Even harder to swallow is the idea that Joey would take the job not really knowing who the people are that are hiring him, or why they would want to capture a nuclear scientist in the first place. All he cares about is the money and a chance to slip over the Canadian border and get back in the U.S. This is called putting blinders on your main character so he can stumble through an overly contrived plot.

At this point you might be wondering what Edward G. Robinson is doing all this time. Well, Edward G plays a Canadian Mountie Inspector by the name of Le Duc who starts investigating a string of seemingly unconnected murders that have suddenly sprung up in Montreal. Looking every bit as tired and worn out as Raft, Edward G. goes through the usual police procedural motions as if in his sleep. There are clues such as an organ grinder found in the river with his face removed, a homely girl shot three times on a lover’s lane, a guy shot through a window by a rifle with a telescopic sight. As he sifts through the evidence, Le Duc discovers they all have one thing in common—they’re all connected in some way to a nuclear scientist named Macklin.

Meanwhile, Joey gets help from the Soviet agents reassembling his old mob including his former flame Audrey Totter. She’s brought in to seduce the atomic scientist, and set him up for the kidnapping. Joey advises her not to get involved with him, but she does anyway and tries to get a note off to Edward G. spilling the beans. Totter, an actress whose presence graced many a decent film noir, isn’t used very well in this flick. Mostly she stands around looking like a big cat about to claw everybody’s eyes out. She does have one of the best lines in the movie, however, when Joey barges into her room as she’s writing the letter as she tries to hide it and asks:

“Are your knuckles sore?”

“No why?”, Joey answers.

“Go back out and bang them on the door.”

That gives you some idea of the kind of script the writers came up for this one. Maybe you can’t blame Edward G for looking tired and bored when he’s forced to utter lines like: “Women are what makes life a pleasure for men.”

I won’t bore you with further details of the plot, mainly because I can’t remember anymore, even though I watched this film twice. I don’t know if it was Lewis Gilbert’s lackluster direction, the cockamamie script by blacklisted writer Daniel Mainwaring and A. I. Bezzerides (from the novel by James Benson Nablo), or the tired and listless performances of the two leads that was responsible for the eye-glazing experience watching “A Bullet for Joey” turned out to be. All I can remember is squirming in my seat, feeling itchy, getting up to get a drink, getting up again to use the rest room, and finally just throwing up my hands in frustration during a scene where the cops and gangsters are shooting it out on a boat, and all Edward G can do is try to get through to headquarters on a radio that doesn’t work. There are guns a-blazing, bad guys running all over the place, and in the middle of it, Edgar G is sitting in a truck with the microphone in his hand, repeating: “Headquarters, come in. This is inspector LeDuc calling. Headquarters, come in.” In this scene Le Duc comes off almost as comically inept as Inspector Clouseau in one of Blake Edwards Pink Panther movies.

There was, of course, the final moment, after Edgar G is captured when he asks Joey why he took a job without knowing what it was all about? Finally a light bulb goes off over the gangster’s head when he realizes turning the scientist over to the commies is a crime against humanity. Joey rises to the occasion and tries to redeem himself. The title pretty much tells you how that turns out.

This was the second time Robinson and Raft worked together. The first was in “Manpower” (1941) with Marlene Dietrich. The two guys got in a fight over Dietrich at the time. Maybe that’s what this film needed. Some behind the scenes shenanigans to put some life into what is otherwise a pretty dull and lifeless movie. Too bad two old legends couldn’t have found a better vehicle for their last appearance together.

This Kino Lorber Blu-Ray is presented in the correct 1.85:1 aspect ratio and the picture and sound are okay, even though no effort was made at digital restoration. There are signs of wear and tear. The disc has no extras other than a couple of trailers. I’ve given high marks to most of Kino Lorber’s Studio Classic series. I appreciate their desire to keep older, and more obscure films in circulation. But this is one is marginal at best.

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(John M. Whalen's latest book is "The Big Shutdown". Click here to view promotional trailer. Click here to order from Amazon.) 

By Jeremy Carr

In light of his artsy, unaffected, at times entirely improvised trilogy of “road movies”—Alice in the Cities (1974), Wrong Move (1975), and Kings of the Road (1976)—Wim Wenders considered The American Friend (1977) to be his riskiest film to date. Fortunately, the gamble paid off and this picture, more than any of his prior efforts, placed him prominently on the world stage, garnering him international attention and critical acclaim. While Patricia Highsmith’s source novel, Ripley’s Game, was not his first choice of her work to bring to the big screen (it was, in fact, not yet published), the end result is a satisfying thriller enveloped in a morally ambiguous milieu of existential drama.

Stricken with a blood disease, workaday picture framer Jonathan Zimmermann (Bruno Ganz) encounters disreputable forged art dealer Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper) at an auction, where the former is wise to the fakery being peddled by the latter. When Ripley extends a hand to Zimmermann, who ignores the gesture and rebukes the criminal with a dismissive, “I've heard of you,” the snub rubs Ripley the wrong way. Based on this seemingly innocuous slight, he and shady collaborator Raoul Minot (Gérard Blain) scheme to get Zimmermann involved in a murderous plot. Playing off the threat that his ailment has grown increasingly terminal (thanks to some fraudulent documents), Ripley and Minot arrange for Zimmermann to take out a fellow gangster target. He would be an unassuming figure for a murder anyway, with no connection to Ripley, Minot, or the victim, and for his efforts, he would financially secure his wife and young son in the wake of his death.

The initial catalyst of the forged painting, as well as the ensuing personal deceitfulness, are indicative of the film’s primary theme, that of the complex nature of mistaken and/or assumed identity. Early in The American Friend, when Ripley ruminates, “I know less and less about who I am or who anybody else is,” it is an explicit expression of this thematic thread. As the film plays out, he and Zimmermann both embark on a profound journey building upon fluctuating ideals and actions, sometime out of necessity—to adapt and stay alive—and sometimes just for the pretense.

In any case, having done the deed, the oblivious yet earnestly considerate Zimmermann (considerate for his family, that is, if not the man he murders) evolves from an innocent amateur to an ethically problematic criminal in his own right. The full weight of the abrupt shift to unscrupulous behavior is made all the more disconcerting after he realizes no immediate consequences for the assassination. First he is surprised and obviously pleased by the lack of judicial punishment, then his joy borders on disturbing exultation. The man who is at one point described as “quiet and peaceful” has now become a cold blooded killer for hire. Just as with Highsmith’s most famous Ripley novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, appearances here can be deceiving and easily deceived. As the proliferation of illicit activity runs far and wide in The American Friend, the film frequently questions character authenticity and the uncertain true intentions of those involved. To therefore say the ensuing bond between Zimmermann and Ripley is an unlikely and unsteady one would be quite the understatement, and however much the two grow comfortable with one another, even trusting of each other, nothing about the collaboration ever settles enough to be solidified as a mutual partnership. Even if the characters let their guard down momentarily, the viewer is continually primed to expect a deadly turnabout.

Zimmermann’s potentially fatal flaw, then, is that he fails to realize that in this world of treachery and viciousness, where others are playing the same ruthless game he is, one has to assume they too are capable of violence. In a 2002 commentary track with Hopper, as well as in a more recent interview, both of which are included on the new Criterion Collection release of The American Friend, Wenders states his reluctance toward taking on an amoral character like Ripley. But what becomes clear is that Zimmermann is the one with whom the audience is more disappointed. Ripley and his cohorts are what they are and we expect nothing less; Zimmermann, on the other hand, should have been above such misdeeds. His desire to provide for his family is laudable enough, and the prospect of quick cash would be tantalizing, but his decision to ultimately go through with the murder makes him a most problematic protagonist.

By Hank Reineke

In the course of a 1977 interview with Hollywood correspondent Vernon Scott, American-International’s very own Samuel J. Arkoff, the studio’s notorious penny-pinching producer, admitted to his mostly fiscal interest in the horror film genre. “We got into horror pictures [in 1955] when we discovered that without a big budget and major stars our films were [relegated to] second features,” Arkoff reminisced. “I decided to make two pictures of the same type and release them on the same bill… So we sent out The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues and The Day the World Ended as a pair and they cleaned up.”

Years later Arkoff would more completely delineate his eminently prudent and successful marketing strategy to film historian Tom Weaver. This insightful interview with the irascible producer was included in Weaver’s seminal tome Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Heroes: the Mutant Melding of Two Volumes of Classic Interviews (McFarland, 1999). In essence, Arkoff revealed that, as an independent, the box office receipts from the earliest films released through the American Releasing Corporation (the original name of the company that would morph into American-International Pictures), had been relatively small.

As nationwide theater chains were still mostly controlled by the major studios when Arkoff first opened shop, his A.R.C. features were only booked by cinema-owners as flat-fee rentals of nominal cost. The films were also, more fatefully, consigned to the lower-half of a double bill program; this was unfair as such second-bill status did not allow independents to take a percentage of the total gross of a twin-bill. In the years following a 1948 court-ordered anti-trust injunction against the major studios, Arkoff began to deliver his own twin packaged films to theater owners. Such independent double-bills ensured that all profit percentages would rightfully funnel into the pockets of the producers.

It almost goes without saying that The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues was a purely exploitative title; an obvious attempt to capitalize on the name-recognition coattails of several successful science-fiction films of the era. The chosen title instantly invoked allusions to Universal-International’s Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Ray Harryhausen’s visual effects vehicle The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), and Disney’s Academy Award winning 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). The latter two films would, at the very least, get their measurements right… but more on this later.

If there was any film that I never imagined would enjoy a Blu-Ray release, it’s the non-acclaimed and universally scorned The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues. Having done so, one has to respect Kino-Lorber’s self-aware decision to include Joe Dante’s (Piranha, The Howling, Gremlins) disparaging remarks concerning the film’s dubious merit. There’s no over-the-top self-serving ballyhoo present here, folks. Dante concludes his brief “Trailers from Hell” supplement with these cautionary words: “I hardly know anybody who’s made it all the way through The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues.” If nothing else, Dante’s from-the-heart appraisal of the film’s dubious virtues proves he’s no revisionist. He’s also not alone in his opinion; amongst devotees of 1950s sci-fi, The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues has a long established reputation as a talky, turgidly paced snooze-fest disguised as a monster movie.

Nonetheless, there’s a fascinating back story to all this. In 1962 Dante, then merely one more disgruntled sixteen-year old horror movie fan, would fire off a letter off to Forrest J. Ackerman, editor-emeritus of the influential 1960s/1970s magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. In the course of his entertaining rant to the editor, Dante suggested fifty films that, in his opinion, accounted for the “worst horror films ever made.” The amused Ackerman must have agreed with many of the youngster’s findings. He would later infamously assign Dante’s “feeble fifty” to “the eternal fames of the brimstone pit” of horror-movie history. The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues registered as “vapid” entry no. 38 on Dante’s list, though it must be said this calculation was alphabetical rather than meritorious in placement. To the young letter-writers’ surprise, Ackerman chose to run his musings in the magazine under the title “Dante’s Inferno,” an opinionated ten-page diatribe that would cause no shortage of consternation amongst fans and the filmmakers whose favorite films and/or contributions to celluloid history had been outright panned.

BY DARREN ALLISON

Arrow’s commitment to Pam Grier and her Blaxploitation films of the seventies continues with their latest package Sheba, Baby (1975). By the arrival of the mid-Seventies Grier was at the top of her game, coming off such genre classics as Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974) both directed by Jack Hill and both of which are also available in superb releases from Arrow. Grier’s work for AIP continued in explosive, fashionable style with Sheba, Baby and with new director William Girdler at the helm. Sheba is without doubt a star vehicle that was tailor made for exploiting Grier’s talents.

Sheba Shayne is a Chicago private eye who receives a telegram informing her of trouble in her hometown of Louisville. The local mob boss, Pilot (D'Urville Martin) has started to turn up the heat in trying to obtain her father’s loan business. Along with her father Andy (Rudy Challenger), the business is run by his partner Brick Williams (Austin Stoker), an instantly recognisable actor and best known perhaps as Lt. Ethan Bishop from John Carpenter's cult classic Assault on Precinct 13 (1976). After several threats and a near fatal car bomb, Sheba soon realises that the situation is becoming desperately out of control.

Despite a few shaky moments in the script (credited to director Girdler and producer David Sheldon), the film is carried in every respect by Grier’s scintillating screen presence, she truly bosses the film, and looks fantastic in every frame. It’s a film that should be enjoyed without too much scrutinising; accept it purely on its surface level and you’ll find yourself smiling a whole lot and lapping up the action. If your intention is to analyse it, then forget it. If you scrutinise the problems in terms of continuity of dates, Sheba’s small quantity of luggage (there’s a costume change in practically every scene), etc, then you’ll be missing out on the action and overlooking its pure entertainment value. The action scenes are plentiful and arrive fast and furious. Was this film actually rated as PG upon its release? Look out for the car that spins wildly off a grass verge, then look again to see how it misses Grier (on the assumption it was her and not a stunt double) by a matter of inches. It is a pure adrenalin pumping sequence. Yes, the film might be considered as routine and stereotypical, even offensive in relation to its language (the ‘N’ word raises its ugly head on several occasions), and the mob are of course pimped to the max. But you’d be wise to let it go, as this is, after all, a product of its time, and yes, it was almost considered as socially tolerated in the more discriminate social culture of the seventies.

Arrow’s 1080p presentation of Sheba, Baby can only be described as flawless. The picture quality is as near to pristine as you could ever wish. Whist it retains a generic low budget look, its colour grading delivers both a natural look and just enough enhancement to emphasise those wonderful vivid colours of the fashions and the times. The whole look manages to achieve a perfect balance. Check out the film’s opening credits, the pin sharp yellow lettering almost pops out from the screen. If they look familiar, you might just make the comparison with Jackie Brown (1997), as director Quentin Tarantino uses the exact same colour and font for his own Pam Grier movie. It’s not only homage, but a deeper example of how Tarantino holds these movies so close to his heart. The Blu-ray audio (original mono uncompressed PCM) is clean and clear throughout, and allows the film’s soulful score (by Alex Brown and Monk Higgins) to become an integral part of the experience. There are also a couple of great vocals tracks (including the theme) provided by the American R&B/soul singer Barbara Mason.

Arrow’s bonus material is both enjoyable and generous. First, there are two audio commentaries, the first featuring producer-screenwriter David Sheldon and moderated by critic Nathaniel Thompson. The second is provided by Patty Breen the webmaster of WilliamGirdler.com. Breen’s commentary is actually a great deal of fun; it’s a completely relaxed ‘fan’ style narration. Whilst Breen can’t help joking about the film’s flaws and inconsistencies, it is never in malice and it’s clear she absolutely adores every aspect of the movie.

Sheldon: Baby (15mins) is a brand new interview with David Sheldon who discusses his role and his experience working on the movie and alongside director William Girdler. Pam Grier: The AIP Years (12mins) does exactly what it says on the tin and takes a look over the wonder years of the Blaxploitation queen with film historian Chris Poggiali. The original theatrical trailer (2mins) and a selection of publicity shots and lobby cards rounds off a very nice collection of bonus material.

Arrow’s packaging consists of a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips, while the booklet features brand new writing on the film by Patty Breen and is illustrated with both archive stills and posters.

Overall, Sheba, Baby is an excellent package and one that leaves us in hope that Arrow will continue to explore Grier’s later American international Pictures such as Bucktown (1975) and Friday Foster (1975). There’s little doubt that they would certainly be welcomed and appreciated with open arms.

Technical Spec: Region: Region A/B Blu-ray / DVD 1/2, Rating: 15, Cat No: FCD1210, Duration: 90 mins, Language: English, Subtitles: English SDH, Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1, Audio: Mono, Discs: 2, Colour

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Cinema Retro mourns the loss of Sir Ken Adam, the ingenious, Oscar-winning production designer who has passed away at age 95. Adam's work helped redefine films in terms of the elaborate and creative designs he invented, particularly for the James Bond franchise. Adam's work on the first 007 film, "Dr. No" in 1962 was deemed to be nothing less than remarkable, considering that the entire film was shot on a relatively low budget of just over $1 million. His exotic designs so impressed Stanley Kubrick that he hired Adam as production designer on his 1964 classic "Dr. Strangelove." For that film, Adam created the now legendary "War Room" set which many people believe actually exists at the Pentagon. In fact when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as President in 1981 he asked to see the War Room, only to be told that it was a fictional creation. Reagan acknowledged that he had been intrigued by the concept since seeing it in "Dr. Strangelove". Adam had a somewhat tumultuous relationship with Kubrick, whose habit of changing his mind at the last minute caused Adam enormous grief. However, the two collaborated again on "Barry Lyndon" and Adam won his first Oscar for his work on that film. Adam's close relationship with the Bond franchise is based on his now famous designs seen in the early films. They include the massive Fort Knox set for "Goldfinger", which was created entirely on the back lot at Pinewood Studios on the outskirts of London. Perhaps his greatest achievement was the gigantic volcano set that housed a full size rocket capable of lifting off. This was done for the 1967 Bond film "You Only Live Twice". Incredibly, Adam's work was not recognized with an Oscar nomination despite what many feel is one of the greatest production design achievements in film history. His other Bond films were "Thunderball", "Diamonds Are Forever", "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker". For "The Spy Who Loved Me", Adam built the first incarnation of the massive "007 Stage" at Pinewood Studios. It burned down in 1984 and was rebuilt by his protege, production designer Peter Lamont.

Adam's other film achievements include two of the Michael Caine Harry Palmer spy films, "The Ipcress File" and "Funeral in Berlin", "Sleuth", "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (for which he designed the famed "flying car"), "The Madness of King George" (for which he won a second Oscar), "The Last of Sheila", "Woman of Straw" and "Addams Family Values". He was also a prolific race car driver and had the distinction of serving in RAF in action against Hitler's forces, despite being a German national himself.

On a personal basis, Sir Ken was a good friend of Cinema Retro and had contributed to our magazine in its early stages through interviews conducted by his friend, Sir Christopher Frayling, who co-authored books about Sir Ken's remarkable life and career.He also contributed valuable interviews for documentaries we worked on about the Bond film franchise as well as "Dr. Strangelove". In his later years, Adam appeared at events pertaining to the Bond franchise that were held at Pinewood Studios by www.bondstars.com  With his laid back mannerisms, wry sense of humor and omnipresent cigar, he always delighted fans with his remarkable stories.  This writer sat next to him a few years ago to watch the digital screening of "Goldfinger" at Pinewood. Ken told me that he was incredulous at how wonderful it all looked. When the scene came to the interior of Fort Knox, he said to me, "I never thought I'd live to see my work presented so gloriously". It's safe to say we won't see his kind again.  

(For full interview with Sir Ken Adam, see Cinema Retro issue #2)

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By Howard Hughes

‘Five Dolls for an August Moon’ is Mario Bava’s 1970 psychedelic spin on Agatha’s ‘Ten Little Indians’/’And Then There Were None’ with the addition of 70s fashions, a funky soundtrack, a walk-in meat fridge and a revolving bed. This movie is all about ‘The Look’ and has all the Bava signatures present – the overuse of zooming camera techniques, the appearance of the beach and headland at Tor Caldara on Anzio Cape in Italy as the main filming location, the effective, budget-defying special effects shots and the consummate cinematography. Though often written off as lower-tier Bava, Arrow’s brand new region 2 Blu-ray/DVD edition, with vibrant colours and sound, shows Bava’s finesse and ensures its success.

Businessman George Stark (Teodoro Corra) and his wife Jill (Edith Meloni) invite guests to stay at their luxury shoreline residence on a secluded island. The visitors are Professor Jerry Farrell (William Berger), his wife Trudy (Ira Fürstenberg), mysterious Isabel (Justine Gall), the Starks’ temporary ward, and businessmen Jack Davidson (Renato Rossini) and Nick Chaney (Maurice Poli) and their wives Peggy (Hélèna Ronée) and Marie (Edwige Fenech). The trio of businessmen want to persuade Jerry to part with the formula for a new type of synthetic industrial resin and offer him millions of dollars, but Jerry stubbornly refuses. In the boozed-up, decadent atmosphere of Stark’s retreat, hedonistic excess, murder games, marital infidelity and jealousy flourish. For example, Marie is having an affair with the Stark’s resident houseboy Charles (played by Mauro Bosco), who rounds the island’s occupants up to an even ‘ten’. Soon the guests are stranded – George sends away the island’s yacht and later the motor launch, the only other way to leave the island, vanishes, while radio contact with the outside world ceases. Then the killings start…

The principal objective of this static albeit stylist giallo is to kill off its attractive cast – in that respect, it is very much a rehearsal for Bava’s ‘A Bay of Blood’/’Twitch of the Death Verve’ the following year. Some of the scenes in the Starks’ landscaped garden, with it tropical palms, are very similar to the later film. But whereas in ‘Bay of Blood’, we see many of the killings enacted before our eyes, often in graphic detail, here his camera discovers the corpses already in eternal repose. We suppose that the principal motive for the killing is greed for Professor Jerry’s secret formula for resin, which he plans to unveil at a chemists’ convention in Geneva the following month (presumably September). In typical giallo style, the film’s title is evocative, but meaningless. The ‘five dolls’ are the five beautiful women and the film’s French title, ‘5 Filles dans une nuit chaude d’été’ translates as ‘Five Girls on a Hot Summer Night’. Most of the mystery’s revelations involve flesh. Edwige Fenech, the beautiful heroine and future screen goddess of continental sex comedies and gialli, is most memorable as Marie, one of the female protagonists – mainly because she plays the role clad in underwear, bikinis, towels or less. Most of the actors are rudimentarily going through the motions, with William Berger, Ira Fürstenberg and Justine Gall being most notable for putting some effort in. The women aren’t particularly well-rounded characterisations and mostly exist to be dressed, undressed, caressed and distressed. The men are iniquitous, greedy and easily dislikeable – Nick tries to persuade Marie to seduce Jerry to gain the formula – and as a result of their lack of sympathy, it’s difficult to become involved in the plot or the victims’ plight. It is one film Bava singled out for criticism in interviews as the least favourite of his work: “They paid me on Saturday and I had to start filming on Monday. I had to accept the script (by Mario Di Nardo) which was just a horrible rip-off of ‘Ten Little Indians’. I had to keep all the characters, but I took revenge by changing the identity of the killer”.

Sir George Martin, arguably the most influential producer in the history of rock 'n roll music, has died peacefully at age 90. Martin was described by Paul McCartney as his "second father" because he had guided the Beatles through their early years, producing all but one of their albums and giving them the distinctive sound that resulted in them becoming legends. His influence on the band was so important that he gained the nick name of "The Fifith Beatle". Martin went on to exert his influence with other major acts over the decades, remaining a powerful force in the music industry. For full details of Sir George's remarkable life, click here. 

BY BILL DUELLY

Kino Lorber has released a dual 3-D and 2-D Blu-ray of the 1954 cult sci-fi flick “Gog”.

At a secret US government base in the desert, various top secret experiments are taking place that will provide invaluable data when the nation launches its first manned rockets (keep in mind this is still a good six years or so before the first Mercury flight).  The experiments start to go awry so top analyst Richard Egan is called in to investigate.  Naturally, his girlfriend Constance Dowling (producer Ivan Tors’s wife) is a top research scientist there as well. As the investigation develops and the body count increases, it appears that a pair of robots, GOG and MAGOG, are the cause of the ‘accidents’…. or are they?  Is someone or something else at the root cause? 

The 3-D and overall quality on this release is extremely good (Richard Egan’s overindulgence in Brylcream is rather obvious in some shots here).  The action takes place in different fields in the frame and is handled rather effectively.  It is not a gimmicky 3-D film in any sense and has been well thought out. When viewed on a Panasonic AG 8000 projector there was very little or no ghosting.  This project was produced by the 3-D Archive (Bob Furmanek, Greg Kintz and Thad Komorowski), the same folks who brought us ‘3-D Rarities’ and ‘The Bubble’ last year.

“Gog” was released in May 1954 when the public's brief infatuation of 1950’s 3-D was on the decline.  As such, it was rolled out in 3-D in only 5 bookings in southern California.  It then played flat, or 2D, as the release fanned out across the country.  When “Gog” ended up in a TV sale, for some reason it was then distributed in full frame B&W.  Also over time the negative for the left side was lost, actually most likely destroyed, as the studios liked to keep their shelves clear to reduce storage expenses (“Gee, why do we have two negatives of the same film?  We can throw one out!”).

So “Gog” became a ‘lost’ 3-D film.  Fortunately, a left side original release print was stumbled upon at a film exchange in a pile of materials that was to be thrown out.  The print worked its way to the 3- D Archive, where it was found to be very faded.  Fast forward to present day and the digital technologies available to archivists.  Greg and Thad, spent close to five months working diligently to restore color, perfect registration of the 3-D image, clean up damage and dirt, all the while maintaining a ‘filmic’ look to the presentation (films scrubbed too clean for Blu-ray have a very unnatural look). 

Sixty three years later now, you can finally see GOG in 3-D, better than the way it was meant to be seen.

The Kino Lorber release contains :  both a 3-D and 2-D version of the film; trailers; interviews with both the director, Herbert L. Strock and director of photography, Lothrop B. Worth; featurette on the restoration as well as an audio commentary by film historians Bob Furmanek, Tom Weaver and David Schecter.

To find out more information on the movie and restoration, visit the 3D -Archive website. http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/gog

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BY DOUG OSWALD

Randolph Scott plays a bounty hunter returning a former Indian captive in “Comanche Station,” a 1960 Columbia release directed by Bud Boetticher and written by western regular Burt Kennedy.

Jefferson Cody (Scott) trades rifles and other items with a group of Comanche Indians in exchange for a captive settler, Nancy Lowe (Nancy Gates). Her husband has offered a large reward for her return. After the exchange they’re met by outlaw Ben Lane (Claude Akins) and his sidekicks Frank (Skip Homeier) and Dobie (Richard Rust) who help Cody during an Indian attack at Comanche Station. Lane and Cody are old enemies and he and his men have been searching for Nancy. Lane wants a piece of the $5,000 reward in return for helping protect Nancy on the journey to her husband. Cody reluctantly agrees and forms an uneasy alliance due to the Indian threat.

Cody befriends Dobie, who wants to be his own man rather than the sidekick to the outlaw Lane.. Cody and Nancy form a friendship which Lane sees as an opportunity to get under Cody’s skin. He plots to return Nancy on his own and collect the reward, but he knows Cody is a better shot and the better man.

The Indians are threatening and portrayed by Native Americans rather than red-faced Caucasian extras. They’re talked about more than seen and when they are seen they’re mostly on horseback and only a modest threat to Cody and Lane. Lane is the real threat and Cody predicts the outcome as Lane’s men are killed and the movie ends with the thrilling, if predictable, gunfight between Cody and Lane on the edge of a rocky cliff.

The movie is a little gem overall with excellent location photography beautifully shot in CinemaScope by Charles Lawton, Jr. There’s also tight direction by Boetticher and strong performances by Scott, Akins and the rest of the cast. The movie was apparently shot in 12 days in the California desert, but the very short running time of 70 minutes doesn’t hurt, as it ensures that things move at a brisk pace.

This was the final film for Ranown, the production company formed by Scott and producer Harry Joe Brown. Scott announced his retirement from movies after this release. Fortunately, Scott returned for one more movie, “Ride the High Country,” in 1962. Generally regarded as a classic of the genre, Scott retired for good after that.

This region 2 German release includes both German and the original English audio. The CinemaScope picture and sound quality on this release are both terrific. While the movie has a running time barely over an hour, there’s a lot packed into the 70 minute running time which is also an excuse to watch it as part of a double feature. The movie was previously available as part of the 2008 DVD set, “The Bud Boetticher Collection.” The only extra carried over from that release is the original trailer in English. This German release also includes a slide show stills gallery of original advertising material which is accompanied by cues from the score. Well worth the time for fans of classic westerns, Bud Boetticher and Randolph Scott.

(Explosive Media titles are primarily available through Amazon Germany. However, imports can often be found on eBay and Amazon in other countries. Although officially a “region 2” title, many of readers report that Explosive Media titles play fine on their region 1 players.) 

BY FRED BLOSSER

Peter Hyams’ “Busting” (1973) was one of several early 1970s police dramas that followed the lead of “Dirty Harry,” two years before, in glorifying vigilante tactics by disgruntled cops.  Los Angeles Detective Michael Keneely (Elliott Gould) tries to entrap a hooker, Jackie (Cornelia Sharpe), by posing as a prospective john. He and his partner Patrick Farrell (Robert Blake) trash her apartment without a warrant, looking for her “trick book” of clients, and arrest her. The incriminating pages disappear from the journal after it’s processed into an evidence locker, and a high-powered defense attorney (William Sylvester) has Jackie’s arrest thrown out of court on grounds that Keneely lacked evidence of a crime: she had not explicitly propositioned him before he made the pinch. The detectives learn that Jackie’s boss is Carl Rizzo (Allen Garfield), a powerful drug and prostitution kingpin, and they go after one of Rizzo’s heroin runners, Hyatt (Jack Knight) with equal lack of success, igniting a bloody gunfight in a crowded public market. Rizzo brags to Keneely that he is so well connected politically that Keneely and Farrell will never be able to touch him.

The two cops are banished to an assignment nabbing “perverts” in the men’s room at the La Brea Tar Pits Park. Marvel Comics fans take note, Keneely has an “Ant-Man” comic book at hand to pass the time as he watches from a stall. I doubt it was paid product placement. Frustrated, they target Rizzo on their off-hours with a campaign of harassment, hoping to eventually make a case while getting under the gangster’s skin. Rizzo is so predatory and arrogant that the viewer, presumably, has no qualms about Keneely and Farrell nailing him by any means necessary. This was the same Nixon-Era, middle-class paranoia that “Dirty Harry” manipulated even more cunningly: the fear that criminals were literally getting away with murder (not to mention rape, robbery, and varied affronts to public decency) because recent court decisions had tied the hands of the police.

In an audio commentary with Elliott Gould for Kino-Lorber’s new Blu-ray release of “Busting,” film critic Kim Morgan calls the movie a “wonderful . . . under-looked should-be-‘70s-classic.” “Classic” is debatable; “curiosity piece” might be a better description for younger audiences who are likely to find the period ambience of cynicism, grimy squad rooms, seedy peep shows, and strip bars novel. Be warned, the dialogue is heavy with offensive terms like “faggot” and “fruit” that may reflect the homophobic slang of the time but are no longer tolerated at all.

Although the movie runs a trim 92 minutes, it seems longer: Hyams’ script tends to wander from scene to scene, never really picking up much momentum except during the well-filmed chase and shootout at L.A.’s Grand Central Market, and even that sequence drags at the end. None of the characters is sharply developed, only Keneely having much in the way of a background, and that limited to a monolog about how he started out as an idealistic young cop. Two iconic ‘70s cult actors are cast in small supporting parts -- Sid Haig as Rizzo’s bodyguard and Antonio Fargas as an aggressive customer in a gay bar where Keneely and Farrell are assigned to a drug stakeout -- but neither is given much to do.

In his comments on the audio track with Kim Morgan, Gould recalls that Ron Leibman was originally set to play his partner, but when Leibman didn’t work out (Gould’s comments on this point are vague), Peter Boyle and Blake were up for the part. Gould says, “I love both actors,” but he championed Blake because the actor was “dangerous and unpredictable.” Ironically, Gould’s character is the more volatile of the two detectives. The movie might have worked better if the two leads had been cast to type, Blake as Keneely and Gould as Farrell. Gould’s commentary is droll and informative. “Oh my God, I don’t remember this,” he says as Cornelia Sharpe takes off her top in the scene between Keneely and Jackie in her apartment.

The 1920x1080p image in the Kino-Lorber Blu-ray is about as serviceable as one could expect from a 40-year-old, mid-budget movie. Other extras besides the commentary tracks are trailers for “Busting” and two other releases, “The Long Goodbye” and “Running Scared” (the 1986 Peter Hyams cop-buddy movie with Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal, not the 2006 film of the same name with the late Paul Walker).

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BY DARREN ALLISON

“The Silencers” – Elmer Bernstein

It’s always great to see a classic soundtrack album receive its debut on CD, and Elmer Bernstein’s stylish Matt Helm score The Silencers (CDLK4573) is no exception. Dean Martin’s campy but hugely enjoyable spy capers were made during a successful period of spy-time, when Bond, Flint and numerous other secret agents were dominant in cinema entertainment. Bernstein’s jazzy, cool and deliciously infectious score ticks all the desired boxes. Bernstein fills the soundscape with big brass and fast percussion, most of which are laced with a hip, Latin beat. The composer provides plenty of swing, but it’s never without an underlying sense of fun, a playfulness throughout which perfectly mirrors Helm’s on screen exploits. Aside from Bernstein’s score, the two vocal tracks sung by Vikki Carr (co-written by Mack David) ‘The Silencers’ and ‘Santiago’ also offer a sassy sense of relevant glitz. Vocalion has provided a beautiful, clean production, perfectly in keeping with their usual high standards of mastering.

On the downside, this is unfortunately, just a straight forward release of the original album, which, in typical 60s fashion, consists of just thirteen tracks and lasts a little over 31mins. I was also a little surprised that the accompanying booklet consisted of just a 2 Panel (4 page) insert, which contains the original LP sleeve notes along with the three supporting B&W photos. It’s just a little disappointing, knowing Vocalion’s usual high standard of packaging. One has to remember, this is the CD debut of what is (effectively) an Elmer Bernstein classic. The Silencers is a cult, genre favourite, and perhaps a few pages containing some new writing, might have given greater cause to celebrate its emergence on the CD format. There is also the running time; again, locking off a CD at just 32 minutes is not what we have come to expect from Vocalion, it’s simply not their style. Considering the amount of crime jazz compilations that appeared on budget label LPs at the time, it would of arguably been nice to see one of these tagged on to the CD, it certainly wouldn’t had felt out of place. Vocalion have a proven track record in taking these budget releases of the past and providing them with a new lease of life. I can’t help but consider if their loyal fan base would have appreciated a little more meat on the bone.

Whilst The Silencers arguably remains an essential purchase, if only in order to upgrade from that ageing piece of vinyl, there will always be a niggling sense of disappointment in regards to its overall content. It’s undeniably great, but sadly, it’s all over far too soon.

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With the sad news about the passing of former First Lady Nancy Reagan, Cinema Retro presents the film trailer for "Hellcats of the Navy", the 1957 WWII adventure that marked the only time that Mrs. Reagan (then still known as Nancy Davis) appeared on screen with her husband and future president Ronald Reagan.  

Here's a blog that has a unique perspective on Beatlemania: it is dedicated entirely to the ladies in the lives of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr from their early days as the Fab Four through the present. The site has little in the way of text but does provide a Yellow Submarine-sized load of great photos, many of which are new to us.

Self-portrait of George Harrison and his first wife Pattie in their garden at their home in Surrey.

The blog reminds us that behind every great Beatle was a Beatlette. Click here to view site.  

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Back in the pre-internet era there was an old adage that went "Never pick a fight with somebody who buys ink by the barrel." In other words, think twice about taking on someone who can reach millions of people through the reach of magazines or newspapers.  That might have included screenwriters, as well. Take the case of Walter Bernstein, a prolific television writer in the early days of the medium. Bernstein was one of the high profile victims of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch hunts which, through the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The committee was ostensibly searching for "Fifth Columnists" who were secretly in league with the Soviet Union and plotting to undermine the American way of life. McCarthy and his cronies convinced a wide swath of the American public that Hollywood was a nest of covert commies and would point to films and TV series that were alleged to be sympathetic with the communist doctrine. Conveniently forgotten was the fact that the U.S. government had implored the major studios to make such films after our enemy, Josef Stalin, was betrayed his ally Adolf Hitler, who launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union. Immediately Stalin found himself now a crucial member of the Allies. It was a relationship of convenience for both sides. Stalin depended on the war in the West to occupy the majority of Hitler's forces, which would otherwise have been able to to capture his entire nation. For America, Britain and the other allied nations, Stalin and his tremendous military resources managed to keep Hitler bogged down in Soviet territory, sustaining huge losses in what became the Fuhrer's greatest military blunder. Hollywood studios were called upon to start cranking out propaganda films disguised as popular entertainment that would paint Stalin and the Soviets in a benign and heroic manner. The studios cooperated in the spirit of patriotism. Ironically, as soon as Nazi Germany was defeated and Stalin became a villain again, these same studios were chastised in some quarters for being pro-communist- and the "proof" was the very film that the U.S. government had implored the studios to make. McCarthy, a far-right zealot, shot to international fame with his hearings before HUAC at which suspected subversives were compelled to testify at. The deal such individuals were offered was simple: rat out suspected fellow subversives or incur the wrath of the inquisitors. Many people did betray their friends and colleagues but others, such as Walter Bernstein, refused to do so. In return they found themselves blacklisted in the entertainment industry. Legally the government could not demand that such people be denied a living but from a practical standpoint, pressure was put on TV networks and studios so that the top brass "voluntarily" decided not to employ these individuals. In the end, McCarthy's hearings unveiled no real communist threat but he did succeed in ruining the lives of plenty of left-wing artists, writers, directors and academics before being publicly humiliated himself.

By the late 1950s, Bernstein was gainfully employed again and was writing for film and TV productions (his credits include the screenplay for "Fail Safe"). In 1976, Bernstein wrote the screenplay for the devastatingly effective Martin Ritt-directed film "The Front", which explored how blacklisted writers had to endure the humiliation of employing "fronts" (i.e non-writers) to sell scripts to studios and networks, ostensibly as their own work. The real writers were denied decent paychecks and screen credit. Bernstein's long memory of those dark days of disgraceful American political policies extended to another film, "The House on Carroll Street", made in 1988. This production was somewhat less political and concentrated more on the aspect of being a thriller, which is probably what attracted the involvement of Peter Yates, who directed such high profile action films as "Robbery", "Bullitt" and "The Deep". The story centers on Emily (Kelly McGillis), a vivacious young woman living in New York City who is strong-willed and independent. She is also a "career girl", to coin a quaint phrase of the time, and holds a prestigious position as photo editor for Life magazine. However, her leftist views place her in the cross-hairs of HUAC and she is called to testify before the committee. When she refuses to cooperate and "name names" of friends and colleagues who might be communists, she is fired after her employer receives pressure from government agents. To make ends meet she makes a measly salary by reading novels to a rich old woman, Miss Venable (Jessica Tandy). While at Venable's house, she notices some strange goings-on in a house across the garden. A group of German men are having intense discussions and acting in a rather suspicious manner. Emily goes into Nancy Drew mode and eavesdrops on them but can't quite figure out what they are talking about. She later meets a young man who was at the meeting and strikes up a friendship with him. However, his behavior only increases her concerns. He is extremely nervous and informs her that there are some dastardly things being planned but he won't reveal what. Emily begins to secretly follow him and discovers that other people are doing the same. Who are they- and why does she feel increasingly threatened herself? Meanwhile, Salwen (Mandy Patinkin), a hard-nosed big wig on the HUAC committee, is ordering increased pressure on Emily to cooperate. The FBI sends a team of agents to routinely harass her and subject her to humiliating searches of her home. One of the agents, Cochran (Jeff Daniels), takes sympathy on her and the two strike up an awkward friendship that later turns into a love affair that could threaten Cochran's career.

The plot becomes increasingly complex as Cochran begins to assist Emily in finding out what the group of German-speaking men are up to. It appears that they are working in league with Salwen and government agents in a top secret plot to provide ex-Nazi war criminals with false identities in order to allow them to enter the United States and become citizens. It seems that the U.S. is willing to forgive these men for their crimes of genocide because they could provide valuable tools to combat the Soviets in the Cold War. Emily and Cochran are even more horrified to discover that the ex-Nazis are being given the identities of deceased Jewish people. Selwan discovers that Emily is on to the scheme and tries to bribe her to keep secret. When that doesn't work, things heat up and attempts are made on her life. The action-packed finale finds Emily and Cochran in a battle for their lives against Selwan and his men in the midst of bustling Grand Central Station.

"The House on Carroll Street"  was met with apathy by both critics and the public but the film's attributes are more apparent today. It plays out like a Hitchcock thriller with the innocent protagonist swept up into incredible events that are initially beyond their comprehension. Walter Bernstein's screenplay is both intelligent and largely believable and director Peter Yates downplays violence in favor of good old-fashioned suspense. (It's the kind of film in which the heroine decides to place herself in harm's way by walking through an eerie old house in order to investigate suspicious activities.) The film effectively reflects an era in which America went mad and civil rights were sacrificed in the name of national security. McGillis gives a very fine performance and even provides a nude scene that is completely gratuitous but which was still much-appreciated by this viewer. Jeff Daniels is also commendable as a likable, all-American FBI man who finds that his agency is embroiled in some very un-American activities. Patinkin is a villain in the Bond mode: dripping with phony charm and charisma while all the while plotting nefarious fates for his intended victims. The production design is also commendable and convincingly evokes the look and feel of New York in 1951. The most ambitious sequence is the finale set at Grand Central Station. The mind boggles at how Yates pulled off shooting such a complicated action scene in a place that is jam-packed with people 24 hours a day, but the result is highly impressive . It should also be noted that the movie boasts a fine score by Georges Delerue and excellent cinematography by the esteemed Michael Ballaus. The film is not an underrated classic. There are some occasional laps in logic, loose ends and some highly predictable plot developments but for the most part it plays out in fine style and is consistently interesting and entertaining. Recommended.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray has a fine transfer and features the original trailer.  

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BY GIACOMO SELLONI

The "coming of age" genre of American movies can vary wildly in terms of subject matter. There are the great teenage "coming-of-age" films (see: John Hughes)- which are more poignant than standard, individual teen angst stories dealing with topics such as "Why doesn't he like me?" or "How do I get rid of my acne and become more popular?" Yet other, far more dramatic "coming of age" films center on the evolution of the United States, none more movingly than those dealing with the abolitionist period of our nation's history. It was a proud time in our history; people of conviction stood up against an abhorrent societal norm in certain areas of the country. Some people went willingly and others were dragged kicking and screaming into a new age of tolerance and growth. Yes, I know, we're still not all growed-up yet but you notice that with every day passing day we see increasingly sympathetic reactions to tragedies such as those that happened in Ferguson, Missouri or Sanford, Florida. Good people often come together through grief. 

The North Star is a moving and engaging "coming-of-age" film. First time writer and director Thomas K. Phillips assembled an impressive cast to tell this inspirational story based upon factual travails. "Big Ben" Jones and Moses Hopkins (Jeremiah Trotter and Thomas C. Bartley, Jr., respectively) become runaway slaves from the plantation they work on in Virginia when Ben learns that he is about to be sold to an even more heinous slave-owner. Once sold, he will be shipped to Mississippi - a state where he fears he would be subject to even greater degradation "Let's just say it's a matter of Mississippi pride,"says the purchaser of "Big Ben," Wilburn Davis (Tim O'Connell). "With the biggest owned niggrah comes the biggest prestige," replies the current owner, Master Anderson (John Diehl) and they settle on a price of $5000. Upon learning that his new “property” has escaped, Anderson takes immediate action."That's over a year's salary," Anderson tells the slave hunters he's hired. There are some frightening, reprehensible creatures in this film but also some benevolent characters, as well.  One of them is Mr. Lee (Clifton Powell), who advises the runaways to head toward the free state of Pennsylvania by following- you guessed it- the North Star.At the risk of making a faux pas, there's very little gray in The North Star - things are pretty much black and white. 

The North Star premiered on UMC (Urban Movie Channel) last month for Black History Month and is now sold at Wal-Mart and Amazon, and will be available on disc via  Netflix as well as the following digital sites: iTunes, Amazon, VUDU, GooglePlay, Xbox and Vimeo. I viewed the film on  DVD, which unfortunately has no bonus extras or even set-up options, either. There are scenes in the film where the dialogue is very soft and lines can be missed, indicating the sound mixing could have been tweaked a bit better. I would have watched it with subtitles had I been given the option. One unrelated peeve of mine is that there isn’t enough screen time afforded to Keith David. This accomplished actor briefly portrays (less that 2 minutes of screen time) the great Frederick Douglas. If you have never seen Mr. David perform Shakespeare, do so if you can. His Othello (with Liev Schreiber as Iago) is the finest I've seen. (I've forgiven him, almost, for playing Cameron Diaz's step-father in "There's Something About Mary." That's two hours plus I'll never get back...)

The North Star, however, is worth a viewing, despite the fact that the direction is a bit erratic and the editing sometimes results in some confusion. However, cast is uniformly superb. Despite my aforementioned criticisms, I believe that director Thomas K. Phillips has a promising future in the industry and I look forward to his next film. 

Check out more on the film's website: http://thenorthstarmovie.com.

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A reader identified only as Mark from England has kindly donated this fabulous photo of the 1978 showing of producer Euan Lloyd's great adventure film The Wild Geese in London's Leicester Square. Those were the days, when you could see the likes of Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris Stewart Granger and Hardy Kruger in one movie!

PRESS RELEASE: 

The historic Pickwick Theater in Park Ridge, IL, will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of THUNDERBALL with the screening of the classic James bond blockbuster film on Thursday, April 21, 2016 at 7:00pm.

Hosts Matthew Hoffman and Elizabeth Rye of the Classic Film Series welcome as special guests, representative of the Ian Fleming Foundation Colin Clark, and 007 continuing novelist and film historian Raymond Benson, who will introduce the movie and sign books.

IFF board member Colin Clark will have on display from the Foundation the five foot model of the RAF Vulcan Bomber use in the filming of the picture, restored to its original condition.

The evening's festivities will include discussion of Thunderball's history and behind-the-scenes stories, several Bond-related raffles, and photo ops with Bond movie props and theater standees.

Pickwick's Classic Film Series presentations often draw fans in costume. Attendees are invited to dress as their favorite Bond, Bond Girl, or Bond Villain.

On Wednesday, April 20, 2:00 a.m. CST, Hoffman and Clark will appear on Chicago's WGN AM720 morning radio show with host Nick Digilio to talk about the Pickwick's special Thunderball celebration and all things Bond.

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Where: Pickwick Theater

             5 South Prospect Ave.

             Park Ridge, IL 60068

847-825-5800847-825-5800

When:  Thursday, April 21

             7:00 p.m. (box office opens 6:00 p.m.)

www.parkridgeclassicfilms.com

www.pickwicktheater.com

www.raymondbenson.com

www.ianflemingfoundation.org

Colin M. Clark

Board of Directors

Ian Fleming Foundation

BY LEE PFEIFFER

"Gunman's Walk" is another obscure Western gem that has been given new life through a Blu-ray release by German-based Explosive Media. The 1958 production was filmed in CinemaScope, the widescreen process that studios relied on to combat the newly-evolved threat of television. Director Phil Karlson makes  the most of the format and captures the grandeur of the open plains of Arizona and mountainous regions of California for a story of a dysfunctional family that manages to fracture even further despite the abundance of wealth it enjoys. Van Heflin plays Lee Hackett, a one-time pioneer who endured every kind of hardship and struggle to establish a ranch in hostile Indian territory. Over the years he became a state-wide legend by triumphing over adversity and by building a modest cattle ranch into an empire. Lee also helped establish the town which has now grown appreciably. Consequently he carries a lot of weight and political power with the locals. The story opens with Lee as a middle-aged widower who has two grown sons. Davy Hackett (James Darren) is the younger, a quiet, relatively shy young man with a thoughtful disposition. He is the polar opposite of his older brother Ed (Tab Hunter), an arrogant, mean-spirited person who is constantly getting into trouble. Lee prides himself on being a strict disciplinarian over his boys but in reality they realize that his bark is worse than his bite. (He even encourages them to call him by his first name.) Much to Davy's frustration, Lee constantly uses his influence to get Ed out of trouble. If he can't do it legally, he'll use bribery or intimidation.Even while Lee dotes over his eldest son, Ed has plenty of "daddy issues" with his father. He resents that he has been handed everything on a silver platter. He also is fed up with Lee's ego and constant self-aggrandizement for having endured Indian battles, gun fights and the extremities of nature in order to build and protect his business. Ed also accuses his father of wanting him under his control so that he'll never have the opportunity to become his own man and possibly exceed his Lee's achievements. Despite this tense relationship, Lee continues to spoil his eldest son even as he hopes he can exert a positive influence on him.

When Lee and his sons lead a major cattle drive into town the family relaxes afterward by living it up a bit. Lee and Ed don't adhere to the local sheriff's (Robert F. Simon) edict that no one can carry a gun in town and the sheriff is too intimidated to challenge them. Almost immediately Ed gets into trouble by getting drunk, frequenting prostitutes and insulting people- but things are about to get worse. On the prairie Ed and a local ranch hand who is a Sioux engage in what starts as a good-natured race to see who can rope a much-desired white stallion. When the other man threatens to win the prize, Ed shoves him and his horse over the side of a cliff, resulting in the man's death. Ed claims it was an accident but two other Sioux secretly witnessed the incident and report it to the sheriff, who finds his backbone and arrests Ed for murder. However Lee rides to the rescue again and gets his son off the hook by bribing a stranger to say he witnessed the incident and it was indeed an accident. But Ed doesn't learn his lesson and continues to cause trouble- this time with deadly consequences. 

Despite being saddled with a "B" movie title, "Gunman's Walk" is a highly compelling, intelligently written drama that is packed with tension thanks to the able direction of Phil Karlson. The script addresses a number of hot-button issues such as abuse of wealth and the ugliness of racism, which were topics not usually covered in Westerns of the period. The film also affords Tab Hunter a role that has far more depth than the one dimensional hunks he was often saddled with playing. As Ed, he is a tragic figure- a man to be despised, yet pitied. Hunter gives a fine performance, at times managing to be charismatic and almost likable before spiraling back into villainy. He's more than matched by old pro Van Heflin, who gives a wonderfully nuanced performance as a man who created his own living hell by over-indulging the son he loves so much. James Darren is capable but rather unexciting as the younger brother, but the part doesn't have much meat to it to begin with. Katherine Grant is fine as a young woman who Darren is trying to romance despite the fact that she is half-Sioux and is looked upon as inferior by his brother and father. As with most Westerns of this era, the cast is peppered with fine character actors. Among them: Mickey Shaughnessy, Robert F. Simon, Ray Teal and Edward Platt. In all, "Gunman's Walk" is a truly fine Western that has been unjustly overlooked for decades. 

The Explosive Media Blu-ray is top-notch, as is generally the case with this company's releases. It includes both English and German dubbed versions of the movie along with an interesting stills gallery accompanied by Tab Hunter crooning the Western song "Runaway", which he sings in a pivotal sequence in the film.

(Explosive Media titles are primarily available through Amazon Germany. However, you can often find imports available on eBay and other Amazon sites around the globe. Explosive Media Blu-rays are region free.)