Most rock 'n roll movies of the 1950s and 1060s were rightly regarded as disposable entertainment. With a few exceptions, they were low-budget attempts to cash in on the new fad before it might fade away. Elvis Presley's films were cinematic gold for a while but even they began to fade with the release of director Richard Lester's two Beatles films, "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!", both of which brought innovation and style to the genre. The Monkees' feature film "Head" would also go boldly where no rock 'n roll flick would. "The Cool Ones", however, appears to have been made by people whose sensibilities were stuck in amber. Despite being released in an era when rock music was being defined by groups with a cutting edge, this musical comedy, released in 1967, has the hallmarks of similar films made a decade before. In short, it's a movie designed for hipsters but made by middle-aged squares.
The film centers on the adventures of Hallie Rodgers (Debbie Watson), a dancer seen on one of those "Shindig"-type TV series designed to appeal to teenagers by presenting musical groups performing their latest hits live on stage. Hallie feels she has true star power but the show's arrogant producer, played by Phil Harris, refuses to give her a chance to sing on the program. In an act of defiance on live TV, Hallie steals the microphone from guest performer Glen Campbell and belts out a song. As she is chased around the stage by production executives, she engages in wild mannerisms that the audience mistakes for a new dance. She's summarily fired but later learns she has gained a following and that her moves on stage are now the latest dance craze called "The Tantrum". (I'm not making this up, folks.) She then attempts to woo one-time teen idol Cliff Donner (Gil Peterson) to form a duo. Cliff has fallen on hard times and is currently performing in a failing nightclub run by avuncular British export Stanley Crumley (Robert Coote). The moody Gil is smitten with Hallie but is reluctant to try to regain his former stardom. Ultimately, he concedes when the sees the enthusiastic response from their duets, which help revive Stanley's nightclub. With Stanley as their manager, they set about promoting the act by performing The Tantrum in front of growing audiences. At this point, they are approached by Stanley's estranged brother Tony (Roddy McDowall), a legendary record producer who travels with his own posse and who enjoys a rabid fan base himself. Tony takes control of the act but his sheer narcissism and arrogance results in tension between Hallie and Gil, who break up and reunite more times than I can recount. The bizarre production gets even stranger with a closing act by Mrs. Miller, who was a sixtyish everyday woman whose cover version recording of Petula Clark's "Downtown" became a novelty hit that elevated her to temporary fame.
"The Cool Ones" is awful on every level, but it's so awful it has the virtue to keep the viewer glued to the screen to see if it becomes even more awful. The songs are mostly awful despite being the creations of notable talents Lee Hazlewood and Billy Strange, although the best of the lot, "This Town", would be a well-received recording by Frank Sinatra a couple of years later. The depiction of teenagers is awful, presenting them as brain-dead zombies who instinctively embrace every new song and dance move they experience on a TV show and instantly turn into raving mobs of fans. Young people are presented in an inoffensive, sanitized manner. No one smokes (cigarettes or anything else) and they're all satisfied sipping tonics and sodas in nightclubs. Cripes, to think this film was sandwiched between the release of "The Wild Angels" and the Woodstock festival....The direction by Gene Nelson (who displayed some talent in other films and TV series) is awful and so are the performances, with Debbie Watson overacting and Gil Peterson, who looks like a human Ken doll, underplaying with predictably boring results. They make for the least erotic couple seen on screen since the Ma and Pa Kettle series. But the scene-stealing awful performance is provided by Roddy McDowall, who chews the scenery and everything else in sight while presenting an over-the-top caricature of a fussy, demanding gay man. But since film producers felt that teenagers shouldn't know that gay people exist, a plot device is inserted in which we learn Tony's unseen girlfriend is pregnant, which sends him into an even greater hissy fit that only reinforces the gay stereotype. Only dear old Robert Coote emerges with some dignity intact. The film does have colors that jump out of the screen and it is fun to see location footage of old L.A., which is marvelously photographed by legendary cinematographer Floyd Crosby, whose achievements include "High Noon". This would be his final film. The dance numbers are also well-choreographed by Toni Basil, who would go on to have the hit record "Mickey" in the 1980s. In the end, however, the movie makes those Frankie and Annette beach pictures look like biting social commentaries on life in the 1960s. I expected young Mickey Rooney to show up on screen shouting, "Hey, kids- we can put the show on in the barn!!!" The film was released as the bottom attraction on double features. There was probably no damage to anyone's career because few people saw it.
In viewing "The Cool Ones", I came to the conclusion that I had to disagree with Huey Lewis and the News in that it isn't hip to be square. The film is available on DVD from the Warner Archive. It's a nice transfer and includes the original trailer. The DVD is region-free so that bad movie lovers everywhere can enjoy the film.
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Justly acclaimed as one of the greatest film noir movies ever made, director Don Siegel's 1958 thriller The Lineup has been reissued by Sony as part of their burn-to-order DVD collection. The DVD carries over the bonus extras from the film's initial release in a Sony noir boxed set from 2009. Siegel makes the most of his modest budget, eschewing studio sets for actual San Francisco locations that add immeasurably the authenticity of the story and the action sequences, which are among the most ambitious of the era. The film derived from a popular TV series of the same name and features the star of the show, Warner Anderson, as a San Francisco detective, Lt. Ben Guthrie. His sidekick, Inspector Al Quine was originally played in the show by Tom Tully but the part in the film is played by Emile Meyer, whose mug perfectly suits the style of the movie. The "Macguffin" of this caper movie is an ornate doll loaded with heroin that has been carried into the United States by an innocent tourist (Raymond Bailey, the future Mr. Drysdale of "The Beverly Hillbillies".). The doll ends up in the hands of an equally innocent little girl and her mother who were on the same cruise ship. However, this is just a necessary plot device to present a fascinating character study of a team of criminals who are assigned to fly from Miami to San Francisco to claim the doll and deliver the drugs to a mysterious crime lord. Things go awry from the first few frames of the movie when an attempt to steal the tourist's luggage goes wrong, resulting in the death of a crime syndicate courier who bungles the first attempt to get the doll. The resulting action follows the desperate attempts by the Miami crooks to secure the missing drugs. Their lives depend on it because if they fail, the mob will suspect they have double-crossed them and kept the heroin for themselves. The criminal team is among the most psychotic ever seen on film. Dancer (Eli Wallach) is the younger man being groomed by his older mentor, Julian (Robert Keith, father of Brian Keith) to be his heir apparent. The two men are outwardly charismatic and friendly, but as the story progresses, we realize they are merciless sadists who will stop at nothing to get what they want. When they kidnap the young girl and her mother, we get a glimpse at exactly how devoid of human emotions they are.
The caper story, expertly penned by the great Sterling Silliphant, follows the efforts of the detectives to get to the drugs first-- but the cops are mere window dressing, as Siegel is clearly saving the best scenes for his hit men. Wallach and Keith rival that great pairing of Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager as the creepy criminal team in Siegel's memorable 1964 remake of The Killers. On one level, Keith is acting as a father to a younger man who might be seen as an adopted son. However, it doesn't take much to see that Siegel has introduced a very clear homoerotic element to the story which becomes even more apparent when the pair end up in a "social club" and hotel that very obviously caters to homosexual men. In case there is still too much subtlety for the viewer, the place is named the Seaman's Club! (In one of the film's best remembered sequences, Wallach "offs" a would-be lover in a steam room.) The film is packed with inventive sequences that are still somewhat shocking today. It's rather amazing that some of these scenes were not diluted by squeamish studio executives. A helpless woman and her young child are kidnapped and menaced, a man in a wheelchair is thrown to his death and any number of innocent people are put in harm's way by the relentless criminal's quest to secure the missing dope. Most impressive is the climax of the film wherein Siegel films an exciting car chase that culminates on an unfinished stretch of freeway. It will have you on the edge of your seat (look for an amazing bit of stunt work in which a car is driven at high speed within feet of dropping off the end of the construction site.) All the earmarks are evident for what would become trademarks of Siegel's films: the story moves quickly, there isn't a wasted frame and the performances are terrific.
Sony's DVD boasts an excellent transfer and some very interesting extras, though the studio once again undermines the latter features by not even bothering to mention them on the packaging. There is an interview with Christopher Nolan, who discusses the influence of noir films on his own work. There is also a feature length commentary track hosted by Eddie Muller of Turner Classic Movies and The Film Noir Foundation and bestselling crime novelist James Ellroy, whose work includes L.A. Confidential. Muller is extremely informative, conveying fascinating information about the film and the San Francisco locations. However, Ellroy, who describes himself as "The White Knight of the Far Right" wears out his welcome pretty quickly. His efforts to come across as politically incorrect become blatantly pretentious, as he peppers his comments with expletives and makes homophobic jokes with regularity. Even Muller seems a bit taken off balance by him. Nevertheless, Sony deserves kudos for allowing Ellroy's controversial commentaries to remain intact. If you can put up with Ellroy, you'll get some great insights into the film and Siegel's methods of working.
The Lineup is American film noir at its best.
(This DVD is "all region", meaning it will play on any international system).
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Kino Lorber has released a new Blu-ray special edition of director Marcel Ophuls' landmark 1969 documentary "The Sorrow and the Pity". Here are the official details:
From its
first release at an underground theater in Paris, this account of France’s
occupation under the Nazi regime has been acclaimed as one of the most moving
and influential films ever made. Director Marcel Ophuls interviewed the
residents of Clermont-Ferrand who remembered the occupation, as well as
government officials, writers, farmers, artists, and German veterans. Here, in
their own words, is the story of how ordinary citizens and leaders alike
behaved under military siege. Originally refused by French TV, the film
garnered international success and acclaim – including an Oscar nomination for
Best Documentary – while shattering the myth of an undivided and universally resistant
France under the Vichy government. A triumph of on-the-ground filmmaking, The
Sorrow and the Pity (1969) remains gripping, appalling, and exhilarating for
its unflinching view of humanity.
THE
DC COMICS SUPERHERO COMES TO LIFE IN WES CRAVEN’S CULT CLASSIC FILM, MAKING ITS
DEBUT ON 4K ULTRA HD!
Deep
in Florida's darkest everglades, a brilliant scientist, Dr. Alec Holland (Ray
Wise, Robocop) and a sexy government agent, Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau, John
Carpenter’s The Fog) have developed a secret formula that could end world
hunger and change civilization forever. Little do they know, however, that
their arch nemesis, Arcane (Louis Jourdan, Octopussy) is plotting to steal the
serum for his own selfish schemes. Looting the lab and kidnapping Cable, Arcane
douses Holland with the chemicals and leaves him for dead in the swamp. Mutated
by his own formula, Holland becomes “Swamp Thing” - a half human/half plant
superhero who will stop at nothing to rescue the beautiful Cable and defeat the
evil Arcane... even if it costs him his life.
DISC
1: 4K ULTRA HD SPECIAL FEATURES:
2023 4K
Restoration (16-Bit Scan of the Original Camera Negative) of both the US
Theatrical PG Version and Unrated International Version of the film
presented in its original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio in Dolby Vision / HDR
Audio: DTS-HD
Master 2.0 Mono, Spanish Mono
Optional English
Subtitles
Audio Commentary
with Writer/Director Wes Craven moderated by Sean Clark (Theatrical / PG
Version)
Audio Commentary
with Makeup Effects Artist William Munns moderated by Michael Felsher
(Theatrical / PG Version)
Collectible “4K
LaserVision” Mini-Poster of cover art
DISC
2: BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:
2023 HD
Restoration of both the US Theatrical PG Version and Unrated International
Version of the film presented in its original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
Audio Commentary
with Writer/Director Wes Craven moderated by Sean Clark (Theatrical / PG
Version)
Audio Commentary
with Makeup Effects Artist William Munns moderated by Michael Felsher
(Theatrical / PG Version)
Audio: DTS-HD
Master 2.0 Mono, Spanish Mono
Optional English
Subtitles
"Tales From
the Swamp" (Remastered) with Actress Adrienne Barbeau (HD, 16:56)
"Hey
Jude" with Actor Reggie Batts (HD, 14:30)
"That Swamp
Thing" with Len Wein, Creator of Swamp Thing (HD, 13:19)
"Swamp
Screen: Designing DC's Main Monster" featurette (HD, 20:32)
"From Krug
to Comics: How the Mainstream Shaped a Radical Genre Voice"
featurette (HD, 17:34)
Posters &
Lobby Cards - Photo Gallery
Photos from the
Film - Photo Gallery
William Munns’
Behind the Scenes Pictures - Photo Gallery
Behind the
Scenes Photos by Geoffrey Rayle – Photo Gallery
Theatrical
Trailer (HD, 1:31)
* Special
Features May Not Be Rated, Closed Captioned Or In High Definition.
This title will be released on July 25. Click here to order from Amazon and save 30%.
Rightfully or wrongfully, I’m going to concentrate this
review of Mill Creek’s Sci-Fi from the
Vault Blu on two of this Blu-ray set’s decidedly lesser films:Creature
with the Atom Brain (1955) and The
Thirty Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959).This is partially due to the fact that the set’s two most prominent
titles, 20 Million Miles to Earth and
It Came from Beneath the Sea, were
previously issued by Mill Creek back in 2014 on their twofer Ray Harryhausen Creature Double Feature
from the same transfers. Though Creature with the Atom Brain is making
its U.S. Blu debut on this set, the film has seen a previous Blu issue on the UK
import Cold War Creatures: Four Films
from Sam Katzman.So only The Thirty Foot Bride of Candy Rock is making
a worldwide debut on Blu with this set.
All four films in this new set come, as per the title,
from the vaults of Columbia studios. Creature
earlier appeared on the commentary-free DVD set Sam Katzman: Icons of Horror Collection (2007).As I am not privy to the sales figures of
that set, I can only surmise should Mill Creek release a Sci-Fi Vault Vol. 2 on Blu, we might see the “missing” Katzman titles
sprinkled into a future U.S. set.This Mill
Creek set is not an “all Katzman” edition (ala Icons).The workhorse
producer has no connection to either 20
Million Miles to Earth or The Thirty
Foot Bride of Candy Rock.
It’s with no disrespect to the late, great special
effects wizard Ray Harryhausen that I’m not going to do a deep dive into 20 Million Miles to Earth and It Came from Beneath the Sea.Though these two films are genuine and iconic
sci-fi classics, both have previously gotten the Mill Creek Blu treatment and
also received transatlantic Blu releases as well.So I can’t imagine anyone interested in these
Harryhausen-associated titles not already in possession of copies.Fair to say, if you own Mill Creek’s previously
published twofer, their reappearances here are redundant.
This new set, priced at an MSRP of $29.99, is – happily -
available far less expensively from any variety of on-line retailers.In some sense, it’s a bargain.This recent edition does offer a new and informative audio commentary on It Came from Beneath the Sea, courtesy
of Justin Humphreys and C. Courtney Joyner.So if you’re an enthusiast of commentary tracks, that’s a checkmark in
the plus column.On the other hand,
there’s no audio commentary included on 20
Million Miles to Earth, a film no less deserving of annotation.So that’s a checkmark lost.
Oddly, Edward L. Chan’s Creature with the Atom Brain (1955), an arguably less-deserving
film, does come with a commentary
track – this time courtesy of film producer-writers’ Phoef Sutton and Mark
Jordan Legan.It’s nice to have a
commentary supplied by two established screenwriters since Creature producer Sam Katzman had conscripted the great Curt
Siodmak (The Wolf Man) to script his low-budgeter.The often curmudgeonly Siodmak was a pretty
productive scripter, memorably knocking off no fewer than nine sci-fi/horror programmers
for Universal 1940-44 – and many other original scenarios for other studios.
Though Siodmak provides a decent enough script for Creature, director Kahn’s film proves a
B-film guilty pleasure a best.On their
commentary, Sutton and Legan provide a breezy, lighthearted narration filled
with the usual, occasionally colorful, anecdotes, often based on their rattling
off resumes of the film’s various cast and crew member.To their credit, the two honestly acknowledge
the film’s shortfalls, mulling that “the first four and a half minutes are the
best thing about it.”The film is a bit
of slow-going unless one has a sense of nostalgia about it.
It was late October 1954 when Variety reported that Katzman had tapped Kahn to direct Creature, the first of the producer’s
first sci-fi feature film forays. News
of actor Richard Denning signing on to star was reported the following week.Similar to Katzman, Kahn was a film industry
workhorse, a director not identified with any one particular genre.In the 1950s, Kahn helmed war films,
westerns, gangster pics and teenage melodramas. But he also managed to put the
fright into the “Frightened Fifties,” cranking out no fewer than eight serviceable
sci-fi pics in a four-year period:beginning
with She Creature (1956) and finishing
with Invisible Invaders (1959).Actor Denning provided a face familiar to
50’s sci-fi fans: the actor had lead roles in The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Target Earth and The Black
Scorpion, to name only a few.
It was Columbia’s intention to bill the more pedestrian Creature as the supporting feature to It Came from Beneath the Sea.In June 1955 it was reported the double-bill was
to be first rolled out to thirty-one theaters in and around the Los Angeles
area.Both films would be produced under
the aegis of Katzman’s Clover Productions.Though Kaufman’s low-budgeted independent offerings weren’t expected to
bring in boffo box-office numbers,
Columbia’s accountants were aware the absence of big name stars and inflated
production costs brought better returns on investment.
A trade paper reported bluntly that Columbia, “feels it’s
better to make a 15% to 25% profit on a picture than to stand to lose 50% to
75% on a wholly-made studio picture.”While
Katzman’s pictures for Columbia (Creature
with the Atom Brain, The Giant Claw, Zombies of Mora Tau and The Werewolf) might not have produced
great art, they did bring in worthwhile returns on investment. It Came
fromBeneath the Sea, the far stronger
film (with a bigger budget) managed great
business, helped in part by a combination of Harryhausen’s screen magic, word-of-mouth
excitement and a supportive radio-television-print campaign of $250,000.Though It
Came fromBeneath the Sea was not
the first “giant” monster movie of the 1950s, it was among the earliest, and
this monstrous sci-fi sub-genre would blossom throughout the 1950s and well
into the 1960s.
Which leads us into our discussion of the final “giant” film
offered on this set.The working title
of Sidney Miller’s The 30 Foot Bride of
Candy Rock was originally titled The
Secret Bride of Candy Brock.The
film’s co-screenwriter, Arthur Ross, was familiar writing for films featuring
gargantuan(s): he had already helped craft the screenplay for Columbia’s The Three Worlds of Gulliver, a soon-to-be-
released pic in 1960.But Candy Rock was to serve primarily as a
vehicle for comedian Lou Costello.Though
his 1940s heyday was behind him, the roly-poly actor had been introduced to a
new generation of fans in the ‘50s through airings of The Abbott and Costello Show television series.
The
30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock was to be the comedian’s first feature
film project following the dissolution of his partnership with Bud Abbott in
July of 1957.That pair’s final film, the
saccharine comedy-drama Dance with Me,
Henry (United Artists, 1956) was generally dismissed as a tired re-play of
routines long gone cold.Now, as a solo
player, Costello was hoping that Bride
might reestablish his box-office prowess.This indie production, shot on the Columbia studios lot, saw Costello’s
manager, Eddie Sherman, serving as the film’s executive producer.With such leverage Costello was even able to
gift a small role to daughter Carole.
Producer Lew Rachmil suggested to a reporter from London’s
Picturegoer that Costello’s titular
bride, Dorothy Provine (a 22 year-old blonde that stood 5’ 4” tall), was a
“born comedienne – nearly as funny as Lou at times.”Provine was a relative newcomer to Hollywood,
having worked only two studio soundstages, one for The Bonnie Parker Story and for a two- episode role as a twelve
year old (!) on TV’s Wagon Train.Provine told gossiper Erskine Johnson that
she hadn’t “missed a day’s work since I arrived in Hollywood, but I was always
scared about every job being my last job.”She needn’t have worried, following Bride
the actress was picked to star alongside Roger Moore as a regular character on the
television series The Alaskans and
would also have a prominent role in the 1963 Cinerama comedy It’s a Mad,
Mad, Mad, Mad World.
In conception, Bride
seems little more than Lou Costello’s attempt to lampoon the popularity of the ongoing
“giant monster” craze.Whiling away his
days in an amateur laboratory, Costello’s rubbish collector and would-be inventor
Artie Pinsetter (‘a world-famous scientist who’s not famous yet”) is determined
to unravel secrets: primarily he wishes to learn how the prehistoric beasts that
once roamed a local region known “Dinosaur State Park” had achieved gargantuan
sizes. He’s investigating an ancient Native American belief that these
creatures achieved such measurement due to a mysterious stream of steam
emissions emanating from a canyon cave.
To this end he has constructed an elaborate electronic contraption
that he calls “Max.”His invention is part
time machine – due to its ability for “changing time curves” - and part
straight man.Pinsetter hadn’t needed to
go through all the trouble of mechanical tinkering.Walking through the canyon, girlfriend Emmy
Lou (Provine), accidentally walks through a plume of canyon steam and finds
herself having gained an additional 25 feet in height.The steam, we are told, is the castoff of atomic
energy escaping from the bowels of the earth.
To make matters worse for Pinsetter, we learn Emmy Lou is
the niece of the town’s self-involved and self-important bank president/gubernatorial
hopeful Raven Rossiter (Gale Gordon, of Our
Miss Brooks fame).Rossiter doesn’t
care much for Pinsetter, and his ill-tempered behavior provides much of the
film’s lukewarm comic tension.But ultimately,
the film’s concentration is whether or not the townies – and alarmed Pentagon
officials – can escape the problems wrought by Costello’s foolish inventions or
of his skulking thirty-foot bride.
Shot in the fanciful descriptions of “Wonderama” and
“Mattascope,” Bride is not a great
film by any measure.But having said
this, it’s an innocuous 73-minute nostalgia trip that admittedly brought a
number of head-shaking smiles to my face.The film is an innocent bit of nonsense, a “family-friendly” movie that
I’m certain brought fun to kiddie audiences of its day.My favorite time capsule moment occurs when
an airborne Costello nearly collides with the Soviet Union’s recently launched Sputnik 1 satellite.
Sadly, Lou Costello would not live to see the finished
film released to the public.The
legendary film star would die of a heart attack, just days shy of age 53, on
March 3, 1959 – a mere ten weeks following his first day of shooting on Bride in November of 1958 (production wrapped
a mere month later).On March 24, 1959,
executives at Columbia announced the aforementioned title change.The film was still in editing by June of 1959
– as was the Three Stooges’ sci-fi comedy Have
Rocket, Will Travel. In July Columbia shared plans to package Bride as a late summer trip bill of such
other family fare films as Rocket and
Ted Post’s The Legend of Tom Dooley.
There were studio previews as early as July 7, but when Bride finally was unleashed on movie
screens it was not as one-third of the aforementioned package as scheduled - but
rather as the under bill to Disney’s Darby
O’ Gill and the Little People or Have
Rocket, Will Travel.Though there
were no critical raves for Bride –
truthfully the film was undeserving of such praise – most reviewers found the
film harmless and wholesome family entertainment.Which it was.I suppose it would have been in poor taste to completely dismiss the value
of the final film of one of Hollywood’s most beloved – and successful –
actor-comedians.
In any event, Mill Creek’s Sci-Fi from the Vault collection has made The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock available for the first time on Blu-ray.Previously the film had only appeared on VHS
by Columbia/Tri-Star in 1986 and – with a far lesser transfer - on the cheapie
Good Times label in 1988.Its first
digital appearance was a 2010 release as a DVD MOD from Sony/Columbia Screen
Classics.So, regardless of merit, it’s
nice to get this one on Blu.Its
appearance here should interest fans of both Abbott and Costello-related
productions as well as collectors of vintage 50s Silver Age sci-fi.There’s also a light-hearted but informative
audio commentary for Bride provided
by the Monster Party Podcast team.Think
of a few wise-cracking - but informative - movie-buff friends sitting on the
couch alongside you.The commentary adds
a bit of color to an otherwise monochrome film.
To its credit, the set also includes two bonus features
well worth a look:Daniel Griffith’s 25-minute
doc They Came from Beyond: Sam Katzman at
Columbia as well as his 14:30 minute doc Fantastical Features: Nathan Juran at Columbia.The former gives us a thumbnail tracing of
Katzman’s career in film.The producer
knocked out dozens of serials for Victory and Columbia - including Superman (1948) and Batman and Robin (1949) - from the mid-1930s on.He later moved on to producing features for Monogram
– a studio described here as Hollywood’s “lowest echelon” - where he enjoyed
the first of his feature film successes.
Katzman’s films for Monogram and others were usually made
on shoestring budgets with tight shooting schedules.The producer didn’t necessarily favor the
horror sci-fi genre during his 40+ years working in Hollywood.But having employed Bela Lugosi on the 1936
serial Shadow of Chinatown, Katzman
managed to bring the now underworked and underappreciated actor to Monogram for
a series of guilty pleasure, fan-favorite cheapie horror-melodramas.But Katzman was not shy on capitalizing on whatever
fad was capturing public fancy. His filmography included everything from ghetto
dramas, gangster pics, East Side Kids/Bowery Boys comedies, westerns, sword and
sandal epics, early rock n’ roll pics – even a couple of Elvis Presley films (Kissin’ Cousins (1964) and Harum Scarum (1965) .
In the mid-1950s, sensing sci-fi was proving popular with
audiences, Katzman scored big as the Executive Producer on such less penny-pinching
epics as It Came from Beneath the Sea
and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
(1956).Both of these films featured the
completely amazing stop-motion special effects of the great Ray Harryhausen,
with whom Katzman was happy to collaborate.In all likelihood, it’s the appreciative audience of so-called “Monster
Kids” that continues to stoke interest in Katzman’s work.
The second bonus doc, Fantastical
Features, has C. Courtney Joyner and Justin Humphreys taking a brief look
at the films of the fast-shot flicks Nathan Juran directed for Columbia.Though not necessarily a horror/sci-fi film
director, Juran had previously helmed The
Black Castle (1952) for Universal and, more importantly, for that studio’s
great giant insect epic The Deadly Mantis
(1957).Once moving to Columbia, Juran
managed a number of sci-fi/fantasy epics including such cinematic touchstones
as 20 Million Miles to Earth, Attack of
the 50 Foot Woman (1958) and The 7th
Voyage of Sinbad (1958).
For the most part, all of these black-and-white films
look great for their age, though they’re not entirely pristine: one can expect
a few not terribly distracting scratches or speckling throughout.Personally, I’m not sure how many more times
I will revisit Creature with the Atom
Brain or The 30 Foot Bride of Candy
Rock – they’re not great films - but it’s still nice to add these titles to
my ‘50s sci-fi film collection.You’ll
have to decide if they’re worth adding to yours.
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The working title of the Universal-Jewel silent
six-reeler The Trap (1922) was Wolf Breed – for reasons that will soon
become apparent.Lon Chaney’s feature
role casting was reported during the first week of September 1921, the film
reportedly to be based on a scenario by Lucien Hubbard. The film was apparently
still in production during late September/early October of 1921.Newspapers were reporting that immediately following
Chaney’s completion of Wolf Breed, the
actor “will appear in The Octave of
Claudius for Goldwyn.” That film would in fact be made, but released as The Blind Bargain (1922), directed by
Wallace Worsley - who would later helm Chaney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.Along with London after Midnight
(1927), The Blind Bargain is
inarguably the most sought after of the actor’s lost films.
The
Trap,
by any measure, is a more modest effort than any of the aforementioned trio of
films.The photoplay features Lon Chaney
as Gaspard the Good.His character is so
named as he is a kind and gentle soul.He’s a simple-living, always smiling, bubbly effervescent personality - a
man of good-standing in the small idyllic French Canadian mountain village of
Grand Bellaire.But Gaspard’s usual pleasant
demeanor will soon sour.Returning to
the village from a recent trip, Gaspard discovers that he has not only lost his
girlfriend Thalie (Dagmar Godowsky) to a seemingly well-to-do carpetbagger
named Benson (Alan Hale), but also to his unregistered claim to his pappy’s
hyacinth gemstone mine. Gaspard tries his best to sublimate his personal sorrows,
one title card noting while “The morning sun was no more radiant,” the broken-spirited
Gaspard managed to hold “no malice” within his heart.For a time, anyway.
But things change in the intervening span of seven – yes,
seven – years.The cad Benson has suffered several reversals
of fortunes, beginning with a calamitous cave-in dooming his mining
operation.We also learn Benson has not
been a particularly loving husband to sweet Thalie who we watch as she succumbs
to a fatal illness.Her husband coldly
dismisses his wife’s deathbed lethargy to “laziness.”Sitting astride Thalie’s bedside is her grieving
five-year old son with Benson, “The Boy” (Stanley Goethals).Gaspard too has suffered a shocking reversal
– a shift in personality as the last few years events have left him bitter.Though Benson’s recent streak of bad breaks
should have brought Gaspard a measure of satisfying yin and yang closure, it’s
simply wasn’t enough to erase the sting of his personal anguishes.
So seeking a more punishing revenge on Benson, Gaspard
convinces a local tavern tough that the carpetbagger has been saying awful
things about him.The enraged brute
attempts to assail Benson who unexpectedly defends himself with a pistol shot –
a crime for which he is sentenced to the gallows.But this sentence is later commuted to a
prison sentence when the brute survives the shooting.In the interim, and as per Thalie’s deathbed
wish, Gaspard has taken custody of her son - for whom the bitter ex-lover intends
to administer a misplaced vengeance.But
in short time the innocent “wee waif” reawakens the good in Gaspard’s heart who
becomes a doting model foster parent to the child. But when Gaspard is informed that Benson has
been released from prison with plans to collect his biological son, a
distraught Gaspard - fearful of losing the boy - sets up a diabolical snare involving
a trap door and a starving wolf lying in wait.
It’s a melodrama for sure.In its review of May 20, 1922, Billboard suggested while the storyline
of The Trap was overly “trite,” the
film itself was visually appealing with “most picturesque locations” and
“photography showing some rare and perfect gems of outdoor beauty.”(The film was actually photographed not in
the Canadian wilderness but in the tranquil and majestic canyons of Yosemite
National Park).Chaney’s “remarkable
impersonation” of the French-Canadian Gaspard was noteworthy, even though the
review concedes “the vehicle is not sufficiently strong to do justice to the
ability of the star.”This contrasts
with the view of Variety’s critic who
thought director Robert Thornby’s excessive use of full-frame close-ups of
Chaney – which allowed a bit too much melodramatic over-emoting on the actor’s
part – was nothing if not “tiresome.”Personally,
I disagree with this assessment.Though
there are no shortage of such close-ups, Chaney’s facial expressions on screen enable
the actor to convey emotions of sorrow, joy, malice and anger in a visual manner
that no title card could ever convey as successfully.
That said, The Trap
was an idiosyncratic picture in some sense, and certainly an archetype of the
tortured character roles Chaney would more famously play in the future.Many silent pictures of the day were structured
around romantic angles in their scenarios.But following Gaspard’s loss of both mine and sweetheart Thalie (the
actress being the daughter of the famed Lithuanian-American classical pianist
Leopold Godowsky), the film drops any pretension of romantic conciliation or
renewal.The movie instead focuses on
Chaney’s dark, methodically-plotted and coldly calculated plan of revenge.
Two
of the West’s most legendary figures search for the demon buffalo that
haunts them both! They called him Wild Bill Hickok (Charles Bronson,
Breakheart Pass). The Prince of Pistoleers. A frontier adventurer and
killer of men. Now, in his last years, he is an old gunfighter plagued
by fears and driven by a need to make peace with himself. The white
buffalo is his constant nightmare. He must find the fabled beast and
destroy it…before it destroys him. He was Crazy Horse (Will Sampson, One
Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). The greatest of all Sioux chiefs. A
warrior of dignity and pride. Now, as a father who searches for the
legendary albino buffalo so that the spirit of his dead child can go to
heaven, he will stop at nothing to obtain the sacred white pelt. J. Lee
Thompson (The Guns of Navarone, Cape Fear, Murphy’s Law) directs this
heart-stopping, one-of-a-kind western with a brilliant supporting cast
that includes Jack Warden (Billy Two Hats), Clint Walker (More Dead Than
Alive), Slim Pickens (Blazing Saddles), Stuart Whitman (The
Comancheros), John Carradine (Stagecoach) and Kim Novak (Vertigo).
Product Extras :
Brand New HD Master - From a 2K Scan of the 35mm Interpositive
NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian Paul Talbot, the author of the BRONSON'S LOOSE! Books
Cinema Retro has received the following press announcement:
FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF, in
all of its brilliant glory, arrives for the first time on 4K Ultra HD digital
and disc August 1, 2023 from Paramount Home Entertainment.
Writer/director John Hughes’ seminal comedy about a high
school student’s wild adventures in the Windy City during a single, magnificent
day off continues to be enjoyed, quoted, and revered. The enduring
classic captures the uproarious antics of Ferris and his friends as they relish
the freedom of being not quite grown up.
This remastered 4K Ultra HD release features Dolby
Vision™ and HDR-10, as well as Dolby Atmos® audio for a wonderfully immersive
and liberating experience*. The release also includes John Hughes’
original director’s commentary, which has not been available on disc since the
first DVD release in 1999, along with access to a digital copy of the film and
the following legacy bonus content:
Commentary with Director John
Hughes
Getting the Class Together: The Cast of Ferris Bueller's
Day Off
The Making of Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Who is Ferris Bueller?
The World According to Ben Stein
Vintage Ferris Bueller: The Lost Tapes
Matthew Broderick stars as the delightfully charming
Ferris who, with his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) and best bud Cameron (Alan
Ruck), ditches school to enjoy one perfect day as a kid with no
responsibilities. In 2014, FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF was added to the
Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, which serves as a compendium of
films that have been judged to be culturally, aesthetically or historically
important.
*Dolby Atmos enabled devices are also required to
experience Dolby Atmos at home. To experience Dolby Vision on 4K Ultra HD
Blu-ray Disc, a Dolby Vision enabled TV is required with a Dolby Vision enabled
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player.
*Dolby Atmos enabled devices
are also required to experience Dolby Atmos at home. To experience Dolby Vision
on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc, a Dolby Vision enabled TV is required with a Dolby
Vision enabled 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player.
Lee
Marvin is an American soldier suspected of aiding the enemy during the Korean
War in “Sergeant Ryker” released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. Shortly after the
release of the “The Dirty Dozen” in 1967, Universal saw fit to repackage a two-part
1964 Kraft Suspense Theatre courtroom drama “The Case Against Paul Ryker” and
release it as feature film in theaters. As can be seen from the art reproduced
on the Blu-ray cover, Universal was selling the release as an action-packed
military movie not unlike “The Dirty Dozen” which was a big hit for MGM. Marvin
also won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for 1965’s “Cat Ballou,” and became an in
demand A-list star in a series of popular movies that followed. “The Dirty
Dozen” pushed him into superstar status and one can hardly blame Universal for cashing
in by repurposing the two-part TV episode as a theatrical release.
The
production follows the trial of Sergeant Paul Ryker in 1951 during the Korean
War. Ryker’s just been found guilty of treason and is sentenced to death for
collaborating with the Chinese. He returned to his unit with the fantastic
story of being sent on a secret mission behind enemy lines to gather
information. The problem is the general who allegedly sent him on the mission
died while Ryker was gone and a mysterious letter left by the general was never
found. What follows are attempts by his wife and defense attorney to gather
evidence after being granted a retrial. Most of the “action” is limited to
Ryker’s jail cell in Tokyo and consists mostly of courtroom drama and in a
flashback the one action scene involving his wife and lawyer.
Marvin,
no stranger to portraying military characters, served in the Marine Corps
during WWII and was wounded during the Battle of Saipan in 1944. He’s very good
here as Ryker and there are a couple of scenes when Marvin is about to jump out
of the screen going from calm to crazy and back again in a matter of seconds. Marvin
died way too young at age 63 leaving many memorable classic movies in his list
of credits.
The
production also features top notch performances from Bradford Dillman as
Captain David Young, Ryker’s defense attorney, Peter Graves as Major Frank
Whittaker, the prosecutor, and Vera Miles as Ann Ryker, the estranged wife of
Sergeant Ryker. The cast also features a fine cast of character actors who will
be familiar to anyone who watched broadcast TV and movies in the 60s and 70s
including Lloyd Nolan, Murray Hamilton and Norman Fell to name just a few.
Buzz
Kulik, a veteran television director with a few feature films to his credit,
directed the original “Kraft Suspense Theatre” two-part episodes which was
originally broadcast on October 10th and October 17th of 1964. Kraft Theatre
lasted for two seasons from 1964 to 1966 spanning 59 episodes, filmed at
Universal Studios and broadcast on NBC. Interestingly, a spinoff series
released by ITV titled “Court Martial” featured Dillman and Graves in their
“Ryker” roles as military lawyers and it ran for 26 episodes from 1965 to 1966
with the setting changed from the Korean War to WWII Europe.
The
1968 movie release does not fulfill the promise made on the poster art: “Lee Marvin
Explodes into action as Sergeant Ryker.” We do see plenty of Ryker getting
angry while sitting in his jail cell and in the courtroom. The bulk of the action
consists of his lawyer and his wife riding in a Jeep and attacked by the enemy
in Korea as they search for evidence in Ryker’s case. The movie, which clocks
in at 85 minutes, would be easy to dismiss as a theatrical release, but it plays
rather well on the small screen. The Blu-ray looks and sounds terrific and a nice
surprise for me was the score by John Williams.
Extras
include the trailer for this and other Kino Lorber releases. Also included is a
fascinating audio commentary by film historian and filmmaker Daniel Kremer who
details the history of made-for-television productions which were released
theatrically. The Blu-ray is worth the purchase for the audio commentary alone.
What would have been nice is the option to watch the made for television
version, but I’m happy to see this version on Blu-ray. Highly recommended.
By the year 1972, the esteemed Billy Wilder was licking his wounds
over the boxoffice debacle that was "The Private Life of Sherlock
Holmes". Wilder's revisionist depiction of the legendary sleuth is
precisely what Holmes fan clamor for today, but to a generation that
defined the depiction of Holmes and Watson by the low-budget film series
starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, there was little enthusiasm to
see an all-too human Holmes with all-too-human failings. Wilder blamed
the poor reception for the film on the fact that the studio had
overridden his objections and made major cuts to the movie. Years ago,
some of the missing footage was discovered and the altered film was
accepted favorably by reviewers and retro movie lovers. Still, at the
time, Wilder was not used to suffering the humiliation of public
rejection of one of his movies. After all, he had given us classics such
as "Some Like It Hot", "The Apartment", "Sabrina", "Double Indemnity"
and "Stalag 17". Wilder was eager to return to his comedic roots and for
his next film, "Avanti!" and he enlisted long-time collaborator Jack
Lemmon to star and his esteemed writing partner I.A.L. Diamond to
co-author the script with him. The stars seemed be aligned for another
Wilder comedy hit, but it didn't work out that way, to put it mildly.
"Avanti!" was another critical and commercial failure and this time it really hurt.
Henceforth, the few films Wilder would direct would all be bombs,
marking an inglorious end to an otherwise glorious career. Yet,
"Avanti!" deserved a better fate. It's certainly Wilder in an inspired
mode even if the inspiration came from a flop Broadway comedy production
that he and Diamond kept the basic plot premise of but otherwise
rewrote.
Wilder and Lemmon had enjoyed such audience-pleasing hits as "Some
Like It Hot", "The Apartment", "Irma La Douce" and "The Fortune Cookie".
Lemmon is well-cast as Wendell Armbruster, Jr., the son of a titan of
American industry who has just died in an automobile accident in Italy
where he went every year for a month-long personal sabbatical to cleanse
his body and soul. Wendell is already in a state of nervous panic when
we first see him on board the flight to Italy. He has just a few days to
arrange to bring his father's body back to Washington, D.C. where a
high profile televised funeral will take place with the President and
other world dignitaries in attendance. (It's never explained why the
Armbruster family self-imposed such a tight deadline for retrieving the
body and staging the funeral.) Wendell idolized his father as the symbol
of American family values and conservative political doctrine; a robust
Republican who socialized with Henry Kissinger and who was devoted to
Wendell's mother. Upon arrival in the quaint coastal town where his
father died at his favorite small hotel, Wendell is greeted by the
manager, Carlo Carlucci (Clive Revill), an unflappable local "Mr.
Fix-It" with a penchant for reassuring words and an ability to move
mountains to carry out impossible tasks. However, Wendell is in for a
shock when he meets Pamela Piggott (Juliet Mills), a working class girl
from East London whose mother also died in the same car crash as Wendell Sr.
Turns out the two were lovers who met for the past ten years at the
hotel, where they were adored local legends. Thus begins a madcap farce
in which Wendell has to deal with the emotional revelation that his
father was an adulterer while at the same time keeping family members
and the public in the dark about the scandal. Pamela has a different
attitude. Unlike Wendell, she knew of the affair long ago and assures
Wendell that the two were madly in love and could fulfill their
fantasies through their annual reunion. Wendell also learns that his
ultra conservative father would join his lover for daily nude swim.
If the conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that comedies must run
under two hours, Wilder was happy to ignore it. "Avanti!" clocks in at
144 minutes. It's as though he was celebrating the leisurely Italian
lifestyle depicted in the film, a lifestyle that can be both
simultaneously maddening and idyllic. Do we have to tell you that
Wendell and Pamela lock horns only to become lovers themselves, even
going so far as to replicate the dear departed's daily nude swim in the
best-remembered scene from the movie? Despite the lengthy running time,
the film is never boring and the performances are all top-notch with
both Lemmon and Mills in fine form. However, the scene-stealer is Clive
Revill in a remarkably funny performance. You'll swear you're watching
an Italian actor instead of a native New Zealander who made his mark in
British film and stage productions. The movie is peppered with some
genuine Italian character actors, as Wendell becomes embroiled with a
local group of poverty-row mobsters. Wilder and Diamond also mix in an
amusing murder and blackmail plot. There is a late appearance by the
marvelous Edward Andrews as a U.S. State Department official who arrives
to resolve Wendell's problem of getting his father's body back home in
time for the funeral. For all the laughs, however, there is a poignancy
to the story, as Wendell learns to love and admire Pamela, who has
initially disparages because of her "weight problem." This is an
uncomfortable aspect of the movie not only because Juliet Mills most
decidedly did not have a "weight problem", but she endures (as women did
during this era) constant barbs and insults and even makes
self-deprecating jokes about her non-existent girth.
"Avanti!"
may not be classic Wilder, but it's very good Wilder and that's enough
to merit a "highly recommended" designation.The film is currently streaming on Screenpix, which is available to Amazon Prime subscribers for an additional fee of $2.99 a month.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER KINO LORBER BLU-RAY FROM AMAZON
Iconic DC Super Hero Film Being Released as a Multimedia Living
Movie Experience from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and Eluvio
Includes 4K UHD Feature Film and Special Features, Interactive
Themed Navigation, Explorable Image Galleries, Discoverable Digital Easter
Eggs, and more!
Burbank, CA, June 5, 2023 – Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, in
partnership with content blockchain pioneer Eluvio,
announced today the next installment of the WB Movieverse with the iconic DC
Super Hero film Superman Web3 Movie Experience, available for
preview at https://web3.wb.com and opening for purchase on June 9.
The release of Superman Web3 Movie Experience
follows the 2022 first-of-its-kind Web3 entertainment offering The Lord of
the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition) Web3 Movie
Experience.
Superman Web3 Movie Experience is a multimedia NFT
for fans to own and to engage with the 1978 Richard Donner film in an exciting
way. Through dynamic menu options based on iconic locations from the film,
owners can watch the film in 4K UHD on desktop, mobile, tablet or TV, access
special features, view image galleries and artist renderings by notable DC
artists, discover digital easter eggs, as well as sell the experience in a
community marketplace.
The
Superman Web3 Movie Experience will be offered in standard
and premium editions:
Standard edition ($30 for 1 week from
8:00AM ET on June 9 to 7:59AM ET on June 16) includes an interactive
location-based navigation menu, Superman: The Movie Theatrical Version,
previously released special features and an image gallery featuring stills and
behind the scenes galleries.
Premium edition ($100 for 24 hours
from 8:00AM ET on June 9 to 7:59AM ET on June 10) includes 3 different
variations available for purchase separately, Truth, Justice, and Hope, each
featuring an illustration of Christopher Reeves’ Superman from one of three DC
artists - Ivan Reiss, Ben Oliver, or Bill Sienkiewicz. Each variation includes
an interactive and explorable location-based navigation menu and 3 versions of
the feature film – Superman: The Movie Theatrical Version; Superman:
The Movie Expanded Director’s Cut; and Superman: The Movie Extended
TV Edition - along with previously-released special features, and image
galleries featuring costume and detail images from the Warner Bros. Archive and
stills and behind the scenes galleries.
The Superman Web3 Movie
Experience will include a free voucher code for a DC3Super Power Pack: Series
Superman from
the DC NFT
Marketplace,
offering 3 randomly selected Superman comics with rarities from
Common to Legendary. These packs are time-gated, open edition drops, limited to
one per account. There will be new themed packs launching every few weeks, so
stay tuned for updates.
Early
access to all editions of the Superman Web3 Movie Experience will
be available to DC Bat Cowl NFT holders at 8:00AM ET on June 8, to DC3 holders
at 11:00AM ET on June 8, and to The Lord of the Rings Web3 Movie
Experience holders at 2:00PM ET on June 8.
“For fans of this beloved and iconic film, Superman: The
Movie is being released as an exclusive Web3 film and immersive digital
collectible for the first time,” said Michelle Munson, CEO and co-founder of
Eluvio. “As part of the WB Movieverse, consumers can easily watch, collect, and
sell their film Web3 Movie Experiences on the blockchain, in the Movieverse
marketplace. For Warner Bros., and the broader industry, Eluvio is honored to
back this novel digital sell-through experience for 4K films and premium video
assets – all streamed from and backed by secure blockchain access and ownership
on the Eluvio Content Fabric.”
TheSuperman Web3 Movie Experience will drop to the public on June 9,
exclusively at https://web3.wb.com and will be
available for purchase by credit card or crypto currency.
To
participate in this novel experience, fans can create a secure, easy-to-use
media wallet that acts as a digital vault and enables consumers to stream and
purchase content via credit cards or crypto wallets.TheSuperman Web3 Movie Experience is powered by Eluvio,
pioneers of Web3 innovation throughout the media and entertainment industry.
The Eluvio Content Blockchain provides a high-performance, simple-to-use, and
cost-effective Web3 platform built for content. It
enables Web3 native media experiences, allowing publishers and fans to directly
enjoy and monetize shows, films, concerts, digital albums, digital
collectibles, interactive and metaverse experiences, and more. Content
creators, and their communities, benefit from a significantly more
carbon-efficient and high-performance alternative to traditional platforms for
content streaming, distribution, and storage, including 4K streaming,
ticketing, NFT minting, and trading of premium content.Notably, in this experience,
the core digital assets along with derivative NFTs are all on the blockchain,
not just the token (NFT) itself. Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment and
fans enjoy blockchain-backed access control and content rights enforcement,
scalable attestation of ownership, smart contracts that enable distributed
royalties, and content experiences that can even evolve over time.
Eluvio’s
Content Blockchain also provides a breakthrough in carbon-footprint efficiency
in the ways it manages media and uses blockchain technology, and on-chain
content ownership. Through a novel compositional and just-in-time protocol, the
Eluvio Content Blockchain does not make digital file copies and significantly
reduces the network storage and usage requirements as compared to traditional
streaming and content distribution systems. It also uses an eco-friendly
“proof-of-authority” consensus, which avoids the high energy consumption used
in computational “proof-of-work” blockchains.
About Warner Bros. Home
Entertainment
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) distributes the
award-winning movies, television, animation, and digital content produced by
Warner Bros. Discovery to the homes and screens of millions through physical
Blu-ray Disc™ and DVD retail sales and digital transactions on major streaming,
video-on-demand cable, satellite, digital, and mobile channels. WBHE
is part of Warner Bros. Discovery Content Sales, one of the world’s
largest distributors of entertainment programming.
About Eluvio, Inc.
Eluvio (https://eluv.io)
is the content blockchain for the creator economy. The Eluvio Content Fabric is
a utility blockchain network for owner-controlled storage, distribution, and
monetization of digital content at scale. It provides live and file-based
content publishing, transcoding, packaging, sequencing, and dynamic and static
distribution, and minting of derivative NFTs for all ranges of content
experiences. Examples of companies and creators whose content blockchain
initiatives have been powered by Eluvio include FOX Entertainment, Globo, MGM
Studios, Microsoft, SONY Pictures, Telstra, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment,
WWE, The Masked Singer, Dolly Parton, Black Eyed Peas, Rita Ora,
independent filmmakers, and many others. Eluvio is led by Emmy
Award-winning technologists, Michelle Munson and Serban Simu,
founders and inventors of Aspera, a pioneer in digital video transport
technology, and a core team of innovators. Based in Berkeley, California,
Eluvio has received numerous industry awards including the prestigious
Engineering Excellence Award by the Hollywood Professional Association and
recognized with 11 US patents. Follow Eluvio at @EluvioInc or on
LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/eluv-io.
CELEBRATE
100 YEARS OF WARNER BROS. WITH TWO CLASSIC FILMS
EAST OF EDEN AND RIO BRAVO
WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 4K RESOLUTION WITH
HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR)
PURCHASE THEM ON 4K ULTRA HD DISC AND DIGITALLY AUGUST 1
Burbank, Calif., May 30, 2023 – As part of the
year-long centennial celebration for the 100th anniversary of Warner
Bros. Studio, two iconic classics from the Warner Bros. library – East of
EdenandRio Bravo- will be available for
purchase on 4K Ultra HD Disc and Digital August 1.
East of Eden, directed by Academy Award
winner Elia Kazan and starring James Dean, and Rio Bravo, directed
by Honorary Academy Award winner Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne, will be
available to purchase on Ultra HD Blu-ray™Disc from
online and in-store at major retailers and available for purchase Digitally
from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu and more.
Working in partnership with The Film Foundation, both films were
restored and remastered by Warner Bros. Post Production Creative Services:
Motion Picture Imaging and Post Production Sound. Since its launch
by Martin Scorsese in 1990, The Film Foundation has restored more
than 900 movies.
The Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc will include each feature film in 4K
with HDR and a Digital version of the feature film.
Ultra HD Blu-ray showcases 4K resolution with High Dynamic Range
(HDR) and a wider color spectrum, offering consumers brighter, deeper, more
lifelike colors for a home entertainment viewing experience like never before.
For the complete 4K Ultra HD experience with HDR, a 4K Ultra HD TV
with HDR, an Ultra HD Blu-ray player and a high-speed HDMI (category 2) cable
are required.
About the Films:
East of Eden
In the Salinas Valley in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels
he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother Aron for the love of
their father Adam. Carl is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the
war, to how to get ahead in business and in life, to how to relate to his
estranged mother.
The 1955 period drama is directed by Elia Kazan from a
screenplay by Paul Osborn and based on the 1952 John Steinbeck novel of the
same name. The film stars James Dean, Julie Harris, Raymond Massey, Burl
Ives, Richard Davalos, and Jo Van Fleet.
East of Eden was nominated for 3 Academy
Awards with Van Fleet winning for Best Supporting Actress. East of
Eden was named one of the 400 best American films of all time by the American Film
Institute. In 2016, the film was selected
for preservation in the United States National Film
Registry by the Library of
Congress as being "culturally,
historically, or aesthetically significant".
Rio Bravo
A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a
disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail
the brother of the local bad guy.
The 1959 American Western film is directed by Howard
Hawks. The screenplay is by Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett and is based on
the short story “Rio Bravo” by B.H. McCampbell. The film stars John Wayne, Dean
Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, and Ward Bond.
In 2014, Rio Bravo was selected for preservation in
the United States National Film
Registry by the Library of
Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically
significant.”
Ultra HD Blu-ray Elements
East
of EdenUltra HD Blu-ray contains the following previously released
special features:
Commentary by Richard Schickel
Rio BravoUltra HD
Blu-ray contains the following previously released special features:
Anna May Wong has been commemorated with a three-film box set from Kino Lorber. Wong was a popular presence on the silver screen in an era in which most Asian screen characters were played by non-Asians. Here is the breakdown of information about the the Blu-ray set that coincidentally features Anthony Quinn in all three movies.
This collection features three Hollywood classics from
the 1930s starring screen icon Anna May Wong.
DANGEROUS TO KNOW
(1938)
Screen legend Anna
May Wong (Picadilly) reprises her acclaimed Broadway role in this romantic
crime drama from the pen of Edgar Wallace (Chamber of Horrors). Racketeer Steve
Recka (Akim Tamiroff, The General Died at Dawn) rules his town and the sultry,
silk-gowned Madam Lan Ying (Wong) with an iron hand. But when he falls for the
enchanting Margaret Van Kase (Gail Patrick, Death Takes a Holiday), a socialite
not impressed by his power nor his wealth, he makes frantic efforts to win her
and turns his back on the loyal Lan Ying. Dangerous to Know comes elegantly
directed by Robert Florey (The Crooked Way) with the sparkling supporting cast
of Lloyd Nolan (Portrait in Black), Harvey Stephens (The Cheat), Roscoe Karns
(Night After Night), Porter Hall (Murder, He Says), Hedda Hopper (Little Man,
What Now?), Ellen Drew (If I Were King) and Anthony Quinn (The Ghost Breakers).
ISLAND OF LOST MEN
(1939) – Screen legend Anna May Wong (Daughter of Shanghai) clashes with J.
Carrol Naish (Sahara) in this rousing remake of 1933’s Carole Lombard/Charles
Laughton starrer White Woman. Cabaret singer Kim Ling (Wong), the daughter of a
Chinese general who has been accused of absconding with government funds,
arrives in the Straits Settlements. There she meets Gregory Prin (Naish), a
half-caste gunrunner and head of a jungle empire where he treats the Malaysians
ruthlessly. She agrees to accompany him in search of her father, as she has
several reasons to believe Prin is responsible for the general’s disappearance.
Directed by Kurt Neumann (The Secret of the Blue Room, The Fly) and co-starring
Anthony Quinn (Road to Singapore), Eric Blore (Road to Zanzibar), Broderick
Crawford (Seven Sinners) and Ernest Truex (His Girl Friday), Island of Lost Men
is a torrid mix of thrills, mystery and adventure.
KING OF CHINATOWN
(1939) – Screen legend Anna May Wong (Shanghai Express) co-stars with the “czar
of a city of sin,” Akim Tamiroff (Desire), in the ripping crime yarn King of
Chinatown. Violence and death stalk the Chinese faction of a big American city,
but one man, Dr. Chang Ling (Sidney Toler, Shadows Over Chinatown), and his
daughter, Dr. Mary Ling (Wong), defy the gangsters who are responsible, and,
against terrific odds, bring peace to their oppressed neighbors. Wong gives a
powerful and pioneering performance as a respected surgeon faced with a
shocking moral dilemma. Directed by Nick Grinde (Million Dollar Legs), shot by
Leo Tover (The Day the Earth Stood Still) and featuring J. Carrol Naish (Beau
Geste), Philip Ahn (China), Anthony Quinn (The Last Train from Madrid),
Bernadene Hayes (Dick Tracy’s Dilemma) and Roscoe Karns (It Happened One
Night).
Product Extras :
Brand New 4K and 2K Masters
NEW Audio Commentary for DANGEROUS TO KNOW by Film Historian Samm Deighan
NEW Audio Commentary for ISLAND OF LOST MEN by Entertainment Journalist/Author
Bryan Reesman and Max Evry
NEW Audio Commentary for KING OF CHINATOWN by Film Historian David Del Valle
and Archivist/Film Historian Stan Shaffer
King of Chinatown Theatrical Trailer (Nitrate Restoration in 4K)
If you haven't seen the news about the new "Superman" 4K boxed set, here is the Warner Bros. press release:
CELEBRATE 100 YEARS OF WARNER BROS. WITH ONE OF
FILM’S MOST ICONIC CHARACTERS - SUPERMAN
SUPERMAN
1978 – 1987 5-FILM COLLECTION FEATURING
SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, SUPERMAN II, SUPERMAN II: THE
RICHARD DONNER CUT, SUPERMAN III, AND SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR
PEACE WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME AS A REMASTERED COLLECTION IN 4K
RESOLUTION WITH HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR)
PURCHASE THE COLLECTION ON
4K ULTRA HD COMBO PACK AND DIGITALLY
As part of the year-long
centennial celebration for the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros.
Studio, five films featuring the iconic DC Super Hero Superman – Superman:
The Movie,Superman II, Superman II: The Richard Donner
Cut, Superman III, and Superman IV- will
be available for purchase in a five-film collection on 4K Ultra HD Disc and
Digital on April 18.
Based on the DC character created by
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Superman films star Christopher
Reeve as the legendary “Man of Steel.”
On April 18, the Superman 1978 – 1987 5-Film
Collectionwill be available to purchase on Ultra HD
Blu-ray™ Disc from online and in-store at major retailers
and available for purchase Digitally from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google
Play, Vudu and more.
The
Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Packs will include an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc with the
feature films in 4K with HDR, a Blu-ray disc with the feature films and special
features in HD, and a Digital version of each film.
Ultra
HD Blu-ray showcases 4K resolution with High Dynamic Range (HDR) and a wider
color spectrum, offering consumers brighter, deeper, more lifelike colors for a
home entertainment viewing experience like never before.
For
the complete 4K Ultra HD experience with HDR, a 4K Ultra HD TV with HDR, an
Ultra HD Blu-ray player and a high-speed HDMI (category 2) cable are required.
Burt Reynolds was a movie star who became a
“Hollywood Legend” the hard way—he earned it. He started out in small roles on
TV in the 50s and 60s, went to Europe and made some spaghetti westerns, just
like his pal Clint Eastwood. He had his own TV series (“Hawk” and “Dan August”)
and gained stardom on the big screen after playing Lewis, one of the four guys
in “Deliverance,” who run into bad luck at the hands of some good ol’ boys in
the Tennessee backwoods. He became a superstar with the release of “Smokey and
the Bandit” (1977), which he starred in with Sally Field and Jackie Gleason.
His career ended with “The Last Movie Star,” (2017), where he basically played
himself, a faded legend, who still manages to hold onto his dignity. He was
about to play a small role in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time . . . in
Hollywood (2019)” but died in 2018before filming began.
His career had a lot of peaks and valleys. “Heat”
(1986), now available on Blu-Ray from Kino Lorber, while an entertaining movie
with Reynolds at his charismatic best, was definitely not one of the peaks.
Considering it was written by Oscar-winning writer William Goldman, (“All the
President’s Men” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,”) and directed by
Dick Richards (“Farewell My Lovely”), it should have been a lot better than it
is. Reynolds plays Nick Escalante (also known as “Mex”), a Las Vegas bodyguard
who dreams of one day leaving the rat race in the States and going to Venice,
Italy to enjoy La Dolce Vita. Hmmm. That sort of reminds me of another guy
William Goldman wrote about once, only he wanted to go to Bolivia. Anyway as
“Heat” begins, Mex takes on a couple of jobs that he probably should have known
better than to accept. One has him protecting a nerdy dude by the name of Cyrus
Kinnick (Peter McNichol), who thinks he needs a bodyguard in case he wins big
at the casino. Mex doesn’t last long on the job when he discovers Kinnick’s
idea of big winnings is $50, and he quits. The other is a call for help from
Holly (Karen Young) a Vegas hooker, an old friend of his, who was beaten and
raped in a casino hotel room by three guys. She asks him to help her get
revenge.
Mex (you probably couldn’t use that nickname
today) finds out the rapist is a punk Mafioso by the name of Danny DeMarco
(Neill Barry), who has two musclebound bodyguards of his own. Mex never carries
a gun, but he’s known for being an expert with anything that has a sharp
cutting edge. He pays them a visit and takes all three of them down with
nothing more than the sharp edge of two credit cards and a few flying kicks, a-la
Bruce Lee. He calls Holly up from the lobby and she takes a pair of scissors
out of her purse and leaves Danny with a little souvenir on his private parts.
She finds $20,000 that Danny had flashed around to tease Mex with earlier and
offers half to him. He turns it down and tells her to leave town. It turns out
Danny is connected to a local Mafia boss by the name of “Baby.”
Holly leaves town but manages to get 10 grand to
him, which becomes a plot device that reveals that Mex has a gambling addiction
problem. He takes the money, turns it into $100,000 at the Blackjack table run
by a dealer named Cassie (Diana Scarwid), and ends up losing it all. So now we
know why Mex has trouble paying the airfare to Venice. Kinnick shows up again
and asks if he can just hang out with him so he can learn how to be a cool
tough guy like him. Sounds dumb, doesn’t it? It is. Somehow, even though
there’s a meeting with “Baby,” and later an action setpiece with Danny and some
new goons he’s hired, the story loses momentum.
Part
of the problem is Goldman’s script, which is all over the place, with enough
story elements for at least two different movies. Or maybe they planned to spin
it off into a TV series. But the biggest problem with “Heat” is what was
happening behind the scenes during production. “Heat” was originally to be
helmed by Robert Altman. That deal fell through, so they brought in Dick
Richards to direct and for some reason Richards and Reynolds didn’t get along.
It got so bad that a fight erupted and Reynolds punched Richards in the face.
Richards left the picture after directing only 13 percent of it and sued
Reynolds. “That punch cost me half a million,” Reynolds said. Television
director Jerry Jameson was brought in to finish the picture without receiving a
credit.
It’s
too bad in a way that Altman didn’t take the job after all. Goldman’s
screenplay, with all the various story ideas bouncing around in it, would
probably have been right up Altman’s alley. He might have come up with
something on the order of his earlier hits “The Long Goodbye” (1973) or
“California Split” (1974).
Kino
Lorber presents “Heat” in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio in a very clean
1920x1080p transfer. A rollicking audio commentary is provided by action film
historians Brandon Bentley and Mike Leeder. The disc also contains previews of
a number of Burt Reynolds films available from Kino Lorber. In case you’re
wondering if Mex ever get to Venice… I’ll never tell. But, if he did, let’s
hope he made out better than that other guy did in Bolivia. Recommended primarily for Burt Reynolds fans.
It's easy to look back on the Blaxploitation film craze of the 1970s
as a short-lived period that spawned some cinematic guilty pleasures.
However, time has been kind to the genre and if retro movie buffs view
some of the films that emerged during this era they will undoubtedly
find more artistry at work than was originally realized. Case in point:
"Truck Turner", a 1974 action flick released at the height of the
Blaxploitation phenomenon. I had never seen the film prior to its
release on the new Blu-ray special edition from Kino Lorber Studio
Classics. It's a violent, brutal film filled with ugly characters and
"heroes" who deserve that moniker only because they aren't quite as
abhorrent as the cutthroat antagonists they face. Yet, there is
something special about "Truck Turner". Amid the carnage and frequent,
extended action sequences, there is real talent at work here. Most of it
belongs to Jonathan Kaplan, the director who had recently emerged as
yet another promising protege of Roger Corman. In fact, Kaplan had just
recently completed filming another Blaxploitation film, "The Slams" with
Jim Brown, before being drafted into "Truck Turner". The idea of a
white, Jewish guy directing a Blaxploitation film may seem weird today
but at the time, most of the creative forces behind these movies were
white guys, an indication of just how few opportunities existed in
Hollywood for black filmmakers in the 1970s. The movies were also
largely financed by white studio executives who benefited the most
financially. Yet, it cannot be denied that the genre went a long way in
opening doors for a lot of talented black actors and musicians, who
often provided the scores for the films. Until the release of "Shaft" in
1971 (which was directed by a black filmmaker, Gordon Parks),
most of the action roles for black characters seemed to be hanging on
the durable shoulders of Sidney Poitier, Jim Brown, Harry Belafonte and
the great character actor Woody Strode. Suddenly, there were a great
number of opportunities for black actors and actresses to display their
talents on screen. The vehicles in which they toiled were often
low-budget potboilers, but it did increase their visibility and name
recognition. More importantly, black action characters became
commonplace henceforth.
"Truck Turner" has emerged as a genuine cult movie in the decades
since its initial release. The movie's oddball appeal begins with the
casting of the titular character, who is played by legendary soul
musician Isaac Hayes in his screen debut. While Laurence Olivier
probably never lost sleep over Hayes's decision to enter the movie
business, his casting was a stroke of genius on the part of the
executives at American International Pictures, which specialized in
exploitation films for the grindhouse and drive-in audiences. Hayes had
recently won the Academy Award for his funky "Theme From 'Shaft'" and
had an imposing and super-cool physical presence. He also proved to be a
natural in front of the camera. His emotional range was limited but he
exuded an arrogance and self-confidence that the role required. Turner
is a skip tracer/bounty hunter employed by a bail bond agency in the
slum area of Los Angeles. A stunning opening shot finds literally dozens
of such agency dotting the urban landscape- an indication of how out of
control crime was in the city during this period. Turner and his
partner Jerry (Alan Weeks) agree to take on an assignment to track down a
local notorious pimp and crime kingpin named 'Gator' Johnson (Paul
Harris), who has skipped bail, thus leaving the agency's owner Nate
Dinwiddle (Sam Laws) on the hook for the money. Turner and Jerry pursue
'Gator' in one of those requisite high octane car chases that were
seemingly mandatory in 70s action movies. This one is quite spectacular
and features some dazzling stunt driving. 'Gator' is ultimately killed
by Turner and this leads to the main plot, which concerns his lover,
Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols). She was 'Gator's partner in a lucrative
prostitution business. The two pimped out beautiful young women who they
keep as virtual prisoners on a large estate. Dorinda is the Captain
Bligh of madams, routinely abusing her stable of girls and demeaning
them at every opportunity. She is enraged by Turner's slaying of 'Gator'
and offers a bounty for his murder: half of her stake in the
prostitution ring. The offer draws more than a few professional
assassins to her doorstep, all of whom promise they can kill Turner.
However, the only one who seems to have the ability to do so is Harvard
Blue (Yaphet Kotto), a soft-spoken but vicious crime boss who would like
nothing more than to make easy money from a major pimping operation.
With a small army of assassins, he sets out to make good on his promise
to kill Turner.
Like most action movies of this genre, the plot points are
predictable. As with Charles Bronson's character in the "Death Wish"
films, virtually every person who befriends Turner comes to great
misfortune. This kind of predictable emotional manipulation is par for
the course when you're watching 70s crime films and doesn't overshadow
the fact that there is a great deal of style evident in "Truck Turner".
The dialogue is saucy and witty. For example, Dorinda describes one of
her "girls" as "Kentucky Fried Chicken" because "she's finger-lickin'
good!" and another as "Turnpike" because "you have to pay to get on and
pay to get off." If you think that's politically incorrect, consider
that every other line of dialogue has somebody calling somebody else a
nigger. Then there's the character of Truck Turner, who - like his
fellow cinematic tough ass crime fighters of the era ranging from Dirty
Harry to 'Popeye' Doyle to John Wayne's McQ- seems oblivious to the
fact that he is endangering an abundance of innocent people in his
obsession to get the bad guys. Turner engages in carjacking and
threatens the lives of people who he feels aren't cooperating fast
enough. He also has a sensitive side, though, as we see in his scenes
with the love of his life, Annie (Annazette Chase). She's recently
completed a jail term and only wants to settle down with Turner to live a
quiet, normal lifestyle. Good luck. When the contract is put out on
Turner, she becomes a potential victim and is terrorized by Harvard Blue
and his gang. The film concludes with some terrific action sequences,
the best of which has Hayes and Kotto going mano-a-mano inside the
corridors of a hospital. They chase and spray bullets at each other amid
terrified patients in wheelchairs and on gurneys and in one scene,
carry the shoot out into an operating room with doctors in the midst of
working on a patient! The finale, which centers on Kotto's last scene
in the movie, is shot with such style that it almost approaches being
(dare I use the term?) poetic. The supporting cast is first rate with
Alan Weeks scoring strongly as Robin to Turner's Batman. Annazette Chase
is excellent as the ever-patient object of Turner's desire and, of
course, Kotto is terrific, as usual, managing to steal scenes in his own
unique, low-key way. The most enjoyable performance comes from Nichelle
Nichols, who is 180 degrees from her "Star Trek" role. As the ultimate
villainess, she seems to be having a blast insulting and threatening
everyone in her line of vision. Her final confrontation with Turner
makes for a memorable screen moment, to say the least.
The Kino Lorber Blu-ray is up to the company's usual high standards
in all respects. Old Truck never looked better on screen and there are
some welcome bonus materials. Director Kaplan provides a witty and
highly informative audio commentary, relating how American International
was more interested in the soundtrack album they would be able to
market than the film itself. (Hayes provides the impressive score for
the film, including some "Shaft"-like themes.). He also said that he was
originally drawn to the project because he was told the film would star
either Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine or Robert Mitchum! Nevertheless, he
speaks with great affection for Hayes and his colleagues and points out
various character actors his used in the film including the ubiquitous
Dick Miller, James Millhollin, Scatman Crothers and even Matthew Beard,
who played "Stymie" in the Our Gang comedies. Another welcome bonus is
director Joe Dante,obviously an admirer of the film, in discussion at a
2008 screening of "Truck Turner" at the New Beverly Cinema in L.A. He's
joined by director Kaplan and stuntman Bob Minor. The reaction of the
audience indicates this film enjoys a loyal following. There is also a
segment from Dante's popular "Trailers From Hell" web site that features
director Ernest Dickerson introducing and narrating the original
trailer for the film. The trailer is also included in the Blu-ray, as
well as a double feature radio spot ad for "Truck Turner" and Pam Grier
as "Foxy Brown". In all, an irresistible release for all retro movie
lovers.
HAROLD RAMIS’ ROAD TRIP COMEDY FILM STARRING CHEVY CHASE AND
BEVERLY D’ANGELO WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 4K RESOLUTION WITH
HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR)
Own it on 4K Ultra HD and Digital on June 27
Burbank, Calif., May 10, 2023 – National Lampoon’s Vacation,
directed by Harold Ramis and starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo as Clark
and Ellen Griswold, will be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray and Digital
on June 27. As Warner Bros celebrates its 100thanniversary, this film is highlighted as a studio gem on
its 40thanniversary.
The 1983 classic comedy film from Warner Bros. Pictures was
written by John Hughes and was based on his short story “Vacation ’58 which
appeared in the publication “National Lampoon.” The film was produced by
Matty Simmons and also stars Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, John Candy, Anthony Michael
Hall, Dana Barron, and Christie Brinkley in her acting debut. National
Lampoon’s Vacation also features special appearances by Eddie Bracken,
Brian-Doyle Murray, James Keach, and Eugene Levy.
Ultra HD* showcases 4K resolution
with High Dynamic Range (HDR) and a wider color spectrum, offering consumers
brighter, deeper, more lifelike colors for a home entertainment viewing
experience like never before.
National Lampoon’s Vacationwill be
available on Ultra HD Blu-ray for $33.99 SRP and includes an Ultra HD
Blu-ray disc with the feature film in 4K with HDR and a Digital download of the
film. Fans can also own National Lampoon’s Vacationin 4K
Ultra HD via purchase from select digital retailers beginning on June
27.
About
the Film:
Everything
is planned, packed – and about to go hilariously wrong. The Griswolds are going
on vacation. In the driver’s seat is Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), an Everyman
eager to share the open road and the wonders of family togetherness. Myriad
mishaps, crude kin (Randy Quaid), encounters with a temptress (Christie
Brinkley), financial woes, Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca) on the roof, one security
guard (John Candy) and 2,460 miles later, it’s a wonder the Griswolds are
together. There’s never been a family vacation like it. Except maybe yours. And
that helps explain why National Lampoon’s Vacation remains so
popular… and so very funny.
Ultra HD Blu-ray Elements
National Lampoon’s VacationUltra HD
Blu-ray contains the following previously released special features:
·Commentary
with Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Matty Simmons, Harold Ramis, Anthony Michael
Hall, and Dana Barron (98 Minutes)
DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION ELEMENTS
On June 27, National Lampoon’s Vacation 4K UHDwill
be available to own for streaming and download to watch anywhere in high
definition and standard definition on favorite devices from select digital
retailers and will be made available digitally on Video On Demand services from
cable and satellite providers, and on select gaming consoles.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
On May 30th Rain Man, the
winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay
(Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow), Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman)
and Best Director (Barry Levinson), makes its 4K Ultra HD format debut
with a new restoration (a just completed 4K high definition 16-Bit Scan of the
original camera negative) approved by Levinson and presented in its original
1.85:1 Aspect Ratio in Dolby Vision / HDR.
Rain Man stars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise as estranged brothers
on a road trip unlike any other across America. Charlie Babbitt (Cruise) has
been given the news that his recently deceased father has left his entire
fortune to his autistic brother Raymond (Hoffman), who he did not know existed.
In a crass bid to grab some, if not all of the inheritance, Charlie abducts
Raymond and what begins as a money-making scheme for Charlie turns into a
journey of discovery between brothers who are worlds apart.
The two-disc 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
35th Anniversary Edition is packed with supplemental material including three
audio commentaries (one with director Barry Levinson, one with co-writer Barry
Morrow and a third with co-writer Ronald Bass). Along with the commentaries,
there are several making of / behind the scenes featurettes including: The
Journey of Rain Man featurette, Lifting the Fog: A Look at the Mysteries
of Autism featurette, a deleted scene, and the original theatrical trailer.
To pre-order titles, visit the Imprint web site. All prices are in Australian dollars. Use a currency converter to see the price in your local currency.
Although it’s not
necessarily thought of as initiating the cycle of late 70s and then 1980s teenage
sex comedies, The Graduate, from Embassy Pictures in 1967, is clearly an
inspiration for the later films about awkward virginal guys caught up in
farcical narratives of dream, drive, and desire. The success of The Graduate
enabled its production company head, impresario Joseph Levine, to broker a
merger of Embassy with Avco, and it was the newly named Avco-Embassy that about
a decade after The Graduate brought out the virgin teenage guy comedy, The
Chicken Chronicles. From the same year (1977), The Van, a broad
farce about a guy who revamps his van as a love-machine likewise suggests the
first glimpses of a trend, one that got its fullest recognition soon after in
the wildly successful Animal House from the following year, along with
later iterations like Porky’s (1981) and its sequels, all produced by
Melvin Simon who also was the producer of The Chicken Chronicles.
Ironically, although The
Graduate has a stronger reputation in cinema history as a serious work of
social-cultural engagement within the fervent and foment of the 1960s, it’s
actually the raunchy low-class gross-out virgin-comedies that come after it
that engage in any manner with the politics of the time. To be sure, the ups
and downs of Benjamin’s relationships in The Graduate address in their
own manner the claims of the Sixties to show that “the personal is the
political” (especially for young women like Elaine Robinson, so mistreated by
Benjamin when he first takes her out on a date), but one would be hard-pressed
to find much direct reference to the times (we see some hippies as mere
background when Benjamin and Elaine go out on that date).
In contrast, Animal House
takes on the jockeying for power in the contemporary college system while Porky’s
addresses redneck racism in the South. And from a very early scene where we
hear tough news about the times on the car radio of protagonist Dave Kessler
(Steve Guttenberg), The Chicken Chronicles, set in 1969 and continually referencing
the war in Vietnam, keeps bringing the real politics of the day into its
seemingly personalized story of one guy’s quest for sexual fulfillment. Most
poignant is a moment where one of Dave’s co-workers at the fried chicken outlet
he works at (hence, the film’s title) learns that her brother has died in Nam.
An African-American woman, she had enjoyed a lively moment of dancing with her
team, and she is a figure that we, and the white employees and boss, admire.
Her last moment in the film comes when the take-out’s boss (Phil Silvers, the
classic comedian) tells her to go home so she can mourn properly. A cut shows
her waiting at a bus stop when Dave comes by in his car and offers her a lift:
she demurs (is she worried about a white guy being seen driving her into her
neighborhood?) and he drives off and we see her get on the bus and exit
off-screen, out of the film.
No other scene in The
Chicken Chronicles is like this one in its explicit and quite non-comedic
acknowledgement of the times. But many other scenes are like it in their very
fleetingness. In fact, it is probably misleading to insist too much on any
consistent desire of the film to offer social commentary. Like the later broad
and buffoonish sex comedies, The Chicken Chronicles operates by a sort
of scattergun approach, taking on any and all topics, large and small, relevant
or irreverent, and jumping here and there to random new scenes for the sake of
immediate effect. While there’s an overall narrative thrust (pun not intended
although noted!) – the goal of the protagonist to lose his virginity – the film
is a deliberate hodgepodge, hoping that whatever’s onscreen at the moment will
work at the moment. Whether this or that scene works depends then on individual
taste: for instance, if you like to see stuck-up kids get theirs by falling
into the suburban pool, that will be your moment of hilarity; if you like hints
of relevance, there are enough of those in the film to keep you going. It’s
noteworthy that while few mainstream critics reviewed The Chicken Chronicles
– and the rare ones that did didn’t like it much – one thing these
commentators did single out as intriguing was the fact that Dave Kessler’s
parents are unseen in the film and communicate with him only by speakers dotted
throughout their house (a contrast to the very different generational
alienation of The Graduate where the problem for Benjamin Braddock is
that his parents are too visible, too fatuous in their overbearing advice).
Ironically, the scattershot
approach of The Chicken Chronicles is (no doubt, unintentionally) echoed
in its commentary track, by cult film historians Lee Gambin and Emma Westwood,
which is itself frenetic and all over the place. (Curiously, Westwood is not
listed on the Blu-ray back cover.) At one point, the commentators even have to
remind themselves to talk about the film at hand, as they go off on all sorts
of tangents (for example, that the director had an interest in documentary
leads to a digression about cinema verité maverick D.A. Pennebaker while a
mispronunciation of “chutzpah” occasions discussion of Jewishness in film). While
the commentary track talks of the actors (especially Phil Silvers), it does so
by going at length into their filmography or videography, and the film
frequently gets left behind. Luckily, one of the few moments where the
commentators actually converse about the film unspooling before them has to do
with the multiracial and multiethnic nature of the casting, an important aspect
of the film’s random attention to politics (in this case, a politics of
identity). The commentary track is one of the only special features on the
Blu-Ray, along with a trailer.
To the extent that, like
other examples from teen sex cinema, The Chicken Chronicles targets an
audience that would come increasingly to appreciate the raucous non-coherence
of individual moments around the central narrative premise, the film, and now
its Blu-ray release, probably work best for its projected target audience. To
state an obvious truism, if you like this sort of thing, you’ll like this early
example of it.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Film Chest.
The film noir genre, which became a staple for movie fans
during its heyday in the 1940’s & 50’s, was based on a tough and gritty
environment and revolved around those who lived it. It was raw, without much
margin for how things went down or who would end up surviving the fallout.Films
stylized with elements of film noir have surfaced over the years and perhaps
one of the best is the Mickey Spillane stories of Mike Hammer, which offered a
more contemporary version of the format.Mike Hammer, Private Eye brings us to
the late ‘90’s.
Stacy Keach plays the wiser, tougher, more sarcastic and
blunt-worded private eye who offers a salute to the early years with his felt
fedora. A bevy of beautiful women still abound in his world, and over-the-top
measures with the use of his fists, wits, and savvy tenacity against deceptive
enemies are the norm. Still, there is a balance, with Keach managing his
character that’s both serious and, at times, more lighthearted with some campy
humor.
This 26-episode series (along with the original trailer and episode
synopses) includes a new sexy blonde secretary (Velda) played by Shannon Whirry
and the introduction of a sidekick (Nick Farrell) played by Shane Conrad. Kent
Williams returns with a strong portrayal of Deputy Mayor Barry Lawerence and
Peter Jason plays Hammer’s closely aligned police captain, Skip Gleason.Stacy
Keach has spent a career making Mike Hammer his own character, and without question,
he has succeeded. Private Eye (1997-1998) is a fast-paced, no nonsense Hammer
series that will delight the many fans of Mickey Spillane’s character and again
prove that STACY KEACH IS MIKE HAMMER!
This Kino Lorber 4K Restoration Blu ray of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame is likely as
good as we’re going to get.Universal
Studio’s official 1923 program heralded Hunchback
as Hugo’s “Mighty Epic of a Mighty Epoch” and, truth be told, director Wallace Worsley’s
film never delivers less than promised. It is, above all, a spectacle. In August of
1922 when announced Universal-Jewel was to begin lensing the film, newspapers
reported it had been Lon Chaney’s “life’s ambition” to bring Hugo’s tale – and
the story of the novel’s titular tortured soul Quasimodo - to the big screen.
Chaney’s Hunchback
would not be the first cinematic adaptation of the famed 1831 novel.Esmeralda,
a ten-minute long French adaptation was brought to the screen as early as in
1905. Albert Capellani’s 1911 French
silent (Notre-Dame de Paris) would also
precede the Universal version, but that film too was a modest production running
a mere twenty-six minutes in length.The
first feature length-effort was Fox’s romantic The Darling of Paris (1917) featuring silent-screen-siren Theda
Bara.A British version of 1922 preceded
Chaney’s by only a year – though, again, only as a short of some thirteen
minutes.All but the 1911 version are
now presumed lost.
If Universal was not the first to bring the epic to the screen,
producer and studio co-founder Carl Laemmle promised a production unmatched in size
and scope.Universal would front a
budget of some $1,250,000, bringing in some 2800 artisans to work on the film’s
massive sets.The centerpiece was to be
the cathedral of Notre Dame, built practically to scale.Universal promised, “The cathedral at Notre Dame is an exact replica in every infinite
detail of the cathedral as it looked in 1482, an extraordinary feat and an
archeologic, historical and technical triumph.”
Such an ambitious project was going to require an
ambitious production team.In October of
1922, gossips whispered the studio was “anxious to have D.W. Griffith direct” Hunchback.On the surface, Griffith would seem a natural
choice.He had, after all, helmed such
pictures as Birth of a Nation (1915)
and Intolerance (1916), both showcase
spectacles of large scale and huge casts.In the end, Universal would announce, January 1923, that Worsley would
direct – with assists by “ten assistant directors and twenty-eight field
captains.”Worsley and Chaney already
had a good working relationship: the two having already combined their talents
on The Penalty, The Ace of Heartsand The
Blind Bargain. This new collaboration would spend six months in pre-production
and one year in filming.
Everything was crafted bigger-than-life. The make-up
appliances for Quasimodo, the film’s monstrous bell-ringer, were painstakingly crafted
by Chaney in a series of three-and-a-half hour sessions.The September 1923 issue of Pictures and Picturegoer magazine
enthused Chaney had promised “something even more startling than usual in the
way of make-up.” Alongside that of Erik, The
Phantom of the Opera (1925), the twisted and feral Quasimodo remains the
most iconic example of Chaney’s make-up artistry.
Biographer Michael F. Blake’s Lon Chaney: The Man Behind the Thousand Faces (Vestal Press, 1990)
and A Thousand Faces: Lon Chaney’s Unique
Artistry in Motion Pictures (Vestal Press, 1995) remain the two most
essential reference books on the man and his films, but they weren’t the first.There were earlier “serious” circulating books
on the actor:Robert G. Anderson’s Faces, Forms Films: The Artistry of Lon
Chaney (1971) came first, N.L.
Ross’s Lon Chaney: Master Craftsman of
Make Believe following more than a decade later. That said, Blake’s sister
volumes remain the most reliable and error free sources of Chaney marginalia.Blake occasionally proffers stern judgements,
some fair and some maybe not so, on preceding Chaney biographers, but all books
mentioned above are worthwhile reads and contain excellent bibliographies.
Blake opens his 1995 study with the declaration “Lon
Chaney was not a “horror actor.”Though this is essentially true, Blake – who contributes
seven pages of booklet notes to this new Kino Blu – sighs the actor’s association
with the horror genre is terribly overblown.He argues this mistaken union was due to the actor’s famous ghastly
make-up creations.It’s doubtful the
audience of eleven and twelve year-olds who sought out these cheap newsprint monster
movie magazines of the 1950s and ‘60s had actually ever saw a Lon Chaney silent film.But the reproduced published stills would fire imaginations, giving
Chaney Sr. instant cult status as a “horror film” icon. At the very least, I think
it’s fair to say that the genre mags were instrumental in keeping Chaney’s
legend alive at a time when few other outlets were interested.
It was that way for me at least.I’m not sure when I first learned the name “Lon
Chaney.”But it was likely through
photographs or an article in the pages of Famous
Monsters of Filmland magazine.I had
become obsessed with Famous Monsters when
chancing upon a used copy of their May 1967 issue at a school “white elephant”
sale.The magazine sent me scouring the
listings in TV Guide in search of the
films I was first introduced to in the pages of “FM.”It was through Famous Monsters I was first introduced to silent films – many of which
I find even today to be as fascinating as any talkie.
In trying to learn about silent films, I discovered
Daniel Blum’s A Pictorial History of the
Silent Screen (1974) at my local library.It was an oversize hardcover held in the reference section.Since I couldn’t bring it home to read at leisure,
I spent hours in the library looking through the hundreds – maybe thousands of
stills – reproduced therein.My
knowledge of and interest in film history really began there.While combing through the pages for Chaney info
(there wasn’t a lot, if I recall), I discovered Chaplin, Keaton, Pearl White,
Fatty Arbuckle, the Keystone Cops and hundreds of others.
It was around this time I also managed to catch Robert
Youngson’s affectionate silent-era doc Days
of Thrills and Laughter on television.As with Blum’s book, I don’t believe Chaney, again to my great disappointment,
was even mentioned in the doc.Youngson’s
emphasis was mostly on the slapstick comedy of Charlie Chaplin, “Fatty”
Arbuckle,” Snub Pollard and Ben Turpin.Though
a rare, brief clip of Boris Karloff in King
of the Congo (1929) further fueled my interest in early cinema, Chaney –
frustratingly – would remain a man of mystery.
Knowing what I know now, the notoriously private and
reclusive actor – non-ceremoniously interred following his passing, age forty-seven,
in a Glendale sepulcher – would have likely preferred it that way.At age nine I finally had the opportunity to catch
Chaney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame
on WNET-13, Manhattan’s PBS-TV affiliate.Hunchback was the last title to
be featured on the network’s “The Silent Years” series (each segment introduced
by Orson Welles) in September of 1971.
OK, I apologize. I have digressed. I will also confess
it’s taken me quite some time to finally getting around to view this Kino issue
of Hunchback. I was gifted a copy
back in the autumn of 2021 but chose to put the Blu-ray aside – for the time
being, anyway.I had already planned to
attend a genuine film element screening of Hunchback
at a local cinema that October, one complete with live organ
accompaniment.That night, sadly, proved
to be a projection booth disaster.The
theater ran the last two reels in reverse so inter-titles appeared Cyrillic and
completely unreadable.God bless Ben
Model, the silent film historian/organist accompanying the program.He calmly and expertly navigated through this
maelstrom with amazing poise and finesse, salvaging what would have been
otherwise a completely disastrous evening.
There’s no point in discussing here the plot of Worsley’s
The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It’s a
more-or-less faithful rendering of the Hugo novel.This is a century old film, one I find as
entertaining today as it was a hundred years ago.Yes, the acting often is – as was the order
of the day – visually exaggerated and overly emotive, but the story remains a
compelling one.The scenario really
revolves around Esmeralda, the soft-hearted street dancer, and not the tragic
Quasimodo.To his credit, Chaney – though
top-billed – recognizes this and admirably serves as an essential member of the
ensemble, not as the film’s principal player.
This Kino release has been cobbled together from the best
existing prints available, so there are temperature and tinting changes from
section to section.But it’s a beautiful
4K restoration and while surviving element damage is not totally absent, the
film looks remarkable all things considered.This edition also features a lively and original musical score.This new soundtrack is composed and performed
by Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum and Laura Karpman, both Julliard-trained artists and
the previous recipients of Grammy and Emmy Award nominations/victories.
Over this millennium, The
Hunchback of Notre Dame has been re-made on any number of occasions.The best recalled of these are RKO’s 1939
version featuring Charles Laughton or the French-Italian 1956 version featuring
Anthony Quinn and Gina Lollobrigida.Folks of my generation might better recall these two post-Chaney re-tellings,
especially if they have little interest in silent cinema.Younger folks were likely first introduced to
the tale via Disney’s 1996 animated musical adaptation – a film whose cartoon
Quasimodo most resembled Laughton’s pitiful, less grotesque caricature.Having said that, Chaney’s Quasimodo, despite
age, will forever remain the most iconic.
A few notes on this generous bonus materials supplied on
this set.Included is a vintage, silent Life in Hollywood newsreel that features
a birds-eye view of the massive Universal City lot, described on an inter-title
card as “the strangest city in the world.”Once on soil, we watch as a procession of Universal’s silent-era stars
and starlets’ parade out of a studio canteen.Most of these names are now sadly lost to the memory of all but a small cabal
of film historians.The newsreel,
running approximately eight and a half minutes in length features a small clip
of Chaney – sans costume and make-up - demonstrating a bit of acrobatics on the
exterior of the Notre Dame structure.
The set also features a thirteen-minute silent reel of
“Mabel and Bill Dumphy’s Visit with Hazel and Lon.”This is sourced from 16mm footage shot during
the couple’s visits with Chaney, his wife Hazel, and their wire-haired terrier
Sandy, at rest during the family’s residencies in Soboba Hot Springs and
Saratoga.The Soboba footage is
primarily interesting in its moody capture of the former’s Riverside County
hamlet’s Spanish mission-styled architecture and terraced landscapes.There’s not much Chaney in the Soboba
footage, aside from Lon looking out pensively over the hillside, or playfully
tugging at Sandy the dog’s tail in another.
The Saratoga footage documents additional glimpses of the
Chaneys at home.We watch as Chaney and
guests mill about a backyard garden, the reclusive actor letting down his guarded
reserve.We watch as Lon playfully
wrestles a giggling Hazel on the lawn or smoking and drinking with friends.The latter clip is of interest due to the recognizable
presence of Lon’s son, Creighton (strategically “re-christened” Lon Chaney Jr. following
his father’s passing), smiling as he too puffs away on a cigarette in the
background.The set also features an
audio-commentary track by Farran Smith Nehme, a film historian and critic whose
work has appeared in such publications as Film
Comment, The Wall Street Journal, Village Voice and New York Post.The set
rounds off with a generous gallery/slideshow of publicity materials and
production stills.
One hundred years following the date of its production,
Worsley’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame
admittedly puts the “retro” in Cinema
Retro.But despite the film’s age,
its heart still beats soundly.Anyone
interested in film history should visit this film at least once in their
lifetime, and this Kino Blu-ray might just be the best conduit for one to do
just that.
When
asked to name a Pre-Code melodrama starring Charles Laughton as a sadistic
megalomaniac in a tropical setting, most movie enthusiasts are likely to cite
“The Island of Lost Souls.”As H.G.
Wells’ Dr. Moreau, who turns animals into humans through appalling surgery in
his “house of pain,” Laughton’s performance in the 1932 Paramount film remains
a classic of horror cinema.“White
Woman,” which followed from the same studio in 1933, isn’t nearly as well
remembered or as outrageous.Still, it
provided another delicious role for Laughton and offers wonderful insight into
the tactics used by Hollywood in the Pre-Code era to exploit audiences’ demand
for lurid escapism, while skirting the watchful eye of censors.The film, based on a stage play and directed
by Stuart Walker, is available as a Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics,
from a new 2K master.
Laughton’s
character, Horace H. Prin, is a predatory merchant who holds a monopoly on
trade in the hinterlands of Malaya, then a British colony.In town he encounters Judith Denning (Carole
Lombard), a young woman shunned by her fellow expatriates.Already the subject of salacious rumours, she
learns that she’s about to be deported as an undesirable after going a step too
far, performing torch songs in a “native cafe.”The stiff-necked governor is unmoved by Judith’s plea that she’s broke
and has nowhere else to go.Judith
attracts Prin’s attention and he offers her an escape to “something better” by
accompanying him to his remote outpost.There, he promises, she’ll live in style.
Once
she accepts his proposal, she realizes she’d have been better off taking her
chances with deportation.Horace
exploits the tribes with whom he trades, holds his employees in virtual slave
labor, and once he has Judith in his control, he treats her with biting
scorn.One of his clerks, David Von Elst
(Kent Taylor), a disgraced military officer, falls in love with Judith, and she
with him.Horace enjoys watching them
squirm with no hope of escaping his domination.The two are trapped because the river is the only feasible way out of
the jungle.Prin owns the only boats,
and headhunting tribesmen lurk along the trail by land.When David is banished upriver to one of
Horace’s warehouses, Judith’s troubles come to a head.A new employee arrives, Ballister (Charles
Bickford), a roughneck who doesn’t bother to hide his intention to make time
with Judith:“I’ve watched those sweet
eyes of yours . . . and other things,” he tells her.“C’mon baby, what do you say?”Prin takes note but he’s more curious than
anything else.How far will Ballister
press his crude advances, given that he doesn’t fear Prin, Prin doesn’t fear
him, and Judith treats both men with icy contempt?
In
2023, when it takes a lot to create a sex scandal worthy of attention, the
backstory of “White Woman” appears more quaint than shocking.The cafe that draws the governor’s
displeasure is about as raucous as your neighbourhood Applebee’s, its Chinese,
East Indian, and dissolute European clientele apparently more interested in
chatting among themselves than ogling the gorgeous blonde who plays the piano
and sings on stage.Judith might as well
be performing Billy Joel tunes at a piano bar in Iowa City.But this was about as far as the filmmakers
could push the envelope in those days of restrictive erotic and racial
conventions.A franker explanation for
the fuss and bother—that the hapless Judith is actually a prostitute who hangs
out at the cafe to solicit sex from men of color—would have been a non-starter
even in the Pre-Code era.
Things
liven up whenever Laughton appears as the chortling, smirking, and preening
Prin, wearing a cheap tropical suit, a straw boater, Jheri curls,a bushy, bristly moustache, and an East End
London accent.Prin is one of Laughton’s
great grotesque characters, a monster shaped by a terrible start in life.“You ‘aven’t spent any part of your childhood
in the slums, ‘ave you?” he asks Judith.“Well, I ‘ave.”Thanks to his
early lessons in class prejudice, he luxuriates in his ability, via wealth and
influence, to intimidate the “bloomin’ snobs” who run the colonial
government.The same passive-aggressive
rage fuels his treatment of Judith, whom he exploits, isolates, and emotionally
abuses.Inferentially, she is a surrogate
for all of the beautiful women who spurned him when he was young and poor.That she refuses to act the victim only
intensifies his abuse.If critics
haven’t explored this facet of the picture as a feminist statement years before
modern feminism emerged, they should.
The
Kino Lorber Blu-ray greatly improves on the movie’s previous home video
release, a 2014 manufactured-on-demand DVD in the Universal Vault Series.As a special feature, the KL edition includes
informative audio commentary by director and film professor Allan Arkush and
film historian Daniel Kremer.It’s
difficult to argue with their criticism of Stuart Walker’s static,
unimaginative blocking of scenes, but in fairness, most movies adapted from
stage productions in the early days of talkies suffered from the same
shortcoming.Walker showed a little more
flair in 1935’s “Werewolf of London.”
The
Kino Lorber Studio Classics’ Blu-ray edition of “White Woman” can be ordered
HERE from Amazon.
(Fred Blosser is the author of "Sons of Ringo: The Great Spaghetti Western Heroes". Click here to order from Amazon)
I reviewed the Universal print-on-demand DVD of “The
Mississippi Gambler” (1953) for Cinema Retro eight years ago. I didn’t give the
film, starring Tyrone Power, Julia Adams, and Piper Laurie, very high marks.
Now Kino Lorber has released it anew on Blu-Ray. Aside from an audio commentary
by film historian Toby Roan, and better color because it’s Blu-Ray, it’s
basically the same experience. I can’t think of much new to say about it, so
here’s some of what I wrote back when, along with some final thoughts on the
current state of the home video market.
Here’s the original review I wrote 8 years ago:
I watched The Mississippi Gambler (1953) DVD from Universal
while recovering from a root canal, hoping a good rousing Tyrone Power flick
and three fingers of Kentucky bourbon, would cure my pain. Boy, was I wrong.
Watching this slow, soap opera-ish movie, with a cast of characters that belong
in an old Carol Burnett Show sketch, was like having the root canal all over
again. Admittedly, the Technicolor was good, and Julie Adams was great (which
she always was) but the script by Seton Miller was a complete turnoff with one
of the worst endings I've ever seen. The characters were mostly boring and
despicable. The plot was ham-fisted melodrama served with a mint julep.
Direction by Rudolph Mate’ was lethargic and unimaginative.
Basically, it's one of those stories about four people
all in love with the wrong person. But Miller added some very weird touches to
the familiar story line. Piper Laurie plays Angelique Dureau, a snooty,
neurotic iceberg who is way too close to her brother Laurent (John Baer) for
comfort. She uses him as a shield against intimacy with any other man, as
Tyrone Power, playing the titular gambler Mark Fallon, explains to her. For no
comprehensible reason at all, other than the plot demands it, Fallon falls
madly in love with her. Why? She's a pouty, petulant, porcelain imitation of a
woman.
Her brother, Laurent, is a miserable weasel, a man with
no honor and thus a perfect foil for the upright and honorable Fallon, who is
not only good with a deck of cards, he's also the son of one of New York's
finest fencing masters. (Zorro rides again!). The three of them meet on a
Mississippi riverboat named The Sultana. Pardon a digression while I note that
this was the same paddle boat on which Yancy Derringer, a few years later,
would ply his poker skills in the CBS television series starring Jock Mahoney.
Fallon's goal is to run an honest gambling table and
eventually open his own casino. He teams up with Kansas John Polly (John
McIntyre), a seasoned veteran of many a three card Monty game. In a game of
poker, Laurent loses his sister's diamond necklace to Fallon. Fallon tries to
give it back to her later, but she pretends she told her brother to wager it.
In the next scene she confronts the weasel and cries, "How could you do it
without asking me?" This obviously gets the star-crossed- lovers off on the
wrong foot. Fallon wins big that night but he and Polly barely escape being
killed by a gang of crooked gamblers and have to jump off the boat when the
captain gets near the riverbank. They walk to New Orleans, after losing all
their winnings in the river. But they have a good laugh about it.
At about the second act mark,enter Julie Adams (billed
here as "Julia Adams") as Ann Conant. She's the member of another
weird brother/sister duo. Her brother, Julian (Dennis Weaver, believe it or
not, with a sort of New York high society accent) sits down to play with
Fallon, saying he heard he played an honest game. He quickly loses every cent
he brought with him, then goes out on deck and shoots himself. The Captain and
Fallon discover he has a sister on board, and Fallon feels responsible and
wants to help her. She says he must have gambled away the money his company
gave him to take to New Orleans. Fallon, noble fellow that he is, lies and says
no he gave that money to the captain for safe keeping. He takes Ann to New
Orleans where and sets her up in a hotel. It complicates his plans to romance
Angelique but what's a story without complications.?
Meantime in New Orleans he runs into fencing expert
Edmund Dureau (Paul Cavanaugh) and guess what? He turns out to be Angelique and
Laurent's father! Of course, he invites Fallon to his home where he meets them
again. In one of the lamest scenes in the whole film, when they have a moment
alone, he tells her that he knows he and she are in love with each other and
always will be. "I could have you thrown out of this house for speaking to
me like that,” she exhorts. He replies, "You don't have to run me out. I'm
leaving tomorrow." And he adds: "You’re not ready for marriage. And
you won't be until the day you come to me." She calls him an egotistical
cad. And here's the punchline. "Yes", Fallon says, "I suppose it
sounds that way. But it's the only way a woman can be truly happy with a
man".
What? Did women in the 50’s really buy this tripe? Can
you imagine George Clooney trying that line on Catherine Zeta-Jones, or
Catherine Heigel? He'd get his ass kicked. I won't go on with any more of the
plot, but you can be sure it involves some fencing and a duel with pistols at
the Dueling Oaks. Funny thing about Power's fencing scene with Paul Cavanaugh.
Both men wore fencing masks through the entire scene, which makes me wonder if
either one did any of the fancy sword work, even though Power was in reality a
very good fencer. In another fight scene between Fallon and Laurent on the riverboat,
it is so obviously two badly matched stuntmen carrying the action. Power was
only 39 when he filmed “The Mississippi Gambler,” but he looked older and a bit
tired. Maybe he wanted to take it easy. He'd made many great films by then but
would only live five more years. He'd make seven more films in that time, all
better than “The Mississippi Gambler,” including “The Sun Also Rises,” and
“King of the Khyber Rifles.”
Nevertheless “The Mississippi Gambler” was a big
financial success. Lucky for Power, because his wife, Linda Christian divorced
him after losing out to Piper Laurie for the part of Angelique. She never
forgave Power for not getting her the part, and also, allegedly, for having an
affair with Anita Ekberg, who played an uncredited part as a maid of honor at
Angelique's wedding to another of her suitors.
. . . So that’s the review I wrote 8 years ago. The new
Blu-ray release, as noted earlier, contains nothing new except a commentary by
Toby Roan. Frankly, even Roan’s commentary doesn’t warrant spending the money
for the new edition. His comments merely consist of providing biographical info
on each and every actor, no matter how insignificant his role. Oh, look, here’s
John McIntyre. He was a regular on the Naked City TV series. There’s Paul Cavanaugh,
he was in a Tarzan movie. And that’s Guy Williams who played Zorro on TV. And
on and on and on. I turned the commentary off after half an hour.
The home video market is disappearing before our eyes.
Streaming has become the consumer’s first choice for watching movies at home.
Go into Target or Best Buy and what used to be row after row of DVDs for sale
has shrunk down to a few shelves, hidden behind the flat screen TV display
area. If companies like Kino Lorber hope to stay in business they have to
provide extras that aren’t available through the streaming platforms to make it
worth their while. So any of these commentary tracks are very welcome, even if
this one falls short.
When it comes to Kino Lorber’s “The Mississippi Gambler,”
as I said in the original write up, I'd rather put on a Yancy Derringer DVD and
watch him at the poker table with Pahoo Ka Te Wah standing behind him with his
shotgun hidden under his poncho, ready for action as the Sultana winds its way
down the Big Muddy. Rollin’ down the river.
Kino Lorber has released a Blu-ray edition of the little-remembered
1970 romantic comedy "How Do I Love Thee?" The film's primary
distinction is the interesting teaming of Jackie Gleason and Maureen
O'Hara. By this point in his career, Gleason was a force of nature in
the American entertainment business. When his variety show went off the
air, CBS couldn't induce him to do another series so the network
actually paid him not to work for any other network. When you get paid a
fortune not to work, you know you're doing something right.
Gleason had settled in Miami Beach in the early 1960s as one of the
demands he made of CBS in return for doing his variety show. The
location offered what Gleason liked most: sun, golf, plenty of drinking
establishments and no shortage of beautiful young women. Gleason's
impact on elevating Miami Beach's popularity was notable. It was widely
believed that the city's rebirth as a hip destination as opposed to a
retirement destination was due in part to Gleason referring to Miami
Beach as "The sun and fun capital of the world!". Gleason, like his
contemporary Dean Martin, had long ago tired of working very hard. If
you wanted him, the mountain had to come to Mohammed, so to speak. Thus,
it's no coincidence that "How Do I Love Thee?" was filmed in Miami
Beach, thereby ensuring Gleason prime opportunities for maximizing his
play time and minimizing his work before the cameras. (Gleason had a
photographic memory and famously refused to rehearse very much, often to
the consternation of his co-stars).
The film focuses on the character of Tom Waltz (Rick Lenz), a
twenty-something professor who is rising up the ladder at his
university. He's a got a nice house and a beautiful wife, Marion
(Rosemary Forsyth) but when we first meet him, he's filled with anxiety.
Seems that while visiting the "miracle" site of Lourdes in France, his
father Walt (Jackie Gleason) has suffered a major health crisis. Tom's
mother Elsie (Maureen O'Hara) implores Tom to race over to France and
visit his father, who seems to be dying. Tom wants to go but Marion
reminds him of the lifetime of contentious situations he has endured
with his father and tells him that this is just another method of Walt
trying to gain attention. Indeed, as we see through a series of
flashbacks, Walt is a real handful. He owns his own moving company but
still has to break his back loading and lifting furniture all day long.
He has a pretty fractious relationship with Elsie, largely due to her
strong religious convictions that conflict with his atheism. As young
boy, Tom witnessed a lot of fighting in the household. When he
accompanied his dad on jobs, he discovered that his father is not the
devoted family man he thought he was- especially when he witnesses Walt
trying to seduce a ditzy social activist and amateur photographer
(Shelly Winters in typical over-the-top Shelly Winters mode) who is one
of his clients. Walt is similar in nature to Willy Lohman of "Death of a
Salesman" in that both men are past their prime but working harder than
ever to provide for their family. Walt is a good man, but he's subject
to self-imposed crises generally related to his short temper, drinking
habits and flirtatious nature. Ultimately, Tom opts to take the trip to
Lourdes, even though Marion is threatening to divorce him over his
decision. The majority of the tale is told in flashbacks that present
some moderately amusing situations and some poignant dramatic scenes as
well. There's also a good dose of sexual humor, typical for comedies of
the era that were capitalizing on new-found screen freedoms.The
direction by old pro Michael Gordon ("Pillow Talk") is fine but the
screenplay, based on a novel by Peter De Vries, punts in the final
scenes, tossing in an improbable extended joke about cars going amiss on
their way to a funeral and a feel-good ending that wraps everything up
quickly in a style more befitting a sitcom episode of the era. Still,
the performances are fun with Lenz and Forsyth quite good as the young
couple and Gleason and O'Hara registering some genuine chemistry on
screen.
The Blu-ray transfer is generally fine but around the 80-minute mark
some speckling and artifacts appear during the final reel, although it
isn't distracting enough to bother the average viewer. The bonus extras
don't include the trailer for the feature film but do present trailers
for other KL comedy releases including "Avanti!", "The Russians are
Coming! The Russians are Coming!" and " The Adventure of Sherlock
Holmes' Smarter Brother".
Enjoy this vintage documentary, "Steve McQueen: Man on the Edge", narrated by his friend James Coburn, with whom he starred in "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape". (To watch in full screen mode, click on "Watch on YouTube".)
Now available from Imprint, the Australia-based video label. (The Blu-ray set is region-free.) Since these limited edition titles tend to sell out quickly, we suggest you order ASAP.
Essential
Film Noir: Collection 4 includes five acclaimed and much sought after classics: Rope of Sand
(1949), Appointment with Danger (1950), The Enforcer (1951), Beware, My Lovely
(1952) & Jennifer (1953).
Limited 4 Disc Hardbox
edition with unique artwork on the first 1500 copies.
Rope of Sand (1949) - Imprint Collection #210
After a two-year
hiatus, Mike Davis (Burt Lancaster) returns to the same African city where he
was tortured and left for dead at the hands of a sadistic Police Commandant
(Paul Henreid). Originally innocent of all charges, Mike is back to claim the
diamonds he had supposedly stolen two years ago. He enlists the help of an
alcoholic stranger (Peter Lorre) and the doctor (Sam Jaffe), who had helped him
back to health. The diamond syndicate head (Claude Rains) recruits a nightclub
temptress Suzanne Renaud (Corinne Calvet) to seduce and betray Mike as an
alternate to brute force.
This suspense-noir
classic was directed by William Dieterle (Dark City).
Starring Burt
Lancaster, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Paul Henreid & Sam Jaffe.
Special
Features and Technical Specs:
1080p
High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan
NEW Audio
commentary by film historian Samm Deighan
NEW Interview
with film professor Jose Arroyo
Trailer
Original
Aspect Ratio 1.37:1
Audio English
LPCM 2.0 Mono
Optional
English HOH subtitles
Appointment with Danger (1950) - Imprint Collection #211
Postal Inspector Al
Goddard (Alan Ladd) is assigned to investigate the murder of a fellow officer.
The only witness to the crime is Sister Augustine (Phyllis Calvert), who
identifies the photograph of one of the assailants. This leads Goddard to a
seedy hotel where he learns that the assailant is a member of a gang headed by
Earl Boettiger (Paul Stewart), and he soon discovers that the gang is planning
a million dollar mail robbery. This classic film noir also features the stars
of Dragnet, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan, as Stewart's Henchmen.
This was Alan
Ladd's final Film Noir and was directed by Lewis Allen (The Uninvited).
Starring Paul
Stewart, Alan Ladd, Phyllis Calvert, Jan Sterling & Jack Webb.
Special
Features and Technical Specs:
1080p
High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan
NEW Audio
commentary with professor and film scholar Jason Ney
NEW Interview
with Film Noir specialist Frank Krutnik
NEW Video
featurette on director Lewis Allen
Trailer
Original
Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
Audio English
LPCM 2.0 Mono
Optional
English HOH subtitles
The Enforcer (1951) - Imprint Collection #212
Humphrey Bogart (The
Maltese Falcon) is in fine form as a crusading District Attorney out to
convict the head of a vicious murder-for-hire ring. But when his star witness
is killed, Bogart must race against time to find the evidence he needs to bring
down the mob boss. Told in a series of flashbacks, this tense, tough-as-nails
crime thriller on the cutting edge of film noir was based on actual Murder,
Inc. Trials.
Stylishly directed
by Bretagne Windust (June Bride) with un-credited help from Raoul Walsh
(Pursued) and beautifully shot by the great Robert Burks (North by Northwest).
Starring Humphrey
Bogart, Zero Mostel, Ted de Corsia & Everett Sloane.
Special
Features and Technical Specs:
1080p
High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan
NEW Audio commentary
by noir expert and Film Noir Foundation board member Alan K. Rode
Original
aspect ratio 1.37:1
Audio English
LPCM 2.0 Mono
Optional
English subtitles
Beware, My Lovely (1952) - Imprint Collection #213
Helen Gordon (Ida
Lupino) hires Howard Wilton (Robert Ryan) as a handyman to do chores around her
house. She doesn't know what she's let herself in for. Insecure and paranoid,
Wilton thinks everyone, including Helen, is against him. He suffers from memory
lapses and extreme mood swings. She's soon a prisoner in her own house after
Wilton locks the doors and tears out the telephone. His mood swings from
violence to complacency but after Helen gets a message to the police via a
telephone repairman, she finds he is still in the house. ...Beware, My Lovely.
Starring Robert
Ryan, Ida Lupino, Taylor Holmes & Barbara Whiting.
Premier Blu-ray
release worldwide.
Special
Features and Technical Specs:
1080p
High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan
NEW Audio
commentary with professor and film scholar Jason Ney
NEW Interview
with author and programmer Pamela Hutchinson
Original
Aspect Ratio 1.37:1
Audio English
LPCM 2.0 Mono
Optional
English HOH subtitles
Jennifer (1953) - Imprint Collection #213
Agnes Langsley (Ida
Lupino) gets a job, through Jim Hollis (Howard Duff), as caretaker of an old
and vacated estate. The owner's cousin, Jennifer, was the last occupant and
mysteriously disappeared. Agnes soon begins to believe that Jennifer was
murdered and that Jim, whom she has fallen in love with, is responsible.
Starring Ida
Lupino, Howard Duff & Robert Nichols.
Premier Blu-ray
release worldwide.
Special
Features and Technical Specs:
1080p
High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan
Original
Aspect Ratio 1.37:1
Audio English
LPCM 2.0 Mono
Optional
English HOH subtitles
Any pre-order titles will be dispatched in the week
leading up to its aforementioned release date. Special features and artwork are
subject to change.
Scorpion has released a Blu-ray edition of the 1979 Canadian disaster movie "City on Fire". If you've never heard of it, don't feel bad- neither had this writer and I thought I was quite familiar with the genre which arguably began with the release of "Airport" in 1970. The success of that film spawned similarly-themed adventures that generally found all-stars casts threatened by water, fire, animals and other forces of nature. Producer Irwin Allen hit two home runs with "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno", the latter representing the artistic and commercial peak of the short-lived but highly popular genre. At its height even second-grade disaster flicks could make sizable profits (a low-grade Japanese import titled "Tidal Wave" was a hit after it was "Americanized" with some brief footage of Lorne Greene included.) By the late 1970s, however, fickle audiences had tired of the sheer predictability of the disaster movie premise. The release of "Star Wars" incited a new interest in sci-fi but there were still some attempts to pump life into disaster flicks even if most of the passion and creativity had been drained from these productions. "City on Fire" is about, as you might have guessed, a city on fire. The unnamed city (actually Toronto) is the setting for a catastrophic blaze that starts as an act of sabotage caused by a disgruntled employee at a large chemical plant that has been foolishly located in the center of the urban metropolis. The seemingly minor act of mischief quickly escalates when raw fuel pours unchecked into the city's water supply. A spark ignites a huge inferno that rapidly isolates a major part of the city in a ring of fire that makes it almost impossible for firefighters to penetrate, thus leaving it to the potential victims to find their own methods of escape. Most of the action takes place inside a major hospital which is being evacuated even as the flames make it unlikely that many of the staff and patients will be able to reach safety. In order to do so they must navigate a deadly gauntlet of fire.
"City on Fire" lacks the big budget production values of the more successful disaster movies but director Alvin Rakoff and production designer William McCrow get around that obstacle in very commendable ways. Rakoff does utilize the old stand by of using actual disaster footage from news broadcasts in certain instances and uses a jittery camera to provide a sense of impending danger to otherwise stagnant buildings, at times making it look like Don Knotts was the cameraman. However, the production design is quite good and Rakoff handles the action scenes very commendably. There are some cheesy special effects, primarily scenes of the skyline burning, but the up-close action footage is spectacular at times and the movie features some of the best stunt work I've seen including many instances of the stuntman's worst nightmare: the full-body burn. The biggest star in this budget-challenged production is Henry Fonda, then in the winter of his career and seemingly content to play characters of authority who sit around offices and control rooms barking orders over telephones (i.e "Meteor", "Rollercoaster" and "The Swarm"). Old Hank would prove he still had his mojo with his final film, "On Golden Pond", that saw him win an Oscar, but in the years leading up to that he was happy to pick up quick pay checks with supporting roles in populist fare. Here he plays the stalwart fire chief trying to cope with the loss of an entire city. Barry Newman is the playboy physician who is trying frantically to save his hospital which is in the direct line of fire. He's also juggling a strained relationship with old flame (pardon the pun) Susan Clark, a glam socialite who had once been his lover. Meanwhile, she is involved in an illicit affair with the mayor (Leslie Nielsen) and is unaware that there are incriminating photos that are about to be used to blackmail both of them. Shelley Winters is wasted in a throw-away role as a bossy nurse who acts a lot like Shelley Winters and James Franciscus is a TV news producer who is trying to keep wall-to-wall coverage on the air despite that the fact that his star anchor, an aging diva (Ava Gardner) has turned up drunk right before the broadcasts. One of the more rewarding aspects of the film is that it affords meaty roles to actors who are generally relegated to second-tier status. They all perform admirably but it's impossible to view any of Leslie Nielsen's pre-comedy career performances objectively. He became such a master of brilliantly spoofing his own acting style that when you view his dramatic work you keep waiting for punchlines and slapstick gags that never materialize. The film follows all the conventional elements of the standard disaster movie (i.e children in peril, a pregnant woman who goes into labor during the crisis, lovers reunited, etc.) I half expected the climax to feature the heroes trapped aboard an upended ocean liner while being menaced by a shark. However, I must say that I very much enjoyed "City on Fire". It boasts an intelligent script, fine direction and reasonably good performances. There is also an almost complete lack of humor, so you won't see Fred Astaire as a charming con man or an unbilled Walter Matthau getting soused in a bar in the midst of an earthquake. The sense of gravitas is in keeping with the dramatic scenario of people stranded within a ring of fire. The movie came a day late and a dollar short to capitalize on the disaster movie trend. It's not as slick or polished as the best entries in the genre but it's better than many others including Irwin Allen's career-ending turkeys, "The Swarm" and "When Time Ran Out".
The Scorpion Blu-ray contains a notice that the transfer was put together from various sources. There are a few blotches here and there but the Blu-ray generally looks fine. Bonus features include a TV spot for the film and a trailer gallery of other Scorpion releases. Recommended.
The James Bond-inspired spy movie boom of the 1960s resulted in the films of this genre generally fitting into one of two distinct categories: tongue-in-cheek spoofs played largely for laughs (the Flint and Matt Helm series) and gritty, realistic depictions of espionage that stripped away any glamour from the spy trade ("The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", "The Deadly Affair", "The Venetian Affair", "The Ipcress File" and countless others.) Straddling the line between the two genres was writer/director Val Guest's 1966 film "Where the Spies Are" starring David Niven, who seemed impeccably suited to capitalize on the movie craze. The film was based on the novel "Passport to Oblivion" by James Leasor, a straight-up thriller set in Beirut, Lebanon when it was a thriving holiday destination for wealthy Europeans to the extent it was known as "The Paris of the Middle East". The movie opens with the abduction and murder of an MI6 agent, Rossiter (Cyril Cusack) in Beirut. He's been investigating a Soviet-inspired plot to murder the head of state and install a puppet government. The British are especially concerned because they depend upon the friendly government of Lebanon to provide Great Britain with substantial amounts of oil (some things never change.) When Rossiter goes silent, MI6 boss MacGillivray (John Le Mesurier) needs to send an agent to Beirut to investigate his disappearance. He decides he needs a non-professional who has no trace to the agency to act as an operative. He recalls using the services of Jason Love (David Niven) twenty years earlier in the war. It seems that Love proved to be reliable in successfully pulling off a dangerous mission. Love is now a well-off physician living a happy bachelor lifestyle with a posh house and a vintage, valuable roadster that he takes pleasure in driving through the country lanes. MacGillivray uses Love's sense of patriotism (and a bribe to buy him an even more valuable and rare roadster) as an incentive for him to agree to visit Lebanon, ostensibly to attend an international medical conference. It's supposed to be an easy job with Love simply nosing around and trying to find some clues as to Rossiter's fate, but you know how things usually turn out in missions of this type.
When Love disembarks from his plane in Rome to await a connecting flight to Beirut, there is quite a stir in the terminal because world famous fashion model known simply as Vikki (Francoise Dorleac) is being photographed for a fashion spread in a major magazine. They meet cute and Love is understandably distracted by her beauty. After turning on the charm, she confides in Love that she is actually one of the MI6 contacts he will meet on his mission. Love is so shocked that he is too late to catch his flight- and lucky for him that he didn't because minutes after takeoff, the plane explodes, killing everyone on board. (Inexplicably, the incident directly over the airport doesn't seem to generate much reaction from the people at the airport.) Love attributes the disaster to a mechanical flaw and arrives at his hotel in Lebanon- the same one that Rossiter had a room at. He's pleased to find that Vikki is there, too, and is as enthused about getting under the covers as he is. Their romantic fling is later disturbed by an assassination attempt and Vikki informs Love that the destruction of the airplane might have been a plot to kill him. He soon meets Parkington (Nigel Davenport), another MI6 contact- a career agent who is depressed and cynical about intelligence work. He copes by hitting the bottle hard but he proves to be a valuable ally to Love in tracing Rossiter's fate. Ultimately, Love finds himself in further peril and having to resort to his own defense mechanisms (and a couple of spy gadgets, of course) in order to survive. The finale finds him trying to thwart the assassination as well as escape Soviet kidnappers who bundle him aboard a plane bound for Russia.
"Where the Spies Are" starts off with the implication that it will be a comedy in the Flint/Helm mode with Niven playing a comic fish-out-of-water character embroiled in a larger-than-life adventure. However, the laughs are few and far between once he sets off on his mission. The film still offers some witticisms and subdued laughs, but it turns primarily into a thriller including a larger-than-life action scene atop ancient ruins. The movie was directed and co-written by Val Guest, a reliable old hand at making highly enjoyable mid-range films that weren't designed to be blockbusters or win awards. He keeps the action moving at a brisk pace, accompanied by a lively score by Mario Nasciembene. Niven is perfectly cast and delivers his usual charismatic and charming performance. Dorleac is given some mod fashion wear to show off and makes for a suitable love interest. She was set to follow her sister Catherine Deneuve as the next "it girl" in films but tragically died in 1967 in a car crash shortly after completing her final film, the spy thriller "Billion Dollar Brain". The film benefits from some exotic on-location scenes in Lebanon, with interiors shot at the old MGM Studios at Boreham Wood, England. However, it suffers from some crude special effects and the all-too-obvious use of miniatures and rear screen projection. Similarly, Niven's stunt double doesn't pass muster, as he doesn't resemble the actor in the slightest even from afar.
The film features any number of people associated with James Bond films. Niven, of course, would go on to star as Sir James Bond in the 1967 spoof version of "Casino Royale" which was co-written and co-directed by Val Guest. Wolf Mankiewicz, who had been an uncredited contributor to the script of "Dr. No", co-wrote the screenplay for "Where the Spies Are" as well as "Casino Royale". The titles were designed by Robert Brownjohn who also created the classic titles for "Goldfinger" and "From Russia with Love". Among the actors who were associated with at least one Bond movie include Eric Pohlmann (who provided the voice of the unseen Blofeld in the early Bond movies), Paul Stassino "("Thunderball"), John Le Mesurier ("Casino Royale" as "M"'s chauffeur), George Pravda ("From Russia with Love"), Bill Nagy ("Goldfinger") and Geoffrey Bayldon ("Casino Royale"). Also, former Bond star George Lazenby starred as Jason Love in an audio book adaptation of "Passport to Oblivion" available on Amazon Kindle. "U.N.C.L.E." fans will also enjoy seeing "Girl from U.N.C.L.E." star Noel Harrison as an MI6 agent and will get a laugh out of one of the passwords used in the film, "Love from Uncle", which could not have been a coincidence since it was an MGM production.
Val Guest had obtained the screen rights to "Passport to Oblivion" and several literary sequels in the hopes that a series of Jason Love films would go into production. However, the film didn't elicit much excitement from moviegoers or critics and, thus, a series never went into production. Not helping matters was MGM's decision to recut Guest's final version of the film without his permission, which supposedly infuriated him. Nevertheless, if you have a soft spot for spy movies of the 1960s, you'll probably find the film as enjoyable as I did.
The region-free Warner Archive DVD proves that this title is in dire need of a Blu-ray upgrade. The color quality is all over the place, ranging from satisfactory to wild deviations to various garish tints, giving it a Frankenstein-like quality in that it seemed to have been cobbled together with bits from several prints. That probably wasn't the case, but it is nevertheless the effect. The Archive is doing some great work upgrading even "B" titles so let's hope "Where the Spies Are" is on their list for future Blu-ray release. The only bonus feature is the original trailer which is narrated for some reason by a guy who sounds like an extra from an old WB gangster movie.
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For those of us who are hopelessly addicted to spy movies of the
1960s, the Warner Archive provides a gift: the first DVD release of "The
Scorpio Letters", one of the more obscure 007-inspired espionage films
of the era. Produced by MGM, the movie was shown on American TV in early
1967 before enjoying a theatrical release in Europe. It seems the
studio was trying to emulate the strategy that it was employing at the
time for its phenomenally popular "Man From U.N.C.L.E." TV series. That
show had proven to be such a hit with international audiences that MGM
strung together two-part episodes and released them theatrically. (Three
films were released in America but a total of eight were shown in
international markets.) As "The Scorpio Letters" was produced with a
theatrical run in mind, it has a bit more gloss than the average TV
movie, which was then a genre in its infancy. Nevertheless, it still has
all the earmarks of a production with a limited budget. Although set in
London and France, you'd have to be pretty naive to believe any of the
cast and crew ever got out of southern California. Grainy stock footage
is used to simulate those locations and there is ample use of the very
distinctive MGM back lot, which at times makes the film resemble an
episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." What the movie does provide is some
nice chemistry between its two lead actors, Alex Cord, who had recently
acquitted himself quite well in the underrated 1966 big screen remake
of John Ford's "Stagecoach" and Shirley Eaton, then still riding the
wave of popularity she enjoyed as the iconic "golden girl" from the Bond
blockbuster "Goldfinger". The two play rival spies in London, both
working for different British intelligence agencies, though whether it
is MI5 or MI6 is never made clear.
The film is based on a novel by Victor Caning that had been adapted
for the screen by the ironically named Adrian Spies, who had a long
career working primarily in television. (Curiously, his one credited
feature film was for the superb 1968 adventure "Dark of the Sun" (aka
"The Mercenaries".) There is nothing remarkable about his work on "The
Scorpio Letters". In fact, Spies provides a rather confusing plot. The
film opens on a jarring note with a man taking a suicidal plunge from
his apartment window in London. Turns out he was a British intelligence
agent and the reasons for his suicide are of great interest to the
higher ups in the spy business. Alex Cord plays Joe Christopher, an
American ex-cop who now does work for one of the intelligence agencies
run by Burr (the ever-reliable Laurence Naismith). Burr orders him to
get to the bottom of the suicide case and in doing so, Joe gains access
to the dead man's apartment just in time to encounter a mysterious man
stealing a letter addressed to the dead agent. A foot chase ensues that
ends with both men getting struck by a London double decker bus (yes,
MGM had one of those laying around the back lot.) Still, Joe manages to
steal back the letter the man had swiped and finds it is obviously a
blackmail attempt made against the dead agent by a mystery person who
goes by the name of Scorpio. From there the plot gets rather confusing
and becomes one of those thrillers that is best enjoyed if you stop
trying to figure out who is who and just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Joe flirts with Phoebe Stewart (Shirley Eaton), who works in another
intelligence agency. It appears her boss and Joe's boss are constantly
trying to undermine each other in the attempt to solve major cases.
Phoebe makes an attempt to seduce Joe, but he correctly suspects that
she is trying to compromise him for information he knows about the case.
Inevitably, a real romance blossoms but the love scenes are pretty
mild, perhaps due to the fact that this film was made with a television
broadcast in mind. (The plot invokes the old joke of having the would-be
lovers get interrupted every time they attempt to get it on.)
Joe gets a lead that takes him to Paris where he discovers that
Scorpio is the man behind a shadowy spy network that uses agents
employed as waiters in an upscale restaurant. I imagine the reason for
this is explained somewhere along the line but it's just one more
confusing element to the script. Joe infiltrates the spies/waiters gang
in the hopes of finding out who Scorpio is. Meanwhile, in the film's
best scene, he is exposed, captured and tortured. There is even a
modicum of suspense as there appears to be no logical way he will get
out of this particular death trap. Refreshingly, Joe is no 007. He makes
miscalculations, gets bruised and beaten and often has to rely on the
intervention of others to save him. (In the film's climax, finding
himself outmanned and outgunned, he actually does the logical thing and
asks someone to call the local police for help.) Ultimately, Scorpio is
revealed to be one of those standard, aristocratic spy villains of
Sixties cinema. In this case he is played by the very able Oscar Beregi
Jr. If you don't know the name, you'll know his face, as he excelled in
playing urbane bad guys in countless TV shows and feature films of the
era. There are numerous kidnappings, shootouts, double crosses and red
herrings and one bizarre sequence that is ostensibly set in a French ski
resort in which the ski lift is inexplicably in operation even though
it's summer. Additionally, the California mountains look as much like
France as Jersey City does.
Despite all of the gripes, I enjoyed watching "The Scorpio Letters".
It's an entertaining, fast-moving diversion, directed with unremarkable
efficiency by Richard Thorpe (his second-to-last film). Cord makes for a
very capable leading man, tossing off the requisite wisecracks even
while undergoing torture. Eaton possesses the kind of old world glamour
you rarely see on screen nowadays. Together, they make an otherwise
mediocre movie play out better than it probably should. (A minor trivia
note: this represents the first film score of composer Dave Grusin, who
would go on to become an Oscar winner.)
The Warner Archive DVD transfer is very impressive and the film
contains an original trailer, which presumably was used in non-U.S.
markets.
Click here to order from the Cinema Retro Movie Store
ViaVision's Imprint line will release a limited edition, region-free (1,500 units) Blu-ray boxed set commemorating director Walter Hill. Suggest you get your pre-orders in early, as Imprint limited edition sets usually sell out fast. This set will be released in July.
Here is the official announcement:
Walter Hill has been directing films
for almost 50 years and has established himself a reputation of delivering
thrilling, gritty, and highly stylized films.
This special edition set collects five
films and one landmark miniseries from one of the most important and
influential filmmakers of modern cinema.
Hard Times (1975)
The Driver (1978)
The Long Riders (1980)
Extreme Prejudice (1987)
Johnny Handsome (1989)
Broken Trail (2006)
Featuring performances from some of
Hollywood’s greatest actors including Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Bruce
Dern, Mickey Rourke, Forest Whitaker, Morgan Freeman & Robert Duvall.
Limited Edition 8-Disc Hardbox. 1500
copies only.
Hard
Times (1975) – Imprint Collection #164
In the middle of the Great Depression,
Chaney (Charles Bronson, Death Wish) is just looking to catch a
break. When he meets Speed (James Coburn, The Magnificent Seven), a
promoter of bare-knuckle street fighting, Chaney thinks with his fighting skill
and Speed’s savvy, he might have a chance. But Speed has his own problems, and
what seemed like a sure thing is not as simple.
This gritty, compelling drama is the
directorial debut of Walter Hill.
Starring Charles Bronson, James
Coburn, Jill Ireland & Strother Martin.
Special Features & Technical
Specs:
1080p high-definition presentation on Blu-ray from
a restored 4K master
Special features TBC
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
Audio English DTS-HD 5.1 Surround + LPCM 2.0
Optional English subtitles
The
Driver (1978) – Blu-ray & 4K – Imprint Collection #165
Ryan O’Neal plays the Driver, an
ice-cool getaway “Wheel Man” for hire. Bruce Dern is the detective who becomes
obsessed with catching him. The more O’Neal leaves tantalising clues at the
crime scenes, the more Dern becomes a man possessed with catching his prey.
This cult neo-noir thriller is
presented on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray.
Starring Ryan O’Neal, Bruce Dern,
Isabelle Adjani, Joseph Walsh & Ronee Blakley.
Special Features & Technical
Specs:
4K UHD Disc
NEW 4K restoration by StudioCanal
Walter Hill Masterclass – featurette
Interview with Walter Hill
Alternate Opening
Original English Trailer
Original German Trailer
13 Original Teasers
Blu-ray Disc
1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from
a restored 4K master
NEW Audio Commentary by film historian and critic Matthew Asprey
Gear (2022)
NEWCut to the Chase – interview with actor
Bruce Dern on The Driver (2022)
NEWTeeth Bared – interview with actor Rudy
Ramos on The Driver (2022)
NEW Simplicity in Motion: Editing The
Driver – interview with editor
Robert K. Lambert (2022)
Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono
Optional English HOH subtitles
The
Long Riders (1981) – Imprint Collection #166
The Long Riders is Hill’s version of the story of the James-Younger
gang. Held as heroes by many, and much celebrated for its attacks upon the
railroad, the gang became the most famous band of outlaws in the country. They
were eventually brought to ruin by the Pinkerton detective agency, losing many
of their number in the ill-fated Northfield, Minnesota bank raid.
Four sets of real-life brothers – the
Carradines, the Keachs, the Quaids and the Guests – star in this classic
western.
Starring Keith Carradine, James Remar,
Dennis Quaid, Stacy Keach, Robert Carradine & David Carradine.
Special Edition 2-Disc Set.
Special Features & Technical
Specs:
Disc One
1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from
a restored 4K master
Audio Commentary by film historians Howard S.
Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson
NEW Audio Commentary by film historian Toby Roan
Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono
Optional English HOH subtitles
Disc Two
Interview with actors Keith Carradine and Robert
Carradine
Interview with actors Stacy Keach and James Keach
Interview with actor Randy Quaid
Interview with actor Nicholas Guest
Interview with director Walter Hill
Interview with composer Ry Cooder
Interview with producer Tim Zinnemann
Outlaw Brothers: The Making of The Long Riders – documentary
The Northfield Minnesota Raid: Anatomy of a Scene – featurette
Slow Motion: Walter Hill on Sam Peckinpah – featurette
Extreme Prejudice stars Nick Nolte as tough, no-nonsense Texas ranger
Jack Benteen, whose childhood friend Cash (Powers Boothe) is now a ruthless
drugs baron on the other side of the border. Jack finds himself recruited by
the CIA to eliminate Cash, who allegedly has secret government documents.
Starring Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe,
Rip Torn, Maria Conchita Alonso & Michael Ironside.
Special Features & Technical
Specs:
1080p high-definition presentation on Blu-ray from
a restored 4K master
NEW Audio Commentary by film critic / author Walter Chaw
NEW Audio Commentary by film historians Daniel Kremer and Nat
Segaloff
Audio commentary by film historians C. Courtney
Joyner and Henry Parke
Interview with director Walter Hill (2010)
Isolated Score Selections and Audio Interview with
music historian John Takis
The Major’s Agenda – interview with actor Michael Ironside
The War Within – interview with actor Clancy Brown
Capturing The Chaos – interview with director of photography
Matthew F. Leonetti
Theatrical Trailer
Vintage Electronic Press Kit
Photo Gallery
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
Audio English LPCM 2.0 Stereo
Optional English HOH subtitles
Johnny
Handsome (1989) – Imprint Collection #168
Severely-deformed petty criminal
Johnny Handsome (Mickey Rourke) is double-crossed in a robbery and left to take
the rap on his own. He is stabbed in jail and sent to hospital, where a prison
doctor decides that plastic surgery and a fresh start will lead Johnny on the
path to reform. However, when the handsome new Johnny emerges from prison, his
potential fresh start in life is hampered by his desire to get even with the
man who put him away.
Starring Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin,
Morgan Freeman & Forest Whitaker.
Special Features & Technical
Specs:
1080p high-definition presentation on Blu-ray from
a restored 4K master
NEW Audio Commentary by film critic and author Walter Chaw (2022)
NEW Audio commentary by film critics Daniel Kremer and Scout
Tafoya (2022)
NEW Interview with actor Peter Jason
Codes to Live By: Walter Hill on Johnny Handsome – featurette
Wordsmith – interview with writer Ken Friedman (2010)
Eye of the Beholder – interview with makeup artist Michael
Westmore (2010)
Action Man – interview with stuntman Allan Graf (2010)
Theatrical Trailer
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
Audio English LPCM 2.0 Stereo
Optional English HOH subtitles
Broken
Trail (2006) – Imprint Collection #169
Set in 1897, Print Ritter (Robert
Duvall) and his estranged nephew Tom Harte (Haden Church) become the reluctant
guardians of five abused and abandoned Chinese girls. Ritter and Harte’s
attempts to care for the girls are complicated by their responsibility to
deliver a herd of horses while avoiding a group of bitter rivals, intent on
kidnapping the girls for their own purposes. Classic Western action takes
centre stage in this dramatic miniseries!
This critically acclaimed miniseries
is the winner of four Emmy Awards.
Starring Robert Duvall, Thomas Haden
Church & Greta Scacchi.
Special Features & Technical
Specs:
1080p high-definition presentation on Blu-ray from
a restored 4K master
Broken Trail: The Making of a Legendary Western – featurette
Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
Audio English DTS HD 5.1 Surround + LPCM 2.0
Stereo
Optional English subtitles
Any pre-order titles will be
dispatched in the week leading up to its aforementioned release date. Special
features and artwork are subject to change.
Click here to to order. (Prices are in Australian dollars. Use currency converter to see value in your local currency.)
In reviewing "Fuzz" when it opened in 1972, Vincent Canby of the New York Times noted that the film looks more like a dress rehearsal than a finished movie and was obviously intended to appeal to viewers who had a limited attention span. In contrast, Roger Ebert said he was put off by the exploitive elements of the movie poster, but in the end called it a funny, quietly cheerful movie. I guess I land in the same ballpark as Ebert, although I'm not without criticism of the film, which was based on author Ed McBain's popular "87th Precinct" novels that explored the excitement and absurdities found in a modern, big city police department. The film has an impressive ensemble cast: Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch (reunited after co-starring in "100 Rifles"), Tom Skeritt, Jack Weston and Raquel Welch, who appears rather fleetingly despite her prominent billing. Oh, and the bad guy is played by Yuel Brynner, who appears rather late in the film in a limited number of scenes.
The film is primarily played for laughs and it's scattershot plot jumps around at a dizzying pace. The action takes place in the aforementioned 87th Precinct in Boston, a run-down venue located in a troubled part of the city. The plot focuses on a harried group of cynical detectives who report to their equally cynical, burned-out boss, Lt. Byrnes (Dan Frazer). The precinct is depicted as decrepit and as worn-out as its inhabitants. There's a lot of chaotic action going on throughout the day with various local miscreants and eccentrics clogging up the works, much to the frustration of the burned-out cops. The plot sees seasoned veteran cops Steve Carella (Burt Reynolds), Bert Kling (Tom Skerritt) and Meyer Meyer (you read that right) (Jack Weston) trying to cope with the chaos- as well as the arrival of a strikingly beautiful policewoman who has been assigned to the precinct, Eileen McHenry (Raquel Welch). Among the cases being investigated simultaneously are the identities of the creeps who have been setting local hobos on fire, a serial rapist, various petty crimes and a late-breaking, high-profile threat posed by an unknown man who phones in death threats aimed at local public officials.When the ransom he demands isn't paid, said officials are bumped off in a high profile manner despite intense efforts by the police to thwart the plots. The villain is known as The Deaf Man (Yul Brynner), a sophisticated brute with the persona of a Bond villain, who employs a small team of loyal and very competent crooks to help him carry out the various assassinations.
Director Richard A. Colla employs the Altmanesque gimmick of having characters talk over each other in a Tower of Babel-like scenario, but in the context of a chaotic police department, the tactic works. The air of realism is accurate. During this era, my father was a cop in Jersey City, a stone's throw across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Like most urban areas during this era, it was a city beset by plenty of problems. Whenever I would see him at the precinct, I witnessed the kind of mutual ball-busting humor cops would engage in. I realized it was their way of coping with the pressures of the job and "Fuzz" captures this environment perfectly. The screenplay by Evan Hunter, who wrote the source novel under the nom de plume Ed McBain, is rather episodic and some plot lines are left to dwindle as the cops try to solve any number of on-going threats to the city. Raquel Welch's character is subjected to the predictable sexist comments, but, refreshingly she is spared any exploitation scenes (except for one fleeting moment) and acquits herself well as this valiant public servant. The whole messy scenario comes together in a very clever ending in which all of the unrelated characters end up converging on a local liquor store where the cops are holding a stakeout. The mayhem that ensues is both funny and exciting and ties some of the loose ends together. A comic highlight finds Reynolds and Weston dressed as nuns in a stakeout to capture the rapist.
The cast is first-rate. Reynolds is in top form and he gets fine support from Tom Skerritt, Jack Weston (particularly impressive), Dan Frazer and James McEachin. Don Gordon is among the bad guys, and as with any of his screen appearances, he's a welcome presence. Reynolds breaks the wise-cracking mode in a touching scene that shows him with his wife, a deaf mute played by Neile Adams. Yul Brynner adds his customary classy presence in his limited screen time.
Reynolds and Welch could not have been pleased with the marketing campaign for the movie: a Mad magazine-style ad that capitalized on Reynold's recent centerfold in Cosmopolitan and had Welch depicted in a bikini, although she appears in no such attire and is demurely dressed in the film. (Her character disappears mid-way through the movie and inexplicably doesn't show up again.) Nevertheless, Reynolds would finally rise to major boxoffice status later in the year with his superb performance in "Deliverance" and Welch would graduate to intelligently-written roles that proved she was more than a pretty face.
"Fuzz" is an imperfect movie but it's a lot of fun. Recommended.
(The film is currently showing on Screenpix, which is available by subscription through Amazon Prime, Roku and Apple TV.)
"The Pink Jungle" is a Universal production from 1968 and it looks it, with plenty of backlot sets doubling for authentic foreign settings. The studio always clutched the purse strings rather tightly when producing mid-range fare such as this, but it doesn't mean these films were devoid of value. This particular production was based on a 1965 action adventure novel titled "Swamp Water" by Allan Williams, which is regarded as a straight-forward thriller. The film adaptation with a script by Charles Williams eschews the thrills in favor of laughs. The film opens in one of those conveniently unnamed-but-undesirable South American countries where we find James Garner arriving in a one-horse town. He's fashion photographer Ben Morris who is there to do a quick shoot before returning to the States. The subject of his fashion spread soon arrives: supermodel Alison Duguesne (Eva Renzi), and she's more than a bit put off by the primitive environment. Things go downhill from there. They find they are stranded when the only local helicopter is stolen. They are introduced to the local corrupt police chief, Colonel Celaya (Fabrizio Mioni), who is looking to squeeze them for any bribes he can get. Then there is Raul Ortega (Michael Ansara), a local shady character in his own right. I won't bother with detailing how all of these characters affect the story, as we're not outlining "Citizen Kane" here. Suffice it to say that both Ben and Alison find themselves on defense all the time among this stew of swindlers and killers. Things kick into high gear when they meet Sammy Reiderbeit (George Kennedy), a South African with an American accent (!). He's a volatile nut case who embroils them in a seemingly madcap scheme to find a hidden diamond mine. He has access to a map that supposedly outlines where it is located but it requires an arduous and dangerous journey to reach the area- and there are all sorts of villains on their trail trying to obtain the map at any cost.
"The Pink Jungle" is played strictly for laughs with Garner playing a typical Garner role: a man of action who can dispense punches and quips with equal skill. Kennedy plays a typical Kennedy role: a loud, crude boisterous type who is more brawn than brains. They form one of those uneasy partnerships to set off to find the gold only to encounter another disreputable character, McCune (Nigel Green) who joins the team even though no one trusts him. The first section of the film is shot entirely on the Universal backlot, though the art directors- Al Ybarra and and Alexander Golitzen- do succeed in making the seedy buildings seem convincing. Things only open up when the characters hit the mountains and desert (entirely filmed in California and Nevada). It's clear that Universal designed this movie for quick playoff. I'm not even certain it ever played as a main feature, as I recall as a kid seeing it as the bottom half of a double-bill with "Lady in Cement". Writing in his memoirs many years later, Garner dismissed the film thusly: "I made this thing for the money and I'm lucky it didn't wreck my career". That seems a bit harsh. If one approaches the film with modest expectations, they might be rewarded with some modest pleasures. Garner is always fun to watch and Eva Renzi, fresh from her success in "Funeral in Berlin", makes an appealing leading lady whose flirtatious relationship with Ben remains chaste, probably because they spend most of their time dodging assassination attempts. George Kennedy dominates every scene he's in as the cigar-chomping, erratic, yet likable madman who is obsessed with finding the diamond mine. Nigel Green's appearance mid-film adds some intrigue and he's fun to watch. Director Delbert Mann, like his cast members, would not have put this film near the top of his credentials. (He had directed the Oscar winner, "Marty"). However, his workmanlike direction here keeps the pace lively and the action flowing. Oh, and the ending does provide a bit of a surprise revelation.
The Kino Lorber Blu-ray presents the film in a reasonably good transfer. The only bonus extra is the original trailer (which plays up George Kennedy's recent Oscar win for "Cool Hand Luke") and a gallery of other trailers for KL action movie releases.
Seven years after his blockbuster success producing the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, Irwin Allen revisited the same story for a sequel, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure. The 1979 film represents all the reasons that sequels to most hit films are generally disdained. Yes, there was The Godfather trilogy to buck the trend, but there were also those God-awful sequels to Jaws. Beyond the Poseidon Adventure opens the morning after the capsizing of the cruise ship. Michael Caine is Mike Turner, the financially destitute captain of a small vessel who is facing bankruptcy after losing his cargo in the same violent storm that destroyed the Poseidon. On board his boat are his first mate Wilbur (Karl Malden) and Celeste Whitman (Sally Field), a perky but klutzy young drifter the men have befriended. They stumble upon the capsized wreck of the Poseidon and Turner immediately smells financial opportunity in the tragedy. If he can make his way through the hull and down to the purser's office, he can raid the safe and abscond with the riches that are inevitably stored there. This is the first of any number of absurdities in the script. With the Poseidon the worst maritime disaster since the Titanic, Turner and his crew discover that, with the exception of one French copter that is conveniently leaving the scene upon their arrival, there is literally no other sign of the international rescue forces that would be omnipresent at the scene. Instead, after rescuing the few people who managed to make it onto the hull in the preceding film, those forces are in no hurry to get additional manpower to the scene in order to search for additional survivors before the ship sinks the bottom of the ocean. Inexplicably, while the rescue forces can't make a timely arrival at the scene, a small craft under the command of Captain Stefan Svevo (Telly Savalas) does. Svevo claims he is a doctor who is there with his crew to enter the ship and search for any survivors. (Absurdity #2: Svevo is about to undertake this arduous, grimy and potentially deadly task while attired in a snow white designer suit!). Turner buys his story and forms and uneasy alliance with Svevo and his team, who are also clad all in white and resemble some of those bands of henchmen from the old Batman TV series.
Once inside the ship, movie magic takes over and the group finds every chamber to be brightly lit, thus making it possible to move about freely. True, there is the hazardous task of finding your way around an upside down vessel, but that problem is solved when they conveniently find a map that lays out precisely where everything is located. Soon, Turner discovers what even the most naive viewer has already realized: that Svevo is actually a villain with his own agenda. In the third major absurdity, we learn that the Poseidon was transporting plutonium that Svevo wants to acquire for nefarious purposes relating to bomb- building. As if that isn't enough, it turns out the ship was also transporting a huge shipment of assault weapons and stockpiles of ammunition. It's a wonder there was any room for those joyous conga lines to dance around on that fatal New Years Eve.
Since a hallmark of any Irwin Allen film is the presence of respected actors peppered throughout the production, it isn't long before familiar faces start popping up in every room, like those celebrities who used to stick their heads of windows and make wise-cracks on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Slim Pickens, in full scenery-chewing hayseed mode, comes stumbling out of nowhere, drunk and protecting a precious bottle of wine. He pretends to be a Texas tycoon but it turns out he was the ship's wine steward and regards the bottle of expensive vino as a symbol of his life long dream to acquire the lifestyle that has always eluded him. Then there is Shirley Jones, who emerges and announces that she is a registered nurse, which is certainly more practical to the group than if she were a butcher by trade. Angela Cartwright is a young woman who was on the cruise with her father, a bull-headed Archie Bunker type played by an unusually over-the-top and embarrassing Peter Boyle. Every Allen film needs a sympathetic older couple to wring a few tears from from the audience so this time we have Shirley Knight and Jack Warden substituting for the previous film's Shelly Winters and Jack Albertson. Allen throws in the kitchen sink by making Warden play a blind man. Not to be politically incorrect, but the sequences of Warden stumbling around the upside down wreck of the Poseidon with a cane and wearing sunglasses begins to resemble a Monty Python sketch. Then there is Veronica Hamel as the prerequisite "bad girl" who slinks around in a drenched evening gown showing ample cleavage- oh, and Mark Harmon has a major role as a young hunk who finds love with Angela Cartwright in the bowels of the sinking ship. If that isn't enough, we learn that lovable ol' Karl Malden's character is terminally ill and the symptoms manifest themselves while he's holed up in the upside down ship. (Somehow Allen showed restraint by not introducing killer sharks to the mix.)
Irwin Allen had the good sense to have seasoned directors Ronald
Neame and John Guillerman direct his two biggest blockbusters, The
Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno and they remain enormously
entertaining films. However, he became convinced that he could save a
few bucks by doing the job himself. Thus, the man known for making
disaster movies became better known for the man who made disastrous
movies. The first slip was The Swarm, a 1978 flapadoodle that we always
refer to as the worst "Bee" movie of all time. The movie was a bomb but
that didn't teach star Michael Caine and co-star Slim Pickens a darn
thing, since they re-teamed with Allen right away for Beyond the
Poseidon Adventure. (Many years later, Caine said he was ashamed of this
period of his career when he took virtually any job in order to earn an
easy pay check.) With Allen back in the director's chair, Beyond was
destined to be another camp classic and it has the look and feel of a TV
movie. Caine looks understandably embarrassed, Field is in Flying Nun
cutesy mode and Savalas channels his inner Blofeld as the villain. Allen
packs in everything from an ax murder (!) to a full blown shoot-out in
which every day people turn out to be as adept at handling machine guns
as Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. There
are some reasonably impressive sets on view but many of the special
effects are sub-par. The most hilarious are found in the opening frames
in which we see Caine at the helm of his storm-tossed boat in the midst
of a hurricane. The sequence was apparently filmed with the ship on
rockers and the violent rainstorm was simulated apparently by having
some guy off camera spray garden hoses. It's quite possibly the
cheesiest effect I've ever seen in a modern, major studio production.
The Warner Archive has released Beyond the Poseidon Adventure only on DVD. With the film itself a dud, there is at least the
saving grace of an interesting bonus extra: a vintage 22 minute TV
special about the making of the film. It affords some excellent behind
the scenes views of the production and makes it clear that a lot of
talented people put a great deal of work into creating films that often
turn out badly. There are also some nice trailers for the main feature,
The Swarm, Twister and The Perfect Storm. Even bad movies need some love, so how about a Blu-ray release of "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure"?
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Way back in 1971 when I was in high school, there seemed to be a tidal wave of soft-core porn flicks, mostly imported from Europe and dubbed rather crudely into English. I never sought to spend the paltry contents of my wallet on these tame sex movies movies because I lived directly across the river from Times Square and that offered my friends and I the real forbidden fruit in sleazy, grind house movie theaters. Age was no barrier as long as you were willing to pay the then tidy sum of $5. However, the softcore Euro imports did find enthusiastic audiences in places where there weren't many alternatives to finding cinematic "adult entertainment". The films were generally rated "X" but were pretty tame, stressing humor to overcome objections from local killjoys who thought the idea of seeing some naked people on screen would condemn their entire community to eternal damnation. One of the most profitable of these films was the 1969 release, "The Stewardesses", which was so tame that it could be shown on Disney+ today. Nevertheless, these films afforded women to get a few cheap thrills without having to suffer the stigma of being seen entering a theater showing hardcore fare. Thus, plenty of couples enjoyed the opportunity to share in date nights that somewhat pushed the envelope in terms of general standards. The films were generally bestowed with memorable titles, which is why I remember the newspaper ads for "Dagmar's Hot Pants" and similar fare such as "The Long Swift Sword of Siegfried". The good news is that some of these films have been lovingly presented on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber, in collaboration with Code Red. When a screener arrived of "Dagmar's Hot Pants", I took an immediate interest, remembering hot pants as one of those short-lived fashion trends of the 1970s. For those readers who were not around way back then, the gimmick with hot pants was a simple one: they were very short and very tight and left little to the imagination. Although my high school had a very liberal dress code (jeans and T shirts were the norm), I do recall one of my female classmates pushing the envelope by wearing hot pants to class. That was a bridge too far and she was summarily sent home to change into something less offensive, much to the consternation of her male classmates. At least hot pants were provocative and sensible, as opposed to the male fashions of the era such as the leisure suit and safari jacket, the latter of which was a dress/casual abomination that looked as though it was designed to allow a man to hunt elephants in the morning and then attend a swank cocktail party in the evening without changing attire.
I looked forward to viewing "Dagmar's Hot Pants" simply to see an abundance of this long-forgotten fashion trend glorified on screen. Alas, I was snookered, as was anyone back in the day who paid to see the film. You see, there are no hot pants in "Dagmar's Hot Pants". They are neither shown nor discussed. It was simply a case of a shamelessly deceptive marketing campaign to capitalize on a recent fashion trend. Oh, well.The film itself presents lovely Diana Kjaer in the title role, playing a fabulously successful young woman who has emerged as one of Copenhagen's most in-demand hookers. Dagmar's daily schedule of meeting with clients from around the globe is frantic and she sometimes has to call on the services of fellow prostitutes to assist her in meeting some of the more unusual demands of her customers. The film takes a humorous view of all this, as we see Dagmar patiently keeping a straight face while interacting with oddball clients ranging from two goofy Japanese businessmen who want an orgy to horny local businessmen of some esteem, including a doctor who pays Dagmar to initiate his teenage son in the ways of the world. The only "normal" client Dagmar services is a member of Copenagen's Vice Squad, who ensures she doesn't get busted in return for sexual favors. One of her adoring clients is a gruff, but rich American businessman played by Robert Strauss...yes, that Robert Strauss who had earned an Oscar nomination for Billy Wilder's "Stalag 13". It's a bit uncomfortable seeing the sixty-something actor engaging in a sexual dalliance with Dagmar but presumably the lure of a quick paycheck and a trip to Copenhagen made for an offer Strauss couldn't refuse. If Robert Strauss has always figured into your fantasies, then your ship has come in. Throughout the story, Dagmar is keeping a big secret as she arranges to leave her lucrative business for a top secret venture. "That's it!", I thought- she's going into the hot pants manufacturing business, but alas, the answer is somewhat more mundane and disappointing. There are a couple of minor efforts to introduce some dramatic scenes into the slapstick. Dagmar lends her desperate brother money so that his girlfriend can get an abortion. There is also a tense scene with her quasi-pimp, a scary fellow who threatens her if she doesn't obey his wishes. In this sense, the film differs from similar movies of this type by at least acknowledging that the life of a call girl isn't all fun and games.
As is usual with these films, there are some interludes showing the star walking through the lovely streets of Copenhagen in an obvious attempt to add an exotic appeal to the production. Diana Kjaer manages to keep her clothes on occasionally but for the most part she is seen showering or chatting on the phone sans any cumbersome garments. I must say the dubbing in this film is a bit better than most and Code Red and Kino Lorber have provided a good looking transfer from a 2K master. You have to admire companies that take such efforts to preserve and present even minor films such as this.
The only bonus extra is an English language trailer that continues the sin of false advertising by saying "Dagmar's Hot Pants" is the name the title character has given to her prostitution network. In fact, there is never any mention of Dagmar's Hot Pants anywhere in the film. However, if these tame sex comedies from the distant past appeal to you, this is one of the better in this genre. I now hopefully await a Blu-ray release of "The Long Swift Sword of Siegfried"!.
Lewis Gilbert's 1964 film The 7th Dawn is available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. Longtime readers will remember that Gilbert discussed
the movie in an exclusive interview with Matthew Field in Cinema Retro
issue #18. The movie had previously only been available in the U.S. as a burn-to-order MGM DVD. This is a thoroughly engrossing,
adult drama with an unusual setting and story background. The movie
begins on the final day of WWII and centers on three disparate friends:
an American named Ferris (William Holden), a French woman, Dhana
(Capucine) and a Malayan, Ng (Tetsuro Tamba) who have led guerilla
forces against the Japanese occupation in Malaya. The three close
friends are jubilant in victory, after having suffered from fighting in
the jungle for extended periods. At the end of the war, Ng goes off to
Moscow to pursue communist political training. The apolitical Ferris
stays behind, with Malayasia now under British occupation. He thrives as a
local rubber plantation owner, and Dhana is his lover, despite her
frustration with Ferris' womanizing. The story advances to 1953, with
Malayans now impatient for independence from England, which is easing
toward granting their demands, but at a snail's pace. Ng returns to
Malaya to try to instigate communist-inspired violent uprisings. To his
sympathizers, he is a freedom fighter. To the British, he is a terrorist
and the most wanted man in the nation.
Ferris is shaken from his cynical desire to remain removed from the
political situation when Dhana is framed and charged by the British for
assisting the terrorists. She has a choice: lead the authorities to Ng's
hideout in the jungle or be sentenced to death. Dhana, who has always
been as attracted to Ng as she has to Ferris, refuses to give him up.
Ferris is faced with the ultimate dilemma: betray his best friend by
capturing him and turning him into the British, or face the prospect of
his lover being executed. Adding to the complications is the presence of
Candace (Susannah York), the comely young daughter of the British
governor who is also in love with Ferris and who concocts a scheme that
might save Dhana, despite the fact that it places her own life in
danger.
The 7th Dawn is a superb movie on every level, although it was
not particularly successful on its initial release. Unlike most of the
simplistic, special-effects driven action films of today, this movie
deals with basic human dilemmas such as the meaning of friendships and
the price of loyalties. The four leads are outstanding and Holden, in
particular, gives one of the most impressive performances of his
career. York and Capucine give touching performances, as well, and Tamba
(who would go on to star as 'Tiger' Tanaka in Lewis Gilbert's 1967
James Bond film You Only Live Twice) is particularly impressive
as a man who is torn between political ideology and his affection for
his friends. The political drama is played out in an engrossing manner,
as one witnesses the bumbling, if sincere attempts by the British
bureaucrats to try to win the hearts and minds of the locals through
tragically misguided methods. The film builds to a harrowing conclusion
as Ferris and Candace venture into the jungle in an attempt to capture
Ng before the death sentence can be carried out against Dhana. The last
half hour of the movie is especially riveting and packed with suspense
and Gilbert's direction is truly impressive. The film benefits from the
lush landscapes photographed by Freddie Young and a beautiful musical
score by Riz Ortolani.
Put this one on your "must see" list.
The Kino Lorber Blu-ray boasts an impressive transfer, though bonus materials are relegated to a trailer gallery. It would have been a good idea to include a commentary track, but considering the Blu-ray is a big step up from the previous DVD release, we won't complain.
In
“Secret of the Incas,” a 1954 release from Paramount Pictures, Harry Steele
(Charlton Heston) and Ed Morgan (Thomas Mitchell) are rival opportunists in
Cuzco, Peru.Both are searching for the
Sunburst, a fabled Incan artefact said to be hidden in the “lost city” of Machu
Picchu.“Not too many people go to Machu
Picchu,” Harry says.Today, when
tourists descend on the ancient Incan capital in droves, you would have to
wonder if he’d ever heard of Expedia.But the observation was true enough in the early 1950s when the ruins were
far off the beaten path.In those days,
most small-town Americans would have regarded a visit to New York or Miami as
an exotic excursion, never mind finding the time, money, or inspiration to fly
to the Andes.
Harry
has the edge in the quest for the Incan treasure, having appropriated a broken
chunk from an idol.The fragment
contains part of a pictograph which, when fitted to the rest of the carving on
the remainder of the statue, reveals the method for finding the hiding place of
the Sunburst.Putting the two together
isn’t a problem, requiring Harry only to follow a tourist group into the museum
where the fractured statue sits on display.But getting over the Andes to Machu Picchu to claim the Sunburst, “a
hunk of gold with 119 pure diamonds and 243 other precious stones,” is another
matter.This challenge is solved when
Elena (Nicole Maurey) arrives in Cuzco, a refugee from communist Romania.Elena is as grasping as Harry, whom she views
as her meal ticket to the U.S., while Harry uses her as bait to steal a small
private plane from the Romanian counsel, who flies into Cuzco to arrest
her.In Machu Picchu, Stanley Moorehead
(Robert Young), an archeologist directing a dig for the tomb of the last Incan
king, falls in love with Elena.Harry is
more amused than put out.His real
concern is Ed, who has followed by pack train and carries a gun.
The
Indians in the surrounding villages regard the Sunburst with spiritual awe,
believing that when it is found, the discovery will mark the rebirth of the
Inca nation.But Harry and his rival
only care about the fortune they can realize when they pry the jewels off the
relic and melt the gold into ingots.“We’ll
sit around and pluck it over like a roasted chicken, piece by piece,” Ed
gloats.The two agree on a fifty-fifty
split for the Sunburst, but given their mercenary natures, it’s about as
tenuous a deal as a division of spoils between competing bounty hunters in a
Spaghetti Western.Cast against type if
you remember them strictly for their signature roles, Heston and Mitchell are
excellent.Peruvian singer Yma Sumac, as
one of Machu Picchu’s Indian caretakers, has a sly screen presence and three
vocal numbers, which may be three too many for those who only want to get on
with the story.But Sumac was a
marketing draw comparable to having a performance by Lady Gaga or Adele in a
2023 movie.Largely forgotten today, she
was a star in the early 1950s “exotic music” genre pioneered by Les Baxter and
Martin Denny, with performances at Carnegie Hall and best-selling LPs on the
Billboard charts.Heston appears in some
exterior scenes of Cuzco and Machu Picchu, having participated in a month-long,
pre-production location shoot, but he, Mitchell, Young, Mourey, Sumac, and the
supporting Hollywood cast are missing (or represented by stand-ins at a
distance) from scenes where crowds of actual Peruvian Indians congregate at
Machu Picchu.Eagle-eyed viewers are
likely to notice the seams, but for most of us, it’s part of the fun to watch
old-school escapist pictures like this and tease out the real locations from
the studio sets.
“Secret
of the Incas” was absent from official U.S. home video release for
decades—neglectfully so, according to critics who have cited it as an influence
on “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and a precursor to the James Bond franchise in the
double entendres that Harry trades with an appreciative housewife of means from
Michigan, Mrs. Winston, played by the great Glenda Farrell.When Mrs. Winston greets the strapping Harry
by commenting, “My, you’re a big one,” and looks forward to his “services” as a
tour guide, you know she has more in mind than a dinner reminder to her tourist
group.“I’ll be right outside your
door,” he assures her.
A
new Blu-ray edition from Kino Lorber Studio Classics makes up for the film’s
long absence with a remastered print licensed from Paramount, from a 4K scan of
original negative elements.The rich
colours of the Indians’ shawls and serapes are eye-popping in restored
Technicolor.Maybe the movie’s omission
from prior video formats, especially the inferior VHS process, and more
especially the even worse VHS/EP/SLP budget format in which Paramount briefly
released a handful of its archival titles in 1992, wasn’t such a loss after
all.
The special features
on the Blu-ray include an informative audio commentary by Toby Roan, previews
of related KL titles, and sharp SDH captioning.
In the estimation of many film scholars the 1970s was the most
adventurous and liberating period in the history of the medium. The new
freedoms in regard to sex, violence and adult themes that had exploded
in the mid-1960s became even more pronounced in the '70s. Among the most
daring studios to take advantage of this trend was United Artists. The
studio had been conceived by iconic actors in the silent era with the
intent of affording artists as much creative control over their
productions as possible. UA had continued to fulfill that promise,
producing a jaw-dropping number of box-office hits and successful film
franchises. The studio also disdained censorship and pushed the envelope
with high profile movie productions. The daring decision to fund the
X-rated "Midnight Cowboy" paid off handsomely. The 1969 production had
not only been a commercial success but also won the Best Picture Oscar. A
few years later UA went even further out on a limb by distributing
"Last Tango in Paris". UA fully capitalized on the worldwide
sensation the movie had made and the many attempts to restrict it from
being shown at all in certain areas of the globe. Like "Midnight
Cowboy", "Tango" was an important film by an important director that
used graphic images of sexual activity for dramatic intensity.
Unfortunately, not every filmmaker who was inspired by these new
freedoms succeeded in the attempt to mainstream X-rated fare during
those years that the rating wasn't only synonymous with low-budget porno
productions. Case in point: screenwriter John Byrum, who made his
directorial debut with "Inserts", a bizarre film that UA released in
1975 that became a legendary bomb. The movie was released some years ago on Blu-ray as a limited edition by the now sadly defunct Twilight Time label. To my knowledge, it isn't available in that format today, although it is streaming on Screenpix, the subscription-based service that can be accessed through Amazon Prime, Roku, YouTube and Apple TV.
The claustrophobic tale resembles a filmed stage production. It is
set primarily in one large living room in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
The time period is the 1930s, shortly after the introduction of sound to
the movie industry resulted in the collapse of silent pictures (Charlie
Chaplin being the notable exception.) The central character, played by
Richard Dreyfuss, is not named but is referred to as "The Boy Wonder".
From our first glimpse of him we know we are seeing a man in trouble. He
is unkempt, dressed in a bathrobe and swizzling booze directly from the
bottle. We will soon learn that he was once a respected mainstream
director of major studio films and was revered by Hollywood royalty. Now
he is a has-been who has resorted to making porn movies in 16mm in his
own home. (Yes, Virginia, people liked to watch dirty movies even way
back then.) He is entertaining a visitor, Harlene (Veronica Cartwright),
a perpetually cheery, bubble-headed young woman who was once a
respected actress but who, like Boy Wonder, has fallen on hard times.
She is now a heroin addict who earns a living by "starring" in Boy
Wonder's porn productions. They make small talk and some names from the
current movie business are bandied about. Harlene tells Boy Wonder that a
rising star named Clark Gable is said to be an admirer of his and wants
to meet him. Instead of responding favorably to this news, Boy Wonder
seems unnerved by it. The implication is that he is locked in a
self-imposed downward spiral and lacks the self-confidence to attempt a
real comeback. Harlene also needles him about his sexual prowess. It
turns out that the king of porn films has long been impotent for reasons
never explained. As they prepare to film some scenes Harlene's male
"co-star" (Stephen Davies) arrives. He is nicknamed Rex, The Wonder Dog,
which seems to bother him especially when the Wonder Boy uses it to
intentionally disparage him. Like Harlene, Rex is short on brains but is
physically attractive. Boy Wonder seems to have a real resentment
towards him, perhaps because Rex is a powerhouse in bed while he can't
get anything going despite directing naked people in sex scenes. It
becomes clear that Boy Wonder and Rex don't like each other. Boy
Wonder ridicules Rex for performing sex acts on male studio executives
who he naively believes will help him become a star. However, their
relationship looks downright friendly compared to the interaction
between Harlene and Rex. When Rex is a little slow in becoming
physically aroused, Harlene mocks him mercilessly. This results in him
essentially subjecting her to a violent rape which thrills Boy Wonder,
who captures it all on film. Harlene doesn't appear to be any worse for
the wear, however, and blithely says she's going off to a bedroom to
rest.
The household is next visited by mobster Big Mac (Bob Hoskins), the
man who finances Boy Wonder's film productions. He is accompanied by his
financee Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper), a pretty young woman who seems to
have a particular interest in the forbidden world of pornography. Big
Mac and Boy Wonder also hate each other. Big Mac berates Boy Wonder for
making his porn flicks too esoteric and artistic for their intended
audiences who just want a cheap thrill. However, for Boy Wonder the porn
films represent the last opportunity he has to demonstrate the
cinematic style and camera angles that once impressed critics and the
public. In the midst of their arguing, it is discovered that a tragedy
has occurred: Harlene has died from a heroin overdose. Everyone seems
nonplussed by the news and Big Mac's only concern is to ditch the body
somewhere quickly. Turns out Rex has a part time job in a funeral parlor
and can arrange for a gruesome plan in which they dump her body inside a
grave that is being prepared for another person's funeral the next day.
The plan is to dig a bit deeper, bury Harlene, then place a layer of
dirt over her and have the "new" body placed on top of hers. As Big Mac
and Rex leave to "undertake" this sordid task, Boy Wonder finds himself
alone with Cathy Cake. She wants to use the time to have Boy Wonder film
her in her own personal porn movie since Big Mac would never let his
"fiancee" do so with his knowledge. She finds the idea of sex on film to
be a stimulant but Boy Wonder won't have any of it. He knows that Big
Mac's volatile temper and ever-present bodyguard could result in him
being the next corpse in the house. Cathy Cake tries another tactic and
feigns interest in Boy Wonder. He lets his guard down and gradually is
seduced by her. She even manages to cure his impotence but the tryst
turns ugly when she learns he has not filmed it. Boy Wonder soon
discovers that his renewed pride and self-respect is to be short-lived
when it becomes clear that Cathy Cake actually loathes him and was only
using him in order to fulfill her porn movie fantasy. The ploy works to a
degree- her attention to Boy Wonder reawakens his sexual prowess but
when she learns the camera wasn't rolling, she cruelly tells him that
she only used him for selfish purposes. With this, Big Mac and Rex
return from their horrendous errand and catch Boy Wonder in bed with
Cathy Cake. The situation becomes dangerous with Big Mac threatening to
kill Boy Wonder and things only deteriorate from there.
Richard Dreyfuss was said to have had a personal
obsession with this film. He was very involved in all aspects of its
production and remained defensive about the movie after its harsh
reception from critics. The movie's complete rejection by reviewers and
the public might have hurt his career but Dreyfuss already had "American
Graffiti" and "Jaws" under his belt. Soon he would also star in another
blockbuster, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" followed by his
Oscar-winning performance in "The Goodbye Girl". The fact that so few
people ever saw "Interiors" actually worked to his advantage. However,
whatever motivated him to become involved in this bizarre project
remains a mystery. It's an ugly tale about ugly people doing ugly things
to each other. If there is a message here, I didn't receive it. There
isn't a single character you can identify with or sympathize with. They
are all self-obsessed cynics with no redeeming traits. That leaves us
with whatever values the performances afford us and it's a mixed bag.
Dreyfuss is miscast. He was twenty nine years-old when he made the film
and, despite his sordid appearance which ages him considerably, he is
still far too young to portray a once-great movie director who has
fallen on hard times. John Byrum's direction of Dreyfuss is unsteady. At
times he encourages him to underplay scenes while at other times he has
Dreyfuss chew the scenery mercilessly. Similarly, Stephen Davies plays
the brain-dead hunk Rex with flamboyantly gay characteristics one minute
then suddenly transforms into a heterosexual stud the next. Bob Hoskins
is squarely in what would become his trademark tough-guy gangster mode but gives a
solid performance. The best acting comes from the two female leads, with
Veronica Cartwright especially good as the ill-fated Harlene. Jessica
Harper also does well in her thankless role. Both women seem at ease in
doffing their clothes and playing much of their scenes in a provocative
state. Cartwright even goes full frontal for the violent sex scene with
Rex while Harper spends almost the entire last act of the film being
photographed topless. Curiously, the willingness to appear nude onscreen
was considered the epitome of female emancipation in films during the
1970s but the practice has largely become frowned upon in more recent
years. In fact the days are long gone when virtually every major actress
had to appear naked on screen. Today, female emancipation is the
ability to play erotic scenes on screen without having to be completely
compromised.
If John Byrum's
debut as a director is problematic, so, too, is his script. There is a
lot of name-dropping about the great figures in the movie industry who once socialized with the Boy Wonder but it all seems pretentious and
unconvincing right down to the constant attempts by Boy Wonder to avoid
meeting the unseen Clark Gable. In fact, aside from some fleeting
references the "Flapper Look" styles worn by the women, the film could
have been set in the 1970s. Byrum has the characters indulge in
vernacular that is far too contemporary for the 1930s. The only wit
that is apparent concerns Big Mac's plans to build roadside restaurants
that would all look the same and serve identical fast food. ("Big Mac"-
get it?) Beyond that, there are few attempts at humor and most of those
pertain to unspeakably cruel behavior and mutual humiliation. There
seems to be no purpose for the film's existence beyond the desire of the
participants to be in a porn movie. Given their status in the industry
that was obviously not going to happen so they banded together for a
quasi-porn movie and shrouded it in the protective layer of
intellectualism. This gave them all the cover of being artistes and
Richard Dreyfuss the opportunity to nibble on Jessica Harper's nipples
while pretending there was some greater purpose to it all. In reality
the film's most cringe-inducing scene has Dreyfuss and Harper having an
extended conversation about her private parts, which are referred to
repeatedly (almost to an absurd degree) in gutter language as those the
actors were pre-teenagers using naughty words for the first time.
There are said to be people who consider "Inserts" to be an underrated gem. But for this
writer, it represents an interesting but woefully misguided experiment
by some very talented people who should have known better.
Here's a chance to watch director Andrew V. Mclaglen's highly enjoyable 1979 adventure "ffolkes" starring Roger Moore as a grumpy but courageous leader of a private commando team. He's quite the opposite of his 007 persona: he loathes female companionship and loves cats. The film has a marvelous supporting cast including James Mason, Anthony Perkins and Moore's ol' pal David Hedison. (To watch in full screen mode, click on "Watch on YouTube.) T
The Australian video company Imprint has released "The Gidget Film Collection". Here are the details:
The original beach party movie
‘Gidget’ plus three sequels on Blu-ray for the first time worldwide!
Gidget
(1959)
The original surfer girl/beach bum
movie, adapted from the novel by Frederick Kohner, Gidget (1959) stars Sandra
Dee as determined little Frances Lawrence, who falls in love both with surfing
and with the characters who populate the local Southern California beach
hangout. Of particular interest are the young Moondoggie (James Darren) and the
more mature Big Kahuna (Cliff Robertson), a Korean War vet who is the idol of
every surfer on the coast for his life of apparently unfettered freedom.
Gidget
Goes Hawaiian (1961)
In this sequel to the hit 1959 film
“Gidget,” Francie “Gidget” Lawrence (Deborah Walley) is once again involved
with her boyfriend, Jeff “Moondoggie” Matthews (James Darren). However, they
have a lovers’ spat, and Gidget goes to sulk in Hawaii with her parents. In the
islands, she meets TV dancer Eddie Horner (Michael Callan). Seeing how
miserable she’s become, Gidget’s wise dad (Carl Reiner) sends for Moondoggie,
and the couple reunite just as Gidget gets romantic with Eddie.
Gidget
Goes to Rome (1963)
Gidget, in Rome for a holiday,
misinterprets attention she receives from a famous journalist. Discovering he
is “chaperoning” her at Dad’s request she resumes interest in her boyfriend.
Based upon characters created by Frederick Kohner.
Gidget
Gets Married (1972)
Newly married Gidget makes waves in
her husband’s company by taking a stand against the social caste system.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
“Gidget Gets Married” – the 1972 Television Movie
“Gidget” Theatrical Trailer
Keep in mind that prices are quoted in Australian dollars. Use a
currency converter to see what the price is in your national currency.
In days of old before every movie released was designed to be a record-breaking blockbuster, studios routinely produced modestly-budgeted fare designed for a quick playoff and modest profit. A perfect example of this is "Quick, Before It Melts!", a softball sex comedy from 1964 that must have been considered to be a bit risque in its day. Although George Maharis, then a current heart throb gets first billing, the real star is Robert Morse. He plays Oliver Cromwell Cannon, an aspiring reporter who is routinely abused by his boss, publishing magnate Harvey T. Sweigert (Howard St. John), who considers Oliver to be so inconsequential that he has to be reminded that he is engaged to his daughter Sharon (Yvonne Craig). Oliver's career is on the fast track to nowhere until Sweigert affords him an opportunity to prove himself. He is being assigned as the first staff reporter at the South Pole and will be stationed at a U.S. Navy weather installation there. Sweigert is to the political right of Sen. Joe McCarthy and sees Soviet expansion everywhere, even in the remote frozen tundras. Sweigert gives Oliver the seemingly impossible task of digging up some sort of scoop that would embarrass the Soviets. Accompanying Oliver is Peter Santelli (George Maharis), an ace photographer who is also a renowned ladies man.
Prior to leaving, Oliver visits Sharon and does his best to seduce her. She's a virgin on the verge but insists on waiting until their wedding night, much to Oliver's frustration. En route to the South Pole, Oliver and Peter have an extended stopover in New Zealand. Here they befriend two lovely young ladies- Tiara (Anjanette Comer in her big screen debut), an exotic beauty and her equally sexy friend Diana (Janine Gray). Both of the women are the polar opposite (pardon the pun) of Sharon, and they have liberated attitudes towards sex. Peter falls for Diana and Oliver is immediately smitten by Tiara. A running gag in the film is Oliver's inability to get her to tell him if they slept together during one particularly wild night in which he became so drunk he developed amnesia. Soon Oliver is a conflicted man. He wants to remain loyal to Sharon but boys will be boys and his hormones are raging. Fate intervenes when Sweigert insists they leave immediately for the South Pole. Upon arriving at the naval station, Oliver and Peter are hit with the stark reality of how unpleasant life is about to become. Enclosed in the small confines of the base with 50 below zero temperatures outside, they find themselves subjected to hazing rituals by the longtime staffers. The base is manned by Navy personnel as well as a contingent of scientists that includes Mikhail Drozhensky, a Soviet representative of a joint scientific research project. As the days turn to weeks, boredom becomes a problem and Sweigert is getting impatient for Oliver to file some type of scoop. With everyone on the base suffering from sexual frustration, Oliver and Peter con a visiting admiral (James Gregory) to get some good press by inviting down a contingent of everyday women to visit the base. Naturally, they arrange for Tiara and Diana to be among them. Upon arrival, Oliver's hormones win out and he starts to seduce the willing Tiara in a snowmobile (talk about sexual frigidity!). This leads to another running gag that must have been old in Shakespeare's day: every time they come close to consummating the deal, some distraction interrupts them. Naturally, the women become stranded at the base due to weather and the sexual high jinks continue. Peter isn't having any problem with Diana but fate prevents Oliver from sealing the deal with Tiara. The conclusion of the story has Oliver trying to file a career-saving scoop about the Soviet scientist defecting before his arch rival reporter (Norman Fell) can beat him to it.
"Quick, Before It Melts" is the kind of mid-range movie that defines mediocrity. It has a good cast but most of them are encouraged to overact by director Delbert Mann, who once directed such estimable fare as "Marty" and "Separate Tables". What led him to become involved in this drivel remains a mystery. Even more bizarre is that the screenplay was written by Dale Wasserman. Yes, that Dale Wasserman- the acclaimed writer of "Man of La Mancha" and the stage version of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". The film has some amusing gags including composer David Rose finding a way to insert his signature song "The Stripper" into the action. Morse is an energetic leading man but his character inexplicably morphs from Jerry Lewis nerd mode into a sophisticated Sinatra type by the end of the film. Anjanette Comer does make for a stunningly beautiful leading lady and the equally lovely Yvonne Craig gives her usual perky performance. Popular character actor Bernard Fox, who generally epitomizes every old fashioned cliche about the British, is bizarrely cast as a U.S. naval officer. Go figure. The film is marred by some poor rear screen projection work. The long shots were filmed by a second unit near the Bering Sea but anyone above the age of five will recognize that the closest the cast members got to something cold was an ice cream sundae at the studio commissary.
"Quick, Before It Melts" has been released as a Warner Archive title. The transfer is excellent. There are no bonus extras but the disc is region free.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM THE CINEMA RETRO MOVIE STORE
It’s best to start this review by noting that Kino’s Blu
ray release of Claude Chabrol’s Bluebeard
is not a retelling of the centuries old French folk tale.The first published appearance of the grim fairy
tale was penned by Charles Perrault in 1697, but the oral folk tale actually dates
ages older. The Bluebeard of fable is a wealthy nobleman who has savagely
murdered and hidden the bodies of his six previous wives in a subterranean
chamber beneath his castle. But just as George Cukor’s Gaslight (1944) would introduce the psychological manipulation of “gas
lighting” into our modern vernacular, Webster’s defines a “bluebeard” as a “man
who first marries and then murders one wife after another.”Which is not exactly the case in Chabrol’s film of 1963.Though this
bluebeard’s wife is involved in the imbroglio, she is not targeted by her
murdering husband.But otherwise the description
is close enough.
In fact, the French title of this French-language
production - based on a gruesome but series of true crimes - was not Bluebeard but simply Landru.The titular character referenced is Henri Désiré Landru (1869-1922), a
bald and thick-bearded Parisian dealer of antique furniture.The problem with Landru is that he’s chosen
to supplement his income by murdering a succession of wealthy dowagers,
spinsters and widows in the years of French involvement in World War I.Collecting the names of moneyed lonely hearts
from personal ads sent privately to a postal box, Landru’s modus operandi was
to charm and romance his intended victims, offering all a respite from Paris at
his countryside Villa rental near Gambais.
Once separated from their bank accounts and antiquities,
Landru coldly murdered the women, disposing of their bodies – and all evidence
of his crime - in a coal-fired kitchen stove.Landru was found out and arrested in the spring of 1919, charged with
the murder of eleven women – though authorities believed he was likely involved
in many other unsolved disappearances.The macabre and sensational circumstances surrounding the Landru case
brought with it attendant international press coverage and a circus atmosphere
to the courtroom proceedings.Landru was
ultimately found guilty of his crimes, despite the absence of bodies.He was executed by guillotine in the early
winter of 1922.
Such notoriety would bring Landru lasting infamy as one
of the modern world’s most legendary serial killers.Both the fairy tale of Bluebeard and the
real-life terror wrought by Landru would figure into a number of film and television
productions.Sinister waxen images of
Landru’s bluebeard would be cinematically present in practically every wax
museum’s rogue gallery of horror:House of Wax (1953), the 1963 Twilight Zone episode “The New Exhibit,”
and Terror in the Wax Museum (1973)
to name only a few.Charlie Chaplin, of
all people, would even revisit the Landru affair in his thinly-veiled dark
comedy Monsieur Verdoux (1947).
So it was only proper that a French director and French writer
should assume ownership of the legend of Landru in this French-Italian
co-production.In late February of 1962,
Parisian cinema correspondents reported that Italian film producer Carlo Ponti
and Frenchman Georges De Beauregard, the latter president of Rome-Paris Films
and a champion of France’s “New Wave” cinema, were planning an Eastman color production
of Landru.The film was to be directed by Claude Chabrol
– already feted for such films as Le Beau
Serge (1958), The Cousins (1959)
and Les Bonnes Femmes (1960). The screenplay for Landru was to written by the popular French novelist Francoise
Sagan.Though this was to be Sagan’s
first effort at screenwriting, four of her novels had already been adapted for
the screen by French film studios.Earliest expectations were that Sagan’s script was to be one serious in
tone and unlike Charlie Chaplin’s comic-take of the serial killer’s spree.
Then, one month later, it was reported that Chabrol and
Sagan were in fact both crafting
elements of the screenplay, oddly semi-independent of one another:Chabrol was developing the film’s male
characters, Sagan charged to concentrate on the murderer’s female victims.Reports also noted that Chabrol himself might
play the role of Henri Désiré Landru should a suitable actor for the primary role
not be found.A more than suitable actor
was found in the person of Charles
Denner, an actor mostly unfamiliar-to-the-public at large.It’s Denner who really carries the film with a
masterful, emotionally casual performance.
In late March, Rome-Paris announced that a worldwide
distribution deal was in the works with United Artists, the studio having
agreed to “put up most of the coin” of production.Following their work together on Landru, Chabrol was promising to tackle
a film version of Sagan’s 1960 play Château en Suède. (That film would actually
be lensed and released in 1964 as a television production sans Chabrol’s
involvement).In any event, by
mid-summer of 1962, the deal with United Artists seems to have fallen
through.It was announced that Joseph E.
Levine’s Embassy Pictures had secured distribution rights; the deal was reportedly
struck when Levine was made privy to the preview rushes of the still unfinished
film.Lux Films was to handle domestic
distribution in France.With financing
and casting and a script in place, principal photography on Landru would wrap in September of 1962.
The film would enjoy – fittingly -a premiere in the city
of Paris in February of 1963. Though somewhat charmed by the film, a Variety critic attending a 5 February
screening floated the possibility that the production may not enjoy wide appeal
being an “unusual offbeater” and an “spirited if uneven pic.” There was also an
acknowledgment that Sagan’s script was curiously both “deft” and “repetitive” in its construction.These were fair criticisms, but by April’s
end, Landru had already drawn 306,767
paid admissions in France – not a bad box office total for an edgy filmmaker of
the “New Wave” school.
The film would be given a domestic publicity boost courtesy
of Mme. Fernande Segret.Segret, now age
seventy and a mistress of the real-life Landru, attempted to “enjoin” the
film’s release, concerned that the film sullied her reputation.Taking her case before the Tribunal of the
Seine, the French court dismissed Segret’s complaint, citing her relationship -
as a twenty-four-year-old - with the murderous Landru was already a “matter of
historical record” of which Sagan’s screenplay took no particular
liberties.Segret appealed, but as late
as 1967, her continuing attempt to bring suit against the filmmakers was again
dismissed.
With Chabrol’s Landru
racking up decent reviews and box office returns in France, an opportunistic distributor
chose this moment to reissue the director’s previously moribund effort Ophelia, an “updating of the Shakespeare
opus.” In the meantime, a U.S. premiere of the French-language, English
subtitled Landru was set for April 9,
1963, at Manhattan’s arthouse Cinema I/Cinema II Studio on Broadway near
Lincoln Center.It was announced that Francoise
Sagan would be in attendance.
Following that U.S. debut Box Office was impressed, acknowledging Landru held “several exploitative angles to attract art house
regulars” as well as devotees of “the bizarre and macabre.”But not every critic was as enamored with the
film’s promise.The New York Times suggested that Chabrol’s employ of genuine transcript
excerpts from the Landru trial were “more entertaining than those Mlle. Sagan
found for him.”The famously venomous stage
and screen critic John Simon, wrote witheringly that Sagan’s attempt to
“compete with Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux
takes a good deal of arrogance, but in that area both Chabrol and Sagan are
amply endowed.”
In an interview with New York City’s Film Journal, Chabrol confessed that many of his films examined
matters of criminality, morality, and the often misused scales of justice, from
different angles.“In Landru the problem was to be faithful to
the legend and to be funny with it.”Which was an odd angle to tell the story of a serial murderer whose
crimes were heinous.
The French actress Michele Morgan, who played Landru’s
victim Célestine Buisson, advised prior to the film’s release that
Chabrol’s picture was to be “ironic and comic, with each victim ending as a
puff of smoke from the chimney.”Chabrol
borrowed this smoke billowing visual image from Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux, but unfortunately uses this device to the point
of near-ridiculous repetition.Despite
this being a film being centered on one of the 20th century’s most
notorious figures there’s virtually no on-screen violence – only the suggestion
of such.
It was a curious decision.Not allowing audiences to actually see Landru
committing his terrible crimes, Chabrol allows the character as written to
retain a semblance of evasive humor and an anti-hero aura.Perhaps more tiresome than Chabrol’s multiple
cuts to the numerous chimney immolations are the appending comic bits where
Landru’s neighbors wilt from the odors of flesh incineration.The only images tying Landru to the brutal
murders are brief passing shots of the Villa’s fiery stove, coal bins and a
butcher block table with attached meat grinder.
Though a great fan of American films and the work of
Alfred Hitchcock – even co-authoring (with Erich Rohmer) an early book-length
study Hitchcock (Editions
Universitaires, Paris, 1957) – Chabrol’s filmography and interests were more
varied than that of his hero.It was
also, perhaps, the reason Chabrol’s mystery thrillers are less suspenseful in their
construction. Hitchcock once famously
wrote, “The mass [film] audience has had no education in technique of cinema,
as they frequently have in art and music, from their school days.They think only of story.”
Chabrol approach to film is different.It would be unfair to suggest that Chabrol
was a visual artist first, a storyteller second.But it’s clear that Chabrol’s work differs
from that of Hitchcock, the latter choosing to work with diligence from prepared
story boards and fully formed scripts.Chabrol’s film seems more freewheeling in construction, less plotted.I suppose Landru
might have been partly influenced by the mixing of black comedy with the macabre
as seen in Hitchcock’s The Trouble with
Harry (1955).
For my taste, the Chabrol film goes on too long – the
running time lasts a single tick under two hours but seems much longer.Choosing to lens the tale of Landru as a
darkly sardonic, serio-comic drama was not new – Chaplin already had fun tweaking
the public’s morbid interest in the case – but too often the murders and
subsequent courtroom drama seem to unspool in real time.With the romancing, the murders, the winking
comedy, the inter-cutting of grim black and white WWI newsreel footage, the
courtroom proceedings… the layering all becomes too much.
Similarly to Chaplin, Chabrol tries to weave an
undercurrent of politically-motivated shenanigans behind the prurient
international interest of Landru’s celebrity notoriety. Though involved in negotiating the Treaty of
Versailles - which formally brought the WW I to its end - French Prime Minister
George Clemenceau was despairing of its outcome – as were the French public who
would vote him out of office in 1920.As
imagined by self-described communist Chabrol, Clemenceau’s ploy was an attempt
to redirect the discontent of the French public by shepherding the press to
devote their efforts on the concurrent - and far more titillating - murder
trial of Henri Désiré Landru.He may
very well have been right about that.
This Kino Lorber Studio Classic edition of Bluebeard offers a stunning and color
saturated 4K restoration from the original camera negative.The film is presented in an aspect ratio of
1.66:1 in 1920x1080p and DTS audio.The release
comes with its original French language soundtrack and removable English
sub-titles. There is an audio commentary
courtesy of film historian Kat Ellinger, the editor of Diabolique magazine and self-described Instagram “loudmouthed
hysterical feminist.”
Ellinger provides an excellent commentary throughout,
describing Landru as the “strangest
and most frustrating” films of Chabrol’s 1960s oeuvre.She also notes the politically left director
also staged Landru as a cynical
commentary of the mores of the petite
bourgeoisie class – an element that’s insufferably
present throughout.
There are no alternate scenes included on this set.But while there is only the briefest flash of
topless nudity present in his finished cut, Chabrol later intimated that
producer Ponti insisted he also photograph a number of “undressed” scenes, presumably
for European distribution.If indeed
there is a continental version of Landru
floating about, I have not seen it.The
set also includes five trailers, including Chabrol’s The Champagne Murders, as well as such French productions as Le Doulos, Alphaville, Diabolically Yours and
Max and the Junkman.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount Home Video:
Celebrate the 25th anniversary of the thrilling disaster epic DEEP IMPACT, arriving for the first time on 4K Ultra HD May 2, 2023 from Paramount Home Entertainment.
Originally released on May 8, 1998, DEEP IMPACT
grossed nearly $350 million worldwide on an $80 million budget. A
unique and dynamic fusion of large-scale excitement with touching
personal storylines, the film depicts humanity’s response as a comet
hurtles through space on a collision course with Earth.
Fully remastered and boasting Dolby Vision and HDR-10, DEEP IMPACT
is a must-have action-adventure for your collection. Directed by Mimi
Leder and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, the film features an
all-star cast including Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Vanessa
Redgrave, Leelee Sobieski, Blair Underwood, Maximilian Schell, and
Morgan Freeman.
The DEEP IMPACT
4K Ultra HD release includes the film on both 4K Ultra HD and on
Blu-ray™, access to a Digital copy of the film, and legacy bonus content
including commentary and fascinating featurettes delving into the
making of this 90s classic. Bonus content is detailed below:
·Commentary by director Mimi Leder and visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar
FROM MGM AND UNITED ARTISTS, ROCKY, ROCKY II, ROCKY III AND
ROCKY IV
AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST
TIME IN 4K RESOLUTION WITH
HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR)
Own it on 4K Ultra HD and Digital
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Burbank, Calif., – Get knocked out by the
new 4K contender – the ROCKY I-IV 4K 4-Film Collection newly
remastered in stunning 4K Ultra HD. Sylvester Stallone stars in the greatest
boxing saga of all time and triumphs as one of the most inspirational
characters in cinematic history. Witness every epic, action packed fight and
unforgettable moment as Rocky punches his way to the top against impossible
odds when the ROCKY I-IV 4K 4-Film Collection is
released on Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack.
The ROCKY I-IV 4K 4-Film Collection includes
the MGM feature films ROCKY, ROCKY II, ROCKY III and ROCKY
IV, along with theROCKY
IV Ultimate Director’s Cut, ROCKY VS. DRAGO.
This collection contains a Blu-ray disc featuring the hour-long behind the
scenes documentary on the making of this extended director’s cut of ROCKY
IV, ROCKY IV: ROCKY VS. DRAGO as well as a
selection of previously existing EC.
The Ultra HD Blu-ray disc featuring the films ROCKY,
ROCKY II, ROCKY III, ROCKY IV and theROCKY
IV Ultimate Director’s Cut, ROCKY VS. DRAGO will
feature Dolby VisionTM HDR that dramatically expands the color
palette and contrast range, and uses dynamic metadata to automatically optimize
the picture for every screen, frame by frame.
The Ultra HD Blu-ray will include an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc with
each feature film in 4K with HDR, a bonus Blu-ray disc with the documentary and
a selection of pre-existing special features, and a Digital version of the
feature films.
For the complete 4K Ultra HD experience with HDR, a 4K Ultra HD TV
with HDR, an Ultra HD Blu-ray player and a high-speed HDMI (category 2) cable
are required.
Following the “monstrous” success of Universal’s Frankenstein, Boris Karloff no longer
had to cast about Hollywood looking for employment.Between 1932 and 1942, the actor would appear
in more than forty feature films for nearly every major and minor Hollywood
studio: Universal, of course: but also Fox, United Artists, Paramount, MGM, RKO
Radio, Warner Bros., Monogram and Columbia.Prior to Frankenstein, Karloff
had appeared in several gangster/prison pictures for Columbia Pictures as a menacing
presence.It was a gift that brought
attention.
Though it was Universal’s Frankenstein (1931) that would make Karloff a box-office star in
his own right, the actor would go on to make two other films for Columbia in
the 1930s (The Black Room and The Man They Could Not Hang).Though Columbia studio boss Harry Cohn didn’t
care much for horror pictures, Karloff’s on-screen villainy was a hot
commercial property ripe for exploitation.So Columbia cast him – in a dual role as bothers Anton and Gregor De
Berghman’s – in Roy William Neill’s big-budget historical melodrama The Black Room Mystery (the title later
shortened to The Black Room).It’s interesting that the two-page spread
Columbia took out in the trades didn’t play up the film’s “horror” angle.Only that the film would star “Boris Karloff: The Man They Love to Hate in
a powerful mystery romance.”
Columbia’s The Man
They Could Not Hang (1939) followed, the first of a five-picture deal
Karloff would strike with the studio. Between 1939 and 1942 the actor embarked
on a series of Columbia films that fans describe as the actor’s “mad scientist”
pictures.All five of these melodramas/horror-sci-fi
pics, as well as The Black Room, are
included on Mill Creek’s new Blu- ray package Thrillers from the Vault.Two additional horror/sci-fi efforts from Columbia (Return of the Vampire and Five)
round out this generous – if curious - set. But we’ll get to that in a moment.
In many respects the first four of Karloff’s mad
scientist films closely resemble one another in construction.They’re formula films. In each Karloff portrays
a scientist/doctor working on a formula or experiment that will benefit all mankind.But in each instance the science goes wrong -
which causes Karloff to do the same.In
fairness, his murderous turn-of-heart is usually due to the interventions of
disbelievers.The premise of all these “mad
scientist” films can be summarized in a line Karloff delivers in The Man They Could Not Hang.Having vanquished nearly all of those he
holds responsible for his murder conviction, he snarls bitterly, “Every gift that science has given them
has been twisted into a thing of hate and greed!”
In Nick Grinde’s The
Man They Could Not Hang (1939), Karloff plays Dr. Henryk Savaard, a noble
scientist who plans to test his newfangled mechanical heart pump on a young and
trusting medical associate (Stanley Brown).To conduct this experiment, the young man must be first put into a state
of clinical death prior to reification.But due to the alarm of his hysterical nurse – the fiancé of the test
subject, to boot – the authorities are alerted.Upon their hurried arrival at Savaard’s laboratory, they do not allow
the pleading scientists the chance to revive the corpse of the test subject.
Savaard is tried for murder and executed on the
gallows.But the scientist’s devoted
assistant Lang (Byron Foulger) collects his body from the prison morgue, applies
the mechanical heart procedure on Savaard’s corpse, and resurrects Savaard.But Dr. Savaard is no longer a benevolent
scientist.The actions set off by the
“treacherous” nurse has left him mercilessly unhinged.He’s now interested only on exacting revenge
on the twelve jurors and prosecution team who found him guilty of murder.
In Grinde’s The Man
with Nine Lives (1940), Karloff plays Dr. Leon Kravaal, a scientist whose
cancer research leads him to believe that freezing those afflicted –
temporarily in a secretive, subterranean glacial chamber - helps retard or cure
the disease.But the authorities –
pressed by a gaggle of wary villagers - wrongly suspect Kravaal is up to no
good.They travel out to his secretive
island with the intent of hauling Kravaal to prison.
With the life of his frozen patient in jeopardy due to this
unwelcome incursion, Kravaal releases a gas, rendering everyone – including
himself – unconscious in the frozen chamber.The film flashes forward a decade on when a trio of scientists decide to
investigate Kravaal’s mysterious disappearance.Upon finding both the doctor and his interlopers perfectly preserved in
ice, all are thawed out.But Kravaal,
now crazed with revenge, uses his new lease on life to continue his experiments
on his imprisoned and unwilling subjects.
Grinde’s back again for Before I Hang (1940). In
this one Karloff plays Dr. John Garth, an elderly, mild-mannered scientist in
search of a serum that will retard the aging process.He’s not successful in his first effort, compelling
him to perform a “mercy killing” on a patient whose life was nothing but a
“sleepless, tortured nightmare.”For
this act he’s convicted of murder and sentenced to hang.While awaiting execution, the warden (unreasonably)
allows Garth to continue with his experiments under the supervision of a prison
doctor Dr. Howard (Edward Van Sloane).Reworking
the formula, Garth has the bad idea of mixing the blood of recently executed
fellow inmate – who happened to be a three-time convicted murderer – into the
serum.
Garth chooses to be the willing guinea pig himself – he’s
about to be executed anyway, so has nothing to lose – and injects the serum
into his own bloodstream.This time the
age reversal works – but with a caveat.Though
Garth begins to transform into his younger self, his veins now carry the
“contaminated” blood of a murderer.Unable to fend off evil impulses, Garth strangles Dr. Howard.But prison authorities mistakenly pin
Howard’s murder on another inmate and Garth – injured in a frantic melee with
that inmate - is ultimately pardoned.But the tainted blood he carries compels him to seek out fresh victims outside
of prison walls.
Things go no better for Karloff’s Dr. Julian Blair in Edward
Dmytryk’s The Devil Commands
(1941).Despondent over his wife’s death
in an automobile accident, Blair is convinced brainwaves of the deceased live
on following a body’s expiry - and such waves can be recorded electrically on a
graph.Though most of his colleagues scoff
at his theory, Blair is determined to continue his work in a remote cliff side cottage
near the sea.To this end he has built an
elaborate – and decidedly eerie – laboratory: one brimming with electrical
gimmickry, wires and steel-plated robotic helmets.Such experimentation might have been sanctioned
had Blair not robbed local graves in search of test subjects.Needless to say things, as ever, do not turn
out well for anyone involved.
The sixth and final Karloff Columbia effort in this set
is Lew Lander’s The Boogie Man Will Get
You (1942). This is a more lighthearted affair, a black comedy that’s,
regrettably, only occasionally comedic.The film, a co-feature with Peter Lorre, is mostly a poor cousin to a
more recent and successful enterprise.The Boogie Man Will Get You is mostly an
ill-conceived knock-off of Karloff’s popularity as the murderous Jonathon
Brewster in the Broadway stage production of Arsenic and Old Lace.
There is a key difference.While the Broadway play and Lander’s film attempt
to mix laughs with menace, the former does so to perfection, the latter… not so
much.As this is a WWII era-film,
Karloff’s Professor Billings and Lorre’s Dr. Lorencz work to create a race of super-humans
to assist the Allied war effort.It’s
best to be a fan of mug boxer-turned-character-actor “Slapsie” Maxie Rosenbloom
if one truly expects to mine sixty-six minutes of reasonable entertainment.
The seventh and eighth films of this Thrillers from the Vault set are the only two not featuring Karloff. Lander’s The
Return of the Vampire (1942) features Bela Lugosi’s caped return as Count
Dracula… well, more or less.In the film
his character is actually referred to as Armand Tesla, but Lugosi plays his
part mostly as he had the more fabled Count of Tod Browning’s Universal classic
of 1931.While there’s no Dwight Frye to
attend to his sinister beckoning’s, this film’s “Renfield” styled servant is
Andreas Orby (Matt Willis), a talking werewolf.
As with The Boogie
Man Will Get You, this film too situates a favorite horror actor in a modern
WWII setting.The vampire Tesla is resurrected
in the film’s earliest scenes as his graveyard internment is disturbed by a
German air-raid bombing over London.This is, most welcomingly, the first time The Return of the Vampire has been issued in the U.S. on Blu-ray.The title was previously issued by
Columbia/Tri-Star on a DVD release of 2002.
The set’s eighth and final film Five (1951) is the odd man out here, a thoughtful if dystopian film,
courtesy of writer-director-producer Arch Oboler of Lights Out radio fame.A
nuclear bomb blast has wiped out all of the world’s population, save for five
souls who wander and ponder moralities, politics and the future’s gloomy future
prospects.It might have been best to
include Five on Mill Creek’s sister
set to this Thriller release, Sci-Fi from the Vault.
In truth, my first reaction when scanning this set’s
packaging was wonderment why a 1950’s film such as Five was included in this set of 1940s horror-mystery programmers?There are several 1940’s pictures from the Columbia
vault that would have better fit this Thriller
set thematically and chronologically:Will
Jason’s Soul of the Monster (1944)
and Henry Levin’s Cry of the Werewolf
(1944), for starters.The former title
was issued as a Columbia Classics made-on-demand DVD in 2011.To my knowledge, the only official release of
the latter was on a Goodtime VHS tape – issued way back in 1989 – it’s well
past due for a digital re-freshening.
So what’s the verdict?The films look great for their age, with minor speckling and scratches
here and there, but nothing too distracting.It’s a mixed bag if we’re to contrast this Mill Creek U.S. issue with Eureka’s
UK handsome Blu-ray set Karloff at Columbia.If you’re a US fan without a multi-region Blu
ray player than the Mill Creek set should more than satisfy.There are more than a handful of worthy extras
on the Mill Creek set.The primary bonus
is the forty-minute long doc Madness and
Mayhem: Columbia Horror in the ‘30s and ‘40s which features historian C.
Courtney Joyner discussing the studio’s involvement in the horror trade.
Five of the eight films on the Mill Creek feature audio
commentaries: Dr. Steve Haberman (The
Black Room), C. Courtney Joyner and Heath Holland (The Man They Could Not Hang), Tom Weaver (The Devil Commands and Five),
the Monster Party Podcast group (The
Boogie Man Will Get You) and Larry Blamire (Five.) And, of course, the
Mill Creek set gives you the added bonus of two extra features.On the downside, the four Mill Creek discs share
space on two spindles – on my copy the discs frequently dislodge.This will surely not make fussier collectors
happy.
If you are a particularly devoted fan with region-free
Blu-ray capabilities, Eureka’s Karloff at
Columbia (a limited edition of 3000 copies) might still be considered for
your collection as the six films featured on that set comes with fresh
commentaries separate of those found on this Mill Creek set.The Eureka release also contains an
informative booklet featuring the musings of author Stephen Jacobs (Boris Karloff: More than a Monster),
film critic Jon Towlson and film scholar and University lecturer Craig Ian
Mann.Eureka also includes audio of
four Inner Sanctum radio broadcast
programs (1945-1952), all featuring Karloff.So, as Karloff the sinister might say, it’s upon you to “choose your
poison.”
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount Home Video:
Get
ready to roll out with the AUTOBOTS and their human allies as they defend the
world from the evil DECEPTICONS with a Limited-Edition SteelBook™ set featuring
six blockbuster TRANSFORMERS movies on 4K Ultra HD™!Debuting May 30, 2023, this out-of-this-world
collection arrives just in time for fans to catch up on all of the thrilling
adventures before the newest chapter, TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS, arrives
in theatres on June 9th.
The
TRANSFORMERS 6-Movie SteelBook Collection includes TRANSFORMERS, TRANSFORMERS:
REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON, TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF
EXTINCTION, TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT and BUMBLEBEE all in eye-popping 4K
Ultra HD.Each film is presented in a
separate SteelBook with the feature on 4K Ultra HD Disc plus a Blu-ray Disc™
with legacy bonus content.All six
SteelBooks are housed in a striking magnetic slipcase that also includes a
collectible decal and access to Digital copies of each film.
The
TRANSFORMERS film franchise ranks among the biggest of all time, having earned
over $4.8 billion at the global box office.
Bonus
content included in the TRANSFORMERS 6-Movie SteelBook Collection is as
follows:
TRANSFORMERS
Disc
1 - 4K Ultra HD
Feature
Film
Commentary
by director Michael Bay
Disc
2 – Blu-ray
Our
World
Their
War
More
Than Meets The Eye
TRANSFORMERS:
REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
Disc
1 - 4K Ultra HD
Feature
Film
Commentary
by Michael Bay, Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
Disc
2 – Blu-ray
The
Human Factor: Exacting Revenge of the Fallen
A
Day with Bay: Tokyo
25
Years of TRANSFORMERS
NEST:
TRANSFORMER Data Hub
Deconstructing
Visual Bayhem
Deleted/Alternate
Scenes
The
AllSpark Experiment
Giant
Effing Movie
Linkin
Park – New Divide
The
Matrix of Marketing
TRANSFORMERS:
DARK OF THE MOON
Disc
1 - 4K Ultra HD
Feature
Film
Disc
2 – Blu-ray
Above
and Beyond: Exploring Dark of the Moon
Uncharted
Territory: NASA’s Future Then and Now
Deconstructing
Chicago: Multi-Angle Sequences
The
Art of Cybertron
The
Dark of the Moon Archive
The
Matrix of Marketing
TRANSFORMERS:
AGE OF EXTINCTION
Disc
1 - 4K Ultra HD
Feature
Film
Disc
2 – Blu-ray
Bay
on Action
Evolution
Within Extinction—The Making of TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION
Just
Another Giant Effin’ Movie
A
Spark of Design
T.J.
Miller: Farm Hippie
Trailers
TRANSFORMERS:
THE LAST KNIGHT
Disc
1 - 4K Ultra HD
Feature
Film
Disc
2 – Blu-ray
Merging
Mythologies
Climbing
the Ranks
The
Royal Treatment: TRANSFORMERS in the UK
Motors
and Magic
Alien
Landscape: Cybertron
One
More Giant Effin’ Movie
BUMBLEBEE
Disc
1 - 4K Ultra HD
Feature
Film
Disc
2 – Blu-ray
Feature
Film
Sector
7 Archive
Deleted
and Extended Scenes
Outtakes
Bee
Vision: The TRANSFORMERS Robots of Cybertron
Bringing
BUMBLEBEE to the Big Screen
TRANSFORMERS—PG-13
for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and
language
TRANSFORMERS:
REVENGE OF THE FALLEN—PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence,
language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material
TRANSFORMERS:
DARK OF THE MOON—PG-13 for intense prolonged sequences of sci-fi action
violence, mayhem and destruction, and for language, some sexuality and innuendo
TRANSFORMERS:
AGE OF EXTINCTION—PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action,
language and brief innuendo
TRANSFORMERS:
THE LAST KNIGHT—PG-13 for violence and intense sequences of sci-fi action,
language, and some innuendo
BUMBLEBEE—PG-13
for sequences of sci-fi action violence
The
Asphyx Will Rip You Apart…The Asphyx
Will Invade Your Mind… The Asphyx Will Destroy Your Soul… If It Were In Your
Power… Would You Sacrifice Your Wife… Your Children For Immortality?
The answers to the questions posed above by the
advertising campaign for Peter Newbrook’s The
Asphyx (1972) was a resounding “yes.”As the gifted but obsessed psychic-research scientist Hugo Cunningham, celebrated
British actor Robert Stephens puts everyone in his family through the
proverbial ringer by film’s end.Such
single-minded research on his part is not accomplished without a measure of
personal guilt, mind you.But as a
curious man of science – and one obsessed with paranormal exploration -
Cunningham pushes forward determinedly with increasingly morbid experimentations.
Such “experiments” include the exhuming of his dead son
for some post-mortem testing, the photographing of a condemned man at a public
hanging, a self-administered electrocution, putting his daughter’s head through
a guillotine pillory and even willfully torturing a tubercular pauper.Hey, the last guy, a poorhouse resident, had
only forty-eight hours to live anyway… so he was fair game.
Like Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein, Cunningham is a man driven
by obsession.Appearing before members
of the Psychic Research Society, the scientist presents to colleagues a series
of slides depicting a trio of unfortunates photographed at the precise moment
of their deaths.Each photograph has a
“smudge” present, a sort of phantasmagorical protoplasmic image hovering
nearby.It’s Cunningham’s theory that
the image is an Asphyx, a creature of Greek mythology.The Asphyx is a visual manifestation of one’s
tortured “soul the moment it departs the body.”It’s the scientists’ belief that if one could pre-emptively isolate and
imprison the Asphyx prior to expiration, that person might carry on as an
immortal.This appears to be
Cunningham’s endgame interest.
Though adopted son Giles (Robert Powell) is wary of his
father’s dark experiments (“This isn’t science!” he warns), he begrudgingly
becomes one-half of Cunningham’s research team – to disastrous results as one
might expect.Since Cunningham, to his
credit I guess, puts his own life on
the line in pursuit of science and immortality, it seems only fair to him that
members of the family do the same - and without complaint.Which certainly makes the case that, on some occasions,
father doesn’t know best.
Cameras began rolling on the The Asphyx on Monday, February 7, 1972, at Surrey, England’s Shepperton
Studios.Shooting wrapped a mere five
weeks following first photography. The film was to be helmed by first time
director Peter Newbrook, a former cameraman and cinematographer who boasted a filmography
dating back to the early 1940s.The film
certainly looks great, even if the
pacing of Newbrook’s direction is somewhat suspect.The Academy Award-winning Cinematographer
Freddie Young (B.S.C.) - of Lawrence of
Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, The Battle of Britain and You Only Live Twice fame - would use the newish Todd-AO 35mm
anamorphic system to great effect.In
many respects, Newbrook’s The Asphyx
is of similar construct to such British parlour-horror films being churned out
by Hammer and Amicus in the late 1960s/early 1970s.
The question now was whether or not a Victorian-era set horror
picture would make any money in 1972?The horror biz was already moving away from stately, moody gothic films to
more exploitative blood-splattered fare. Nevertheless, upon the film’s completion,
it was announced The Asphyx was to be
distributed in the British market by Scotia-Barber.On week later, Variety reported that Martin Grasgreen, President of Paragon
Pictures, had managed a deal with Glendale Film Productions (London) to handle
distribution of The Asphyx in both the
U.S. and Canada.In early winter of
1972, Paragon already had a number of exploitative horror-thrillers in release,
including Blood Suckers, Blood Thirst and Death by Invitation.
In August of 1972 the Independent
Film Journal announced that The
Asphyx, described as a “science-fiction suspense thriller,” would be
released the following month, the first of twenty-two films that Paragon had
waiting in the queue.Box Office promised the film would be
the recipient of “an extensive national advertising and promotion campaign,”
with “key theater” roll-outs in Dallas, New Orleans, New York City,
Philadelphia and Washington D.C.
Upon its September release, Variety noted The Asphyx
was – welcomingly - bucking the recent trend of blood and gore horrors:
Newbrook had intentionally delivered a more “cerebral” or “thinking man’s
horror film.”Acknowledging the film was
well cast and beautifully photographed, the trade review did rue that Brian Comport’s
verbiage-laden screenplay was slow going and riddled with historical
improbabilities. Other critics noted Robert Stephen’s mad scientist was one
seemingly gifted with precognitive invention.
It was true.As The Asphyx is set in the year 1875, scientist
Cunningham had somehow managed to prefigure such mechanical appliances as the
first motion picture camera (not actually developed until 1888) and an electric
chair (not developed into the early 1880s).To the credit of Box Office,
the trade paper cautiously suggested that, “Selling the film as a monster movie
would not be to its advantage: a more intelligent approach to sci-fi fans is
indicated.”I imagine “less-intelligent”
monster movie fans might have shifted restlessly in their seats back in ’72, awaiting
even the mildest of jump-scares.
The
Asphyx was the fourth and final of writer Brian Comport’s
screenplays to be produced.His first screenwriting
effort, Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly
(Cinerama Releasing Corp., 1970), was an out-and-out freaky and grisly
exploitation film.Technically speaking,
Girly wasn’t a completely original
invention of Comport’s.The original
story was loosely based on the stage play Happy
Family (aka All Fall Down) by the
novelist and BBC radio playwright Maisie Mosco.His second screen credit was a co-authorship with director Pete Walker
on Man of Violence (later re-titled The Sex Racketeers).That film was a convoluted and overly talky
international-gold smuggling-racketeer-caper-thriller with a pronounced sixties
swagger.
In one of those local-lad-makes-good-type newspaper
items, journalist Anthony Cardew of the Surrey
Mirror and County Post, shared an hour with Comport, then basking in the
success of his industry breakthrough with Mumsy,
Nanny, Sonny and Girly.“I was
offered a script which a producer wanted lived up,” the writer told
Cardew.“He wanted a bit more action or
something.I took the script apart and
rewrote it completely.I added new
characters, took some out and changed the thing entirely.I wrote it in note form, just suggesting the
way I thought it should go.”
The producer was pleased with Comport’s revised scenario
and formally commissioned him to draft a new screenplay, in the scripters own
words, “from the beginning, according to my own ideas.”With the film in production, Comport was also
approached by a representative from London’s Sphere books to turn his
screenplay into a novelization, a six-week effort bringing in a bit of extra
cash.
Many film critics found Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly – later retitled simply as Girly –aggressively unpleasant in its
lurid, sexually suggestive subject matter - and decidedly distasteful in its depiction
of depravity and violence.One critic would
unflatteringly suggest Comport as a leading “candidate for sickest mind of the
year award.” Another nonplussed reviewer thought the film as “Theater of the
absurd… absurdly vicious.”
Scolding reviews aside, Comport’s star seemed to be on
the rise.In October of 1970, only shortly
following the release of Mumsy, Nanny,
Sonny and Girly, production had already started on Robert Hartford-Davis’
thriller Beware My Brethren (Cinerama
Releasing Corp., 1972) also from a Comport script.Things then cooled for an interim but, following
a year or so of film-work drought, Comport was back with The Asphyx.
Though Comport’s script – adapted from a story provided
by Christina and Laurence Beers – would appropriate more than a few elements from
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Independent Film Journal interestinglysuggested The Asphyx was of similar construct to William Castle’s B-movie
classic The Tingler (1959):“There
too a visible spirit of sorts popped up; but that one was of fear rather than
death.” Though some wondered why a
classically-trained actor of Robert Stephens’s caliber would agree to appear in
a film clearly beneath his station, the former board-trotter of the Royal
National Theatre thought The Asphyx “rather
good.”He told journalist Neville Nisse
of Staffordshire’s Evening Sentinel, “I
really enjoyed making it because I liked the script and the people
involved.”
The Asphyx performed
reasonably well at the box office – not boffo perhaps, but reasonably well.So much so
that in January of 1973, Paragon announced they were going to enter into a
co-production deal with Glendale for two additional features.Paragon would, of course, retain all U.S.
distribution rights, but would now also share in a generous slice of a film’s
international profit.When U.S. box
office receipts measurably dipped following the film’s initial run, The Asphyx was often paired on the
secondary market with other indie horrors:Night of the Living Dead, Son of Blob and Blood Suckers among them.
(Variety trade advertisement)
In Australia, The
Asphyx was given the more compelling title Spirit of the Dead, the adverts teasing an audience confrontation
with “The Horror That Lurks Halfway Between Heaven and Hell!” The campaign
posters for Spirit of the Dead featured
accompanying artwork promising a more ghoulish monster than the film would deliver.The Asphyx
would also enjoy a sustained life in the United Kingdom.Exploitatively re-titled The Horror of Death on its re-release, the film would play in cinemas
throughout the 1970s.It was often
incongruously paired on multi-bills with such chop-socky fare as Kung Fu Virgins and The Angry Dragon.
This 2023 Kino Lorber Studio Classics edition of The Asphyx replaces the Kino/Redemption
Films co-issue of 2012.The only really new
“Special Features” offered is the commentary track provided by film historians
Kim Newman and Stephen Jones and six trailers promoting other Kino
Product.This new edition is also
packaged in a protective slipcase that mimics the artwork of the case
insert.Both the 86 minute U.K.
theatrical cut and 99 minute U.S. expanded cut are made available to view.But, as the package warns, the
“reconstruction of the extended version blends HD footage mastered from the
35mm negative with SD footage mastered from the U.S. release print.” The
changes in visual quality are very significant as forewarned.
For the record, I watched the extended version.Though the inclusion of an additional
thirteen minutes is welcome, these extra fragments are of no great
interest.In fact, it’s possible the added
running time further slows down a film already in desperate need of judicious
editing.Newbrook’s direction is
competent, but Comport’s screenplay is weighed down by too many sermons: the
film’s main characters continually perseverate on the moral misguiding’s of
Cunningham’s tampering with spiritual and life-and-death issues.Such hand-wringing tires after a while.Having said all this, The Asphyx is an interesting film, if far from a forgotten classic.While aficionados of British horror should
certainly add the title to their watch list, it might be best to screen the
film with muted expectation.
Scores
of modestly budgeted, black-and-white Noir movies about gangsters, cops,
private eyes, and murderous love affairs were produced in France in the 1950s,
but only a few crossed the Atlantic in dubbed prints.Some were dumped in second-run movie houses,
where they were often labeled and advertised “for adults only,” emphasising
their sexual content (tame now but steamy back then, when TV routinely depicted
married couples in separate beds).I
discussed one such Noir, released in France in 1959 as “Du Rififi Chez Les
Femmes” and in the U.S. in 1962 as “Riff Raff Girls,” HERE.In the later ‘60s, others were bundled with
other foreign B-movies for broadcast on local television stations, hardly a
prestigious showcase either.Coming off
the midnight shift, a bleary-eyed factory worker might see the end of an Eddie
Constantine movie with mediocre dubbing in a late-nite time slot, just before
the station signed off for the night.With a mug that looked like a bad night on the town, Eddie was even more
popular than Humphrey Bogart in the France of the Charles De Gaulle era, but
his tough-guy pictures as wisecracking, two-fisted FBI agent Lemmy Caution
hardly made a ripple here.To the extent
Constantine and Caution are remembered in the U.S. at all, it’s because Eddie
reprised the role in Jean-Luc Godard’s “Alphaville” (1965).But “Alphaville,” although wonderful, was a
New Wave absurdist parody and not part of the original series.
Only
with the advent of home video and social media since the 1990s have films like
“Touchez Pas au Grisbi” (1954), “Bob Le Flambeur” (1956), “Any Number Can Win”
(1963), and “Le Circle Rouge” (1970) been rescued from obscurity, packaged with
care, and re-evaluated by a modern, more receptive audience.With many more pictures of this type yet to
be rediscovered and restored, the release of “French Noir Collection” on
Blu-ray is a step in the right direction.The Kino Lorber Studio Classics set includes three dramas that will be
new to all but the most tenacious fans of the genre.
In
“Speaking of Murder” (1957), Louis Bertain (Jean Gabin) seems to be a stolid,
middle-aged Parisian whose garage caters to high-end customers.The appearance is deceiving.Louis, an ambitious high roller, needs more
money than the garage earns.He makes it
as the leader of a four-man theft ring, targeting deliveries of cash and
securities at banks. The robberies are
grab-and-run jobs, based on insider tips about delivery schedules, and
carefully planned with the exacting attention to detail that fans expect from
stories like this about heists.Louis
and his partners Fredo, Pepito, and Raymond have been together for more than
ten years, but fractures have begun to appear.The volatile Pepito (Lino Ventura) distrusts Fredo, who developed a bad
case of the shakes on their last job.Worse,Pepito also has suspicious
eyes on Louis’ younger brother, Pierre (Marcel Bozzuffi), a petty offender
vulnerable to police pressure.For good
measure, Louis is determined to retire after the next job, and we know how that
usually turns out in gangster pictures.With a sliced-to-the-bone plot and almost documentarian black-and-white
cinematography on the streets of Paris, the film is as good as the genre gets,
even if it is saddled with a lacklustre title, apparently tacked on for release
in English-speaking markets back in the day.“Speaking of Murder’ would lead you to expect a sedate episode of “Columbo”
or “Murder,
She Wrote,” not a hardboiled heist drama like this one.The original French title, “Le Rouge Est Mis,” or “The Red Is On” (referring
to the light that comes on outside Louis’ garage when the gang meets there)
isn’t any more compelling in direct translation.If Marcel Bozzuffi looks familiar, you
probably remember his later role in a much more famous crime drama.In “The French Connection” (1971), the
prolific French actor played Pierre Nicoli or “Frog Two,” the sniper who flees
from Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle in William Friedkin’s iconic car and train
chase.
The
other two films in the Kino Lorber set follow the pattern of James M. Cain’s
“The Postman Always Rings Twice” and “Double Indemnity,” in which murder
results when one spouse cheats on another with an extramarital lover.In “Back to the Wall” (original title, “Le
Dos au Mur,” 1958), Jacques (Gerard Oury), a wealthy construction tycoon,
discovers that his wife Gloria (Jeanne Moreau) has resumed an old affair with
Yves, a small-time actor.The vengeful
millionaire assumes a false identity to blackmail the lovers and humiliate his
errant wife.He doesn’t need the
blackmail payments; he just wants to see her squirm.It isn’t a spoiler to note that Yves is
murdered in the course of the scheme, since the film opens with Jacques
disposing of his body.We presume that
the millionaire was the murderer, but if so, how does that square with his
extortion game, once it begins to unfold in a long back story we follow through
Jacques’ eyes?In “Witness in the City”
(“Un Témoin Dans La Ville,” 1959), another millionaire, Pierre, kills his
mistress Jeanne by throwing her off a moving train.In turn, Jeanne’s husband Ancelin (Lino
Ventura again—the Roy Scheider of French crime pictures) murders Pierre after
the millionaire is acquitted in court for Jeanne’s death.Ancelin thinks he’s committed the perfect
crime when he makes Pierre’s death scene look like a suicide instead of a
murder, but as someone tells him, “No crime is perfect.”Ancelin becomes desperate when a cab driver
sees him outside Pierre’s house, just before the dead man’s body is found. Since the driver was a witness, Ancelin
decides he has to get rid of him too.The film reaches for the tension of an Alfred Hitchcock or Fritz Lang
picture as Ancelin stalks the cabby, but doesn’t quite succeed; but then,
nobody ever quite matched Hitchcock or Lang.Still, both it and “Back to the Wall” will be welcomed by suspense fans
in search of obscure works in the genre, and both benefit from glistening
nighttime scenes in actual Parisian locations.Nostalgists will enjoy the wet streets and neon at actual locations, the
Midcentury interiors, trenchcoats—plenty of trenchcoats—and classic product
placements in all three films.When was
the last time, if ever, you saw an Esso sign?
The
three movies, licensed from Gaumont Films, are presented in sharp, restored
prints, with French voice tracks and crisp English subtitles.One of the two discs in the set contains
“Speaking of Murder” alone, and the second contains the other two films.Trailers for “Speaking of Murder” and “Back
to the Wall” are included.The Blu-ray
can be ordered HERE.
Now,
when can we see a Lemmy Caution Collection of comparable quality?
Fred Blosser is the author of "Sons of Ringo: The Great Spaghetti Western Heroes". Click here to order from Amazon)
In this excerpt from the U.S. PBS series, "Pioneers of Television", Peter Graves discusses his long career from "B" sci-fi movies to his success on "Mission: Impossible" and even his comedic appearance in the "Airplane!" feature film. He also chats about the career of his brother, James Arness, another true icon of television.
"Good Day for a Hanging" is minor 1959 color Western elevated by an unusually intelligent script and an impressive cast of veteran actors and a couple of up-and-comers who would find stardom in the 1960s. Fred MacMurray plays former town marshal Ben Cutler, a widower who is living a serene small town life in the company of his fiancee Ruth (Maggie Hayes) and his teenage daughter Laurie (Joan Blackman). Their peaceful existence is shattered when Laurie's former beau Eddie Campbell (Robert Vaughn) arrives in town in the company of some shady bandits. While Laurie tries to reignite the romance with Eddie, his companions are pulling off a robbery of the bank which goes wrong very quickly when a shootout ensues. Eddie and his companions flea the scene with a posse in hot pursuit led by Marshal Cain (Emile Meyer). Another shootout follows with some of the gang killed and others escaping with half the loot from the bank. In the melee, Ben witnesses Eddie fatally shooting Marshal Cain before Eddie is wounded and captured. When he is brought back to town, Eddie is nursed back to health, in part by Laurie, and admits the obvious- he took part in the robbery. However, he insists that he did not shoot the marshal and that he must have been hit by gunfire from another gang member. Ben knows this is untrue and tells the townspeople as much. He also reluctantly agrees to temporarily resume serving as town marshal until a permanent replacement can be found. Eddie is put on trial and plays the victim, recounting a hardscrabble upbringing and turning on the charm. Nevertheless, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. From his jail cell, he can see the gallows being built. However, he begins to convince the townspeople that he is not guilty of murder and his death sentence should be changed to serving time in jail. Soon, many of the town's most prominent citizens are buying his story and they force Ben to take a petition bearing many signatures to the governor asking him to grant Eddie's request. Laurie, blinded by her romantic interest in Eddie, is his chief defender- a fact that causes Ben great consternation. Because this is a Western, there are dramatic developments that result in an action-packed climax.
What sets "Good Day for a Hanging" apart from many other minor Westerns of the period is the fact that it has a compelling and interesting script that touches upon sociological factors such as the ability of one person to manipulate many others, often against common sense, by using charisma and a strong will. Eddie has both and you can't help but be reminded of how many contemporary people, often in public service, are excused for all sorts of behavior simply because people find them personally likable or intimidating. Doubtless, there have been times when all of us have seen such scenarios and wondered how intelligent people can ignore established facts in their defense of someone whose actions are indefensible. In this case, Ben Cutler is 100% right in his testimony against Eddie but before long he is the odd man out, criticized and resented by the very people who only recently begged him to serve as marshal. Fred MacMurray gives a strong performance as the protagonist- a man who has lost the respect of his own daughter in her misguided quest to benefit a killer. Robert Vaughn gives an excellent, understated performance that allows the viewer to understand why he is able to win over so many townspeople.
It's interesting to analyze the career trajectories of several actors who appear in the film. Fred MacMurray had been going through somewhat of a minor career slump at the time but it would be short-lived. Later in 1959, he starred in his first Walt Disney movie, "The Shaggy Dog", which was a major hit. He would star in many other Disney films over the next decade. Additionally, he would give an outstanding performance as a misogynistic heel in Billy Wilder's Oscar winner, "The Apartment". Capping off his career turnaround, he would also star in the long-running sitcom "My Three Sons". Robert Vaughn would rise to stardom with his performance later that year in "The Young Philadelphians", earning an Oscar nomination for his work. That, in turn, led him to be cast as one of "The Magnificent Seven" and he would reach the level of international teen idol in the mid-Sixties due to his starring role in "The Man from U.N.C.L.E". Some of the fine character actors who would appear in the film would also find major success over the next few years. Howard McNear, who plays one of the prominent townsmen, would create his iconic comedic role as the eccentric Floyd the barber the next year in "The Andy Griffith Show". Denver Pyle, who plays deputy in the film, would also make periodic appearances in the show as the lovably loony hillbilly patriarch Briscoe Darling, as well as appear in two major John Wayne films, "The Horse Soldiers" and "The Alamo" before landing his most memorable role as Sheriff Frank Hammer in "Bonnie and Clyde". James Drury, who would go on to star in "The Virginian" TV series, also has a supporting role. Special mention should be made of Edmon Ryan, who is especially good, portraying Eddie's defense counsel. One more note of interest: the film was produced by Charles H. Schneer, a respected figure in the British film industry who was most often associated with the films of special effects master Ray Harryhausen.
The Sony DVD has a reasonably good transfer, if a bit soft. The only extras are original trailers for "Silverado" and "The Professionals", both on Sony Home Video. Strangely enough, the trailer for "Good Day for a Hanging" isn't included, but we found it on YouTube and are providing it here.
I don't want to exaggerate the merits of "Good Day for a Hanging". It isn't a great movie by any means, just a good Western- but it's loaded with fine actors who were on the cusp of major career successes.
