Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Fabulous Films regarding the Region 2 Blu-ray and DVD releases of "Manhattan" and "Hannah and Her Sisters", which are being released on 28 August.
One of Woody Allen’s best-loved films, Hannah and Her Sisters, won
three richly deserved Oscars and is considered a joy from start to
perfectly-judged finish.
The films ensemble
cast includes Max von Sydow, Carrie Fisher, Sir Michael Caine, Diane Wiest, Lloyd
Nolan (who died 4 months before the film's release), Mia Farrow and Daniel
Stern. Caine won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role while Wiest won
Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Allen won Best Screenplay (beating Crocodile
Dundee, My Beautiful Laundrette, Platoon and Salvador). Max von
Sydow and Barbara Hershey received a standing ovation from the crew after they
finished filming their characters' break-up scene.
The film has some
great one-liners, with a philosophical discussion about the nature of good and
evil getting shot down with “How should I know why there were Nazi’s, I don’t
even know how the can opener works”
Synopsis: Hannah (Mia Farrow) is a devoted wife, loving mother and successful
actress. She’s also the emotional backbone of the family, and her sisters Lee
(Barbara Hershey) and Holly (Dianne Wiest) depend on this stability while also
resenting it because they can’t help but compare Hannah’s seemingly perfect
life with theirs. But with her husband Elliott (Michael Caine) becoming
increasingly interested in Lee, it’s clear that Hannah might have problems of
her own.
Cast: Woody Allen, Michael
Caine, Mia Farrow, Carrie Fisher, Barbara Hershey, Lloyd Nolan, Maureen
O’Sullivan, Daniel Stern, Max von Sydow, Julie Kavner, Richard Jenkins, Fred
Melamed, Lewis Black, Joanna Gleason, John Turturro, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and
Dianne Wiest.
“One of (Woody)
Allen’s most enduring accomplishments” - BoxOffice
Nominated for two
Academy-Awards® Manhattan is a wry, touching and finely rendered portrait of
modern relationships set against the backdrop of urban alienation. Sumptuously
photographed in black and white (Allen’s first film in that format) and
accompanied by a magnificent Gershwin score which includes Rhapsody in Blue.
Released in 1979. Manhattan
won Best Film and Best Screenplay at the BAFTAs. Mariel Hemingway aged 16
years old earned a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards
for her performance. Woody Allen and Marshall Brinkman were nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2001, the United States Library
of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Synopsis: Forty-two-year-old
Manhattan native Isaac Davis (Allen) has a job he hates, a seventeen-year-old
girlfriend, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), whom he doesn’t love, and a lesbian
ex-wife, Jill (Meryl Streep), who’s writing a tell-all book about their
marriage...and whom he’d like to strangle. But when he meets his best friend’s
sexy intellectual mistress, Mary (Diane Keaton), Isaac falls head over heels in
lust! Leaving Tracy, bedding Mary and quitting his job are just the beginnings
of Isaac’s quest for romance and fulfilment . In a city where sex is as
intimate as a handshake - and the gateway to true love...is a revolving door.
Cast: Woody Allen, Diane
Keaton, Michael Murphy, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep, Anne Byrne.
If we are to use history as a guide – as we should – Earl
Derr Biggers’ creation of Charlie Chan marked the first occasion of a fictional
Asian detective (Chinese-American to
be precise) to be received warmly by not only a U.S. audience but by filmgoers
worldwide. Biggers had published no
fewer than six Chan mystery novels in the years 1925-1932. The author may have even continued the series
had he not died young, age 48, in the spring of 1933. Though there had been preceding Chan film
adaptations – the first being a 1926 serial - it wasn’t until Swede Warner
Oland’s assumption of the role in 1931 that the character became an iconic
totem of detective cinema.
Though Oland had a clear lock on the public’s perception
of the inscrutable, unflappable Asian detective, the literary Chan was now moribund. Sensing a vacuum, yet another American author, John P. Marquand, would
create the friendly (and obviously pre-war) Japanese spy Mr. Moto. The missions of that character were first
serialized in issues of the Saturday
Evening Post (1935-1938), those stories soon turned into novels by Boston’s
Little Brown & Co. Following Daryl
F. Zanuck’s licensing of character rights for 2oth Century Fox in July of 1936,
the studio issued no fewer than eight Mr. Moto mystery films (featuring Peter
Lorre) in the years 1937-1939.
Whether it was Lorre who chose not to renew his Fox
contract, or whether Fox decided the series had simply played out or whether it
was the actions of an increasingly belligerent and aggressive Japan (who would formally
align with the Axis Powers in September of 1940), Mr. Moto’s final pre-WWII
film adventure, ironically titled Mr.
Moto Takes a Vacation, was released in summer of 1939. Whatever the reason, it was the success of
the Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto series that allowed Colliers magazine to coattail introduce Hugh Wiley’s Chinese-American
James Lee Wong series of detective stories in 1934.
In September of 1938 a California newspaper reported that
author Wiley had “just sold four of his detective stories, centering about the
character of James Lee Wong, to Monogram Pictures.” The proposed film series was purportedly to
feature Boris Karloff – just off production of Son of Frankenstein (Universal) – as the film’s title character. Technically, this character licensing report was
old news. In February of 1938, there
were already reports that Monogram’s Scott Dunlap was looking for the right actor
to cast as Mr. Wong. There was one sensible
suggestion that the studio was hoping to find a “Keye Luke” type. Luke was now approachable as Oland’s incarnate
of Charlie Chan had recently come to an abrupt, sad end. When Oland passed in August of 1938, Luke was
passed over for consideration as a successor. The part ignobly went to Sidney Toler, yet another actor of European
ancestry.
Keye Luke was already a familiar figure to cinemagoers –
he popularly played the “Number One Son” to Oland’s Chan in a number of films
in that popular series. Luke chose to
exit the Chan franchise following Oland’s passing: but while now available to
Monogram he was not considered a guaranteed box office draw. The Los Angeles Daily News reported on April 14, 1938 that, following negotiations
on a long-distance phone call, Dunlap had secured the promise of Boris Karloff,
age 50, to star in the proposed series. Shortly following that news, snippy Hollywood
gossiper Louella Parsons sniffed that Karloff was exhibiting more than a bit of
courage should he expect to “muscle in on the territory so triumphantly held by
Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto.”
On April 26, 1938, Variety
reported that the Monogram president had been “conferring” with producer Scott
R. Dunlap, looking to rush into production for the “1938-1939 releasing season”
four new feature films, one of which was Mr.
Wong, Detective. On 10 May Variety reported that Richard Weil, “the
author of the Charlie Chan radio adventures” had been tasked to write the
screenplay for the film. But whether due
to a “conflict of interest” concern or simply a scheduling issue, Weil soon fell
out and scripting duties went to Houston Branch, a Monogram dependable. In any
event, it wasn’t until late August of 1938 that the trades announced that Monogram’s
Mr. Wong film - suggested as the “first of four whodunits” all to star Boris
Karloff - was to go into production in a week’s time. Industry trade Box Office made further note that the four Wong serial mysteries
slated for production were Mr. Wong,
Detective, Mr. Wong at Headquarters,
Mr. Wong in Chinatown and The Mystery of Mr. Wong.
There would be no shortage of Asian detective melodramas
in 1938. Monogram’s Mr. Wong was to
compete directly against 20th Century Fox’s Mr. Moto series and the
Chan films still touring the regional circuit. And all three would feature
non-Asian actors as the title characters. Karloff, of course, was no stranger to accepting East-Asian roles,
having already appeared in such films as The
Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) and, more recently, West of Shanghai (1937). On
June 20th, the Los Angeles
Evening Citizen News offered while a complete script had not yet been turned
in, cameras were set to roll on Mr. Wong,
Detective in three weeks’ time. That
deadline was apparently missed, as the first day of shooting on Mr. Wong, Detective would not start
until late August (the 25th according to one contemporary newspaper
accounting, the 24th according to this film’s audio commentary).
We do know that on 3 September 1938, a journalist visited
Monogram’s Mr. Wong set. The writer had
chosen to sit through a portion of Karloff’s grueling three-and-a-half hour
session in the makeup chair of Gordon Bau. Karloff was no stranger to make-up applications, but admitted to the
reporter that such wearying sessions weren’t the favorite part of his day. “It’s lovely to get up and go to the studio
at 6:00 A.M., stretch out in a barber chair and have somebody with hobnailed
boots crawl in and out of your eyes.” Bau defensively parried that such applications were necessary evils,
admitting his work on applying rubber cement near Karloff’s eyes to create
epicurean folds proved the most challenging part of the actor’s physical transformation.
Karloff agreed the eye make-up applications were the most
wearying to endure. “By the time you get
done,” Karloff sighed, “my eyeballs are pressed, my vision is off focus and I
walk around all day in a haze.” Turning
his attention to the visiting journalist, Karloff sniggered, “And when finally
he gets through with me, he’s proud of what he’s done. He thinks it is a work of art.” For the most part, Karloff’s reimaging is
surprisingly subtle: a slick of pressed black hair, a slim moustache and
thickened eyebrows, slight eye folds often disguised behind a set of reading
glasses.
If Bau’s reasonably understated make-up appliance was a
work of art, critics were divided on whether or not Mr. Wong, Detective was. The
story itself concerns a cabal of spies working in interest of an unnamed
foreign power and trying to steal a poison gas formula for nefarious ends. The first of Monogram’s Mr. Wong pictures,
shot in a mere few weeks’ time, was set for October 5, 1938 release – a mere
month following Karloff’s session in Bau’s make-up chair.
Upon the film’s release Variety couldn’t help but comment on the film’s rushed, bargain
basement appearance, citing the production as ranging at best from “standard to
skimpy.” The Variety critic blamed director William Nigh and scripter Houston
Branch for the film’s shortfalls: “First
picture suffers from directorial and writing troubles, plus a combination of
careless acting and haphazard casting,” the reviewer sighed. Despite such criticism, it was noted that
Karloff did the best with the lackluster material given. Fighting “vigorously”
against the odds, the scribe conceded that Karloff had at the very least proven
his utility as an actor: his presence was enough to prove he needn’t have to
affix “grotesque makeup to register.”
Other reviews were kinder. London’s Picturegoer
was less critical of the picture, describing Karloff’s Mr. Wong as “a serious
rival to Charlie Chan.” But exhibitors were
more cautious, split in their opinion of the film’s merit: when one described Mr. Wong Detective, “Worthy of a top
spot on a double,” a second complained, “Where does Monogram get the idea this
is good? Awful – slowest moving thing I
have seen in years.”
Slow or not, by late January of 1939, Monogram was
already into production of the second of the series, The Mystery of Mr. Wong. W.T. Lackey took over producing duties
from Scott Dunlap, and scripter Branch was relieved of scenario duties,
screenwriting credit given to W. Scott Darling. Darling had been the screenwriter of Charlie
Chan at the Opera (1936) which, interestingly, pitted Oland’s detective
against a villainous Boris Karloff.
This second Wong was more of a pedestrian and routine parlor
murder mystery, one concerning the theft of a rare and expensive sapphire. By
March of 1939, The Mystery of Mr. Wong
was already reported as being in the “cutting room.” The film would be released in April of
1939. Though this second entry of the
series fared a wee better than its
predecessor in critical analysis, this sophomore effort too was faulted for its
“lack of action,” the weaving of too many obvious red herrings into the script,
and an appreciable number of wooden performances by the cast.
The lukewarm reviews were of little consequence. That
same April, it was announced that scripter Darling was to return and write the
series’ third entry, Mr. Wong in
Chinatown (aka Mr. Wong’s Chinatown
Squad). At Monogram’s sales convention at Chicago’s Drake Hotel in spring
of 1939, it was evident - despite the lackluster reviews - that studio bosses
were pleased with the box office takes of the first two Wong serials. They promised four more titles were already
in the pipeline: Mr. Wong Vanishes, Mr. Wong in Havana, Mr. Wong’s Chinatown Squad and Mr.
Wong in New York.
By June of 1939 Mr.
Wong in Chinatown was already well in production, screenwriter Darling
reported mid-month to have already begun scripting duties on what would be the
fourth of the series, Mr. Wong at
Headquarters. The scenario for Mr. Wong in Chinatown concerns his
investigation into the murder of a royal princess who had been visiting the
United States on a mission to purchase airplanes for defense of her country
against a hostile nation-state.
When Mr. Wong in
Chinatown was previewed in July of 1939, the reviews remained consistent
with the first two, tagging the film a “slow whodunit.” Though the picture was lacking
in any appreciable action, there was a concession that enough, “color and
mystery [was] attached to the proceedings to attract fair trade” – well, if
exploited properly. One exhibitor agreed,
reporting good box office receipts and anointing Mr. Wong in Chinatown, the “Best of the Wong series” to date.
The blandly titled Mr.
Wong at Headquarters went into production in November of 1939, and was already
in the cutting room by December’s end. By January of 1940 the film’s working title
was officially changed to the more mysterious and exotic The Fatal Hour and scheduled for a January 15, 1940 release. This time Wong is called to investigate the waterfront
murder of a fellow detective, the scenario intertwined with a bit of a
smuggling subplot. New York’s Daily News thought it a not particularly
“absorbing of murder mysteries, although it is filled with enough complications
to make a Philadelphia lawyer’s head spin.”
In late January of 1940, the Los Angeles Times reported, erroneously, that a fifth Mr. Wong
serial - tentatively titled Chamber of
Horrors – was in the works, Dorothy Reid cited as readying a script. Some months later the trades reported, far more
reliably, that William Nigh was, for a fifth time, signed to direct a Mr. Wong
mystery. Though Reid would not be
associated with this final Karloff Mr. Wong effort, there was no reason to
disbelieve the Times initial report: Reid had served as a producer and writer at
Monogram and had previously collaborated with Nigh on such productions as A Bride for Henry (1937) and Rose of the Rio Grande (1938). There was in fact a Monogram horror flick
titled Chamber of Horrors produced in
1940, but this was a Norman Lee film, based on the creaky Edgar Wallace novel of
1926, The Door with Seven Locks. Neither Reid nor Nigh was publically
connected to that film’s production.
When the final Karloff Wong film, Doomed to Die (aka Mystery of
the Wentworth Castle from a script penned by series’ newcomer Ralph G.
Bettinson), played Manhattan’s Rialto Theatre, the Hollywood Reporter caustically reported the picture was, if nothing
else, “aptly named for it died within a few days” of its showcase. The Baltimore
Sun coldly piled on with a bad notice of its own: “The direction, writing
and acting are slipshod beyond the limit of that large tolerance accorded this
extravert type of drama.” Still more
harsh criticism of the picture lie ahead. “Charlie Chan would shake with professional pity,” wrote the New York Herald Tribune, sighing that the
great Karloff “has never had a duller, more unexacting role.”
It was the last of Karloff’s involvement in the Mr. Wong
series. There was really no reason for the
actor to continue on in the role as he certainly did not need the work – nor did
he need the piling on of bad notices that continued to accumulate. In 1940, the year that Doomed to Die was released, Karloff would star in no fewer than
nine additional features for Columbia, Warner Bros., Universal, RKO Radio and
Monogram. He would certainly survive his
departure from the role. But would Mr.
Wong?
That question was answered in June of 1940 when Monogram announced
Keye Luke as Karloff’s successor in the role. It was a sensible progressive move on Monogram’s part, a UPI
correspondent writing a glowing tribute to Keye Luke who would now serve – at
long last – as “cinema’s one and only genuine Oriental detective.” Though Monogram signed the actor to a
four-picture “Mr. Wong” deal, the only entry produced with Luke in the
detective role was Phil Rosen’s Phantom
of Chinatown, released in November of 1940. The change of actor (and director) was mostly seamless and arguably
refreshing: Luke did bring a bit more energy and excitement to the role. (Karloff
was often cited by critics as a miscast who, largely unchallenged, chose to
sleepwalk through the role). Most
reviews of Luke’s Wong were complimentary, echoing those of a Variety critic who thought Phantom of Chinatown “worthy of the
average ‘B’ thriller of this type.”
There was some industry talk in January of 1941 that Paul
Malvern (an associate producer of Doomed
to Die and the producer of Phantom of
Chinatown) was preparing Luke’s return as Mr. Wong for the actor’s second outing,
provisionally titled Million Dollar
Mystery. Had that film been
produced, it would have been the seventh in the Monogram series. But no such film was greenlit (perhaps due to
Malvern’s 1941 defection to Universal) making Phantom of Chinatown the last of Monogram’s Mr. Wong series. Luke would fulfil his four-pic Monogram
contract in a waste of his talent making small appearances in The Gang’s All Here, Bowery Blitzkrieg and Let’s Go Collegiate, all released in
1941.
It’s of some disappointment that Phantom of Chinatown was excluded from this new Kino Lorber Blu-ray
collection. Perhaps Kino is planning a
standalone release of the title sometime in the future… at least I hope so. In the meantime, I suppose sad Completists
will have to hang on to their copies of VCI’s Mr. Wong Detective: The
Complete Collection DVD set for a bit longer. (Luke’s Phantom
of Chinatown can be found on that 2008 set in far better quality than you can
find any of those bargain-priced PD multi-film “mystery collection” type
collections… although the DVD issued by Film Detective in 2015 is also a
worthwhile seek out).
The five films featured on this Kino Lorber Studio
Classic Blu-ray issue of their Boris
Karloff: Mr. Wong Collection are all presented in 1920x1080p, in 1.37:1
aspect and DTS monaural sound. The films
have been sourced from new Hi-Definition masters made from 2K fine grain scans. The films are not visually perfect. There are moments of flickering, and
scratches and print damage, but this is likely the best we’ll ever get of these
dimly-recalled throw-away programmers. I’m certainly not complaining.
Other than the usual removable English subs, the Kino set
includes only a single feature – an audio commentary for Mr. Wong, Detective courtesy of Tom Weaver and Larry Blamire. On first pass, it might seem the inclusion of
only a single commentary on a
five-film set is sparse and ungenerous. But the behind-the-camera artisans of Wong series were a particularly
insular if clever and creative cabal: William Nigh, director of all five
Karloff entries, actor Grant Withers as “Captain Street” in all five as well, William
Lackey, an associate producer of four, and W. Scott Darling the screenwriter of
three. The contributions of these and
others in front of and behind the camera are duly noted on this set’s single
but informative and engaging commentary.
Weaver suggests at the commentaries front end that his
plan is to “keep things fun,” and he most certainly does. Both Weaver and Blamire have done their
homework, digging out practically every morsel of historical information they
could source for these uncelebrated Monogram quickies: this includes their deep
dig into (less reliable) information gleaned from ballyhoo appearing in the
film’s pressbook and other publicity materials, alongside contemporary reviews
from the Hollywood trades and newspapers. Blamire has really gone the extra mile, choosing to preemptively read
twelve of the twenty Hugh Wiley’s Mr. Wong short-stories so he might pick out
the moments and small bits the filmmakers used for the series.
I wasn’t as admiring of the
“actor re-creations” of interview transcripts of Karloff and others scattered
about the commentary. It seems
unnecessary and distracting - a simple “quote/unquote” recitation of such
material is preferable to badly-mimicked vocal imitations. The (thankfully)
occasional insertion of MST3K-style sound effects and dubbed-in jokey one-liners
were also unnecessary IMHO, but I’m admittedly a grouch. If you prefer your Wong with a dash of irreverence
then have at it. Weaver and Blamire also
sidecar their commentary with several detours touching on the Charlie Chan and
Mr. Moto series, all fair game. All in
all, the commentary track serves as an excellent primer for fans wishing to
learn a bit more about Mr. Wong on page and film. To summarize, this excellent package from
Kino Lorber is a “must-have."
These
four words…sorry, this single word spoken four times…by the inimitable Ben
Stein in the late John Hughes’s highly popular teen comedy Ferris Bueller’s
Day Off while reading off the attendance roster to his near catatonic high
school class has worked its way into the American lexicon to the point that it
has become recognizable to anyone even remotely familiar with the film. Like its
predecessors, the “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” ad-lib from Steven
Spielberg’s Jaws (1975), and Jack Nicholson’s quirky yet somehow
terrifying “Here’s Johnny!” from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980),
one need not have seen the film to know from where it originated. The adults in
this film are all depicted as somehow less smart than their adolescent
counterparts and all seem to be easily duped and manipulated. Why are they
depicted this way? Was the director, who was also the writer of Mr. Mom
(1983), National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983), Sixteen Candles(1984), The Breakfast Club
(1985), Weird Science (1985) and Pretty in Pink (1986), simply
not a fan of the adult world, a modern-day J.D. Salinger?
Ferris
Bueller, the titular hero, is a Northbrook, Illinois high school student two
months shy of his high school graduation and commits a crime that all students
have at one time or another – he feigns serious illness to stay home from
school. However, it is not for nefarious purposes: he wants to get his best
friend, Cameron (Alan Ruck), out of the doldrums. His parents are complete
dolts for believing him, though his sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey) and Principal
Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) both see right through this common ploy and the latter,
whose small-mindedness and lack of stature outside of his role of an
authoritarian, drives him to catch Ferris in the act at any cost. He goes to
great lengths to catch Bueller, breaking the rules, and even some laws, that
find him in the Bueller household, face-to-face with a vicious dog.
Playing
hooky for the day with a reluctant Cameron and Ferris’s girlfriend Sloane (Mia
Sara) whom he gets out of school posing as her father in a get-up not
dissimilar from the accoutrements he would later don as the titular Inspector
Gadget he would play in the 1999 film of the same name. The trio finds
themselves in a series of misadventures throughout Chicago via Cameron’s
upscale father’s 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder which occupies much of
the film’s running time, the most significant of which is the film’s famous and
highly celebrated moment when Ferris commandeers a float during a parade and
leads the onlookers through an impromptu lip-synch of The Beatles hit “Twist
and Shout.” It is not all fun and games, however, when we learn of Cameron’s contempt
for his father’s car which the latter supposedly cares more about than his own son.
He sublimates his anger in a highly volatile and emotional scene that proves
cathartic for Cameron and, in a way, for Ferris as well. It would explain why
Cameron is always uptight and unable to relax, something that the carefree
Ferris hopes to change. In many ways, Cameron and Jeanie are not dissimilar
from one another, as they both find teen life to be insufferable, and that
makes them the most realistic characters in the film.
Ferris
is unusual in that he is not only a free spirit, but just about everyone in his
high school, regardless of their grade level, likes him. Why? He has proven
that he can get away with just about anything. He’s also willing to help others
out of their predicaments. This mindset is what makes him elusive from
Principal Rooney, a self-appointed Truancy Officer determined to catch Ferris
in the act of cutting school because Rooney’s identity outside of high school
appears to be non-existent. He is the Coyote to Bueller’s Road Runner, and he
takes the whole situation personally.
The
film, which opened nationwide on Wednesday, June 11, 1986, differs from most
comedies in that it breaks the fourth wall in the tradition of Woody Allen’s
great Annie Hall (1977) when Ferris addresses the audience directly
during much of the action. In the pantheon of teen comedies, Ferris Bueller
is clearly de rigueur viewing and, given that it was lensed between
September and November in 1985, feels very Eighties and inspired by Matthew
Broderick’s David Lightman computer geek from John Badham’s entertaining 1983 film
WarGames with Ferris’s ability to remotely change his sick days in the
high school computer right before his principal’s very eyes. Ferris rigs his
room and front door intercom with an ingenious array of general solutions
anticipating most common eventualities that could undo his plan to keep his
parents thinking that he is sleeping off illness.
Ferris
Bueller did exceptionally
well at the box office, easily becoming an iconic Eighties Comedy, the film
that essentially made Mr. Broderick a star following his screen debut in Herbert
Ross’s Max Dugan Returns several years earlier and playing opposite
Michelle Pfeiffer in Richard Donner’s Ladyhawke (1985). Cameos abound by
a fifteen-year-old Kristy Swanson just before she became Wes Craven’s Deadly
Friend, Richard Edson, Charlie Sheen just before he made Platoon
with Oliver Stone, and comedian Louie Anderson. With the exception of some
on-set studio shots in Los Angeles and Ferris Bueller’s house location in Long
Beach, CA (eight houses away from the home that Richard Kelly’s 2001 cult
classic Donnie Darko is set in), the film is shot nearly entirely in
Illinois, the director’s home state.
Ferris
Bueller’s Day Off has
been released on 4K UHD Blu-ray by Paramount Home Video. This is the best that
the film has ever looked on video, easily besting all previous releases. It
also comes loaded with previously released extras:
There
is a feature-length audio commentary by director Hughes, the only one that he
ever recorded for his any of his films, ported over from the 1999 DVD release. Glaringly
missing from subsequent DVD and Blu-ray editions of the movie (reportedly at
the behest of the director who probably got tired of Hollywood and moved back
to his home state to keep a low profile), its inclusion here is welcome,
appreciated, and more than likely included for two reasons - a response to the
director’s untimely demise and to compel die-hard fans to fork over their
disposable income for this latest upgraded edition. It is pretty much
scene-specific with very minor tangents. It stays on-topic, and Mr. Hughes had
a very monotone and droll delivery.
The
following are all ported over from the 2006 special edition DVD
“Bueller…Bueller” and 2009 Blu-ray editions:
Getting
the Class Together: The Cast of Ferris Bueller's Day Off – this piece runs 27:45 in standard definition
and the interviews were shot in 2005. The film’s casting directors, Jane
Jenkins and Janet Hirshenson, begin this piece feeling that Matthew Broderick or
John Cusack would be great in the lead role. Mr. Broderick was in Biloxi
Blues on Broadway with Alan Ruck when he was offered the role and their
chemistry transferred over from real life to the stage, and then to the
audition when the latter was offered Cameron. Mia Sara, Jennifer Grey, Lyman
Ward, Cindy Pickett, Jeffrey Jones, Edie McClurg, Ben Stein (a very humorous
tidbit), Richard Edson, Kristy Swanson, and Jonathan Schmock all add their two
cents on their experiences.
The
Making of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
runs 15:29 and really should be much longer and for what it is, it includes
some footage shot during the filming in addition to recent interviews taking a
look back at the film, such as Jeffrey Jones and Edie McClurg and their “Help,
Hinder” game; Alan Ruck talks about the Ferrari and how three replicas were
made for the film; Matthew Broderick talks about the parade sequence and how it
was a one-shot deal and how knee surgery from years earlier affected him in the
sequence.
Who
is Ferris Bueller? runs 9:12
and collects cast members and their responses to the question from 1985-87 and
2005. Alan Ruck talks about the wardrobe fittings and how there was no
chemistry between the characters and being put at ease by the director. Ferris
is a guy who does whatever he wants and has the self-confidence that his
friends lack.
The
World According to Ben Stein
runs 10:50 and is comprised of comments from Mr. Stein in 1986 and 2005 talking
about his experiences following the success of the film, with funny tidbits
about Kurt Cobain and even President Bush (the first one) having seen the film
on Air Force One.
Vintage
Ferris Bueller: The Lost Tapes
runs 10:16 and provides outtakes from the expurgated restaurant scene of Cameron
ordering pancreas that the director refers to in his commentary.
There
was a Class Album gallery that appeared in the previous releases, but it
is inexplicably dropped from this release.
The
film’s original theatrical trailer is also missing for unknown reasons, though
you can see it here
and a later trailer to promote the Blu-ray at the time.
The
ending of the film recalls Paul Brickman’s Risky Business from 1983
(think of Tom Cruise landing on his parents’ couch when they walk in from their
trip) when Ferris makes it home just in time to get into bed as his parents
head into his room. Ferris, addressing the audience, says, “Life moves pretty
fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
This line, which is far more upbeat than the plaintive final sentences of J.D.
Salinger’s classic novel of adolescent angst The Catcher in the Rye
(1951), rings true for people more today than it did when it was filmed. Social
media, computers, and cell phones all conspire to divert our attention from the
meaningful things in life.
One
can only imagine what sort of mischief Ferris would create today with the World
Wide Web and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Perhaps a remake is in order?
Friedkin directing Gene Hackman in "The French Connection". (Photo: Cinema Retro Archives.)
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Turner Classic Movies.
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will celebrate the life and career of director William Friedkin
with a programming tribute this September and November. Friedkin, who
died August 7 at the age of 87, started his career by directing one of
the last episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He went on to
be known as one of the iconic directors of New Hollywood in the 1970s
with such hits as The Exorcist (1973) and The French Connection (1971),
which won him the Academy Award® for Best Director. William Friedkin was
a great friend to Turner Classic Movies and he attended the TCM Classic
Film Festival several times, most recently in April 2023.
TCM Remembers William Friedkin Part 1 – Thursday, September 14 8:00 PM – The French Connection (1971) – Two New York narcotics cops set out to bust a French drug smuggling ring. 10:00 PM – To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) – A Secret Service agent becomes obsessed with tracking down a notorious and dangerous Los Angeles counterfeitor. 12:15 AM – The Boys in the Band (1970) – A gay birthday party turns into a night of soul-searching when the host's straight college roommate turns up by mistake.
TCM Remembers William Friedkin Part 2 – Sunday, November 26 8:00 PM – Friedkin Uncut (2018) – TCM Premiere – In
this documentary, William Friedkin is interviewed about his career,
alongside a number of his colleagues and industry admirers. 10:00 PM – The Exorcist (1973) – A priest battles to save a young girl possessed by demons.
Here is a special treat: Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz interviews director John Boorman and cast members Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty about the making of the 1972 classic "Deliverance"
"Warner Bros.: 100 Years of Storytelling” by Mark A.
Vieira (Running Press; $40) 368 Pages, Illustrated (B&W and color);
Hardback. ISBN: 9780762482375"
Review by Lee Pfeiffer
Running Press, in association with Turner Classic Movies,
has released a glorious tribute to a legendary studio with “Warner Bros.: 100
Years of Storytelling” by noted author and film historian Mark A. Vieira. The
book features an insightful foreword written by (appropriately enough) Ben
Mankiewicz, one of the popular hosts of TCM movie presentations and a member of
the Mankiewicz family of Hollywood legend. The studio introduced sound
to the movie-going experience with the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927,
and as the press releases points out, would later “put the noir in film”
through countless crime classics that saw the rise of James Cagney, Edward G.
Robinson and Humphrey Bogart to legendary status.
The handsome coffee table
book is broken down by decade up through films released in 2021. Vieira
provides lengthy and informative introductions to each decade beginning with
the founding of the studio through the breakthroughs in new screen freedoms in
the 1960s and 1970s. However, this is a celebration of Warner Bros. that relies
primarily on photographs, reproduced in gorgeous B&W and color. There is a
photo and caption for every single film and simply flipping through the volume
is a marvelous trip down memory lane. Vieira completed the book before the studio
underwent a number of high-profile controversies in the last year that resulted
in layoffs that included the top staff of TCM itself- an act that saw major
filmmakers such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese go public
with a joint demand that TCM should remain the beloved jewel it has always
been. Whatever the future holds for WB, no one can change its monumental past
and this book is a fitting tribute to its legacy.
A
few years ago, actress-turned-playwright Carol Hollenbeck had a Zoom meeting
with a theatre group and mentioned this fabulous red-carpet premiere in her
hometown for a movie she made in the sixties. About a month later, the group
met again on Zoom and one of the group members said to Carol, “By the way, I
found your movie.’ She quickly asked, “What movie?’ “Eden Cried,” he replied.
Carol was flabbergasted. That film had been lost for almost fifty years and from
her perspective it should have remained lost.
Carol
Hollenbeck was a starstruck teenager who had been fascinated with Hollywood
from a young age. She candidly admitted, “I didn’t want to become an actress. I
wanted to be a movie star.”
Arriving
in Hollywood in the early 1960s, she unfortunately suffered the pitfalls many
naïve young women fell victim to. However, using the stage name of Carole
Holland, she did have some small successes greatly aided by the fact that she
was a beautiful, shapely, baby doll blonde.
Carol’s
looks and poise no doubt helped her land a job as a showgirl in a stage
production of Irma La Douce, starring Juliet Prowse at the Riviera Hotel
in Las Vegas. Carol recalls, “Juliet was engaged to Frank Sinatra at the time.
She was very outspoken and yelled a lot.” She donned bikinis for a few of the
non-AIP beach movies such as The Girls on the Beach. And her adoration
of Jean Harlow gave her an indirect connection to Joseph E. Levine’s Harlow
starring Carroll Baker and a direct connection to Bill Sargent’s rival Harlow
starring Carol Lynley. She actually met with Sargent to discuss her
possibly playing the thirties sex bomb. Alas, it did not come to be. [Carol
discusses her Harlow experiences in my upcoming book Dueling Harlows: The Race
to Bring the Actress’s Life to the Silver Screen from McFarland and Co.]
What
did materialize was the female lead in the low-budget oddity, Eden Cried,
which was also known as In the Fall of ’55 …Eden Cried. It was shot
in 1965 but not shown until 1967—two years after Frankie and Annette had hung
up their surfboards. It was a sort of adult, soap opera-ish Beach Party,
set in Malibu supposedly during the mid-1950s (but everything from the costumes
to the beach scenes to dance moves scream 1960s), that showed what life was
like for teenage beach denizens off the sand. There is a fair amount of surfing
footage and scenes of young people partying on the shore.
To
alleviate all the histrionics, there is narration (that was not in the movie
when it premiered) provided by a Jack Nicholson sound-alike who makes a lot of amusing,
sardonic remarks about the characters and put-downs about Southern California
living in general. It is done in a way that evokes those dead serious 1950s
documentaries where they warned viewers about juvenile delinquency or impending
bomb threats or predatory homosexuals. It also connects scenes due to missing or
excised footage.
Carol
has some good dramatic moments as rich girl Lorraine Parker (a sexy blonde with
a big bouffant and a bad reputation) new to her high school. She falls for
rebellious senior Skip Galloway (Tom P. Pace), a surfer and grease monkey with
a bitchin’ hot rod. Pace, who was in his thirties at the time but looked
forty-five, is so miscast that it is off-putting seeing him romance the more age-appropriate
Carole or confiding to Larry Reimer as his best friend Rich or just hanging on
the sand with the teenage beach and surfing crowd. Lorraine and Skip have a
tumultuous, up-and down-relationship fueled by a drag race that ends in tragedy;
her disapproving father (Victor Izay); infidelity (tired of taking it slow,
Lorraine has sex with Rich); a suicide attempt (Lorraine downs some dolls after
Skip leaves her) that leads to a quickie marriage, and an unwanted pregnancy
that breaks the couple up. This is where the film abruptly ends without the
requisite happy ending. It also promises a sequel that never came to be—thankfully.
After
its 1967 premiere in Newburgh, Eden Cried was not released theatrically.
Unbeknownst to Carol, it surfaced in January of 1972 (it is speculated the
narration was added at this point) and was screened in a few theaters in Los
Angeles. Then in April, it popped up in Atlanta before falling back into
obscurity. In both cities, the nostalgia appeal for the fifties/early sixties
was highlighted in its print ads to draw audiences. This was just ahead of the Broadway
stage musical Grease and George Lucas’ film American Graffiti—both
of which became box office hits.
As
far as Carol knows, after being shown in Atlanta, Eden Cried was never
televised and remained a lost film until a few years ago when it surfaced on
DVD (from Video Screams). It has now become a cult curio especially for fans of
1960s drive-in movies. Carol recently appeared at a screening of the movie and
is planning on attending more of them.
Cinema
Retro: How were you
cast in Eden Cried?
Carol
Hollenbeck: I blocked
it out regarding how I was cast. I really do not know. However, if I was to
venture a guess, it was because of all the publicity I was getting at the time.
My press agent was grooming me to be the next Marilyn Monroe. The media dubbed
me “Hollywood’s Mystery Girl” because I was being photographed at discotheques
and movie premieres. My face turned up in many newspapers.
CR: Do you know what the title means?
CH: It comes from the lyrics to the
movie’s theme song [written by John Bambridge, Jr. and sung by Walter Rowen]. I
felt that the title meant young love gone wrong...
CR:
What did you think of
the ridiculous casting of Tom P. Pace as your seventeen-year-old boyfriend?
CH:
Tom was almost
thirty-five. But it is Hollywood’s mentality. I will tell you why. Everybody
knew he was too old. Somebody—probably one of the producers—said, ‘I want him.
I don’t care how old he looks, I want him.’ And that was it. He was not
physically right for the part, but they wanted him anyway. With me I was a few
years older than seventeen but I did have an appropriate California blonde
beach look. The public is fixated on that American blonde image. It has always
fascinated me about the blonde myth, the blonde fantasy—the Marilyn
Monroe-type.
CR: What do you recall about the film’s
director and screenwriter, Fred Johnson?
CH: Fred was very young. We were all
young—well except for Tom Pace. I think Fred did the best he could and was a
good writer.
CR: How did it come about that Eden
Cried had its premiere in your hometown of Newburgh, New York?
CH:
I believe someone
from Walter Reade Distributors thought of it.Eden Cried had its
premiere on June 10, 1967.They flew me
from Hollywood to New York. I was treated like a star. In Newburgh, they named
a street after me called “Carole Holland Way,” but it was only for two weeks. I
was so nervous that I didn’t go into the theater to watch it. My family and
friends knew it was not very good but did not come right out and say so. They
were nice about it.
CR: Do you know why it did not get a
national theatrical release at that time?
CH: It got caught up in some kind of
squabble between Walter Reade and the producers, so it ended up being shelved.
CR: What were your feelings like after
hearing that the film was never going to be seen?
CH: Even though the film was not great, I
thought I did a fairly decent job and it could have helped me get other roles.
But I did not stay in Hollywood long enough to promote myself and get the film
footage out, so people could see it. I just chose to dislike it and put it out
of my mind. So, when it got lost and nobody saw it, I didn’t care because I
didn’t believe it was going to take me anywhere. I walked around for many years
with shame for making this film. It didn’t seem to bring me any happiness.
CR: What did you do after leaving
Hollywood?
CJ: I moved to New York and continued
acting for a bit. I did commercials and had day parts on soap operas such as Love
Is a Many Splendored Thing and As the World Turns. I appeared in a
number of Off-Broadway plays and a few movies, most notably Tootsie
where I played an autograph hound in a scene with Jessica Lange. In the
nineties, I began writing for local newspapers and then the National
Enquirer. I then joined a women’s ensemble group and began playwrighting.
Two of my plays, Funky Fifties and The Lifters, were nominated
for the Samuel French Best One Act Plays Award.
CR: Did you ever try to find Eden
Cried?
CH: In 2017, we did a reading of my
play Hometown Premiere at the Ritz Theatre in Newburgh, where
the film premiered. The staff of the theatre searched for Eden Cried because
they wanted to use a clip of it in the staged reading, since the play was
loosely based on the film’s premiere. It could not be found. I thought
then, ‘Perhaps I should accept that I did the movie, but I won’t ever find it,’
CR: When Eden Cried finally
surfaced on DVD what was your reaction?
CH: It was being sold on DVD by
Sinister Cinema.com and I
purchased a copy. What they did to salvage the film, is they added a narration
that pokes fun of the sixties’ era. I really liked that. The film is so corny
that it’s funny. The narration gives the film a Mystery Science Theater touch.
CR: After watching fifty years later,
what surprised you the most?
CH: That I had so many costume changes.
CR: What are your feelings today toward
the movie today?
CH: I have done a 180-degree turnaround. It
is like a cult film. Now everything in my apartment is Eden Cried. The
framed movie poster is on my wall. There are twenty-four products with the Eden
Cried poster on it—t-shirts, tote bags, coffee mugs, hoodies, pillows, etc. When
I couldn’t find it, I was glad I couldn’t. But when I found it, I was glad I
did. I have embraced it and absolutely love it.
Frank
Lovejoy, Richard Carlson and Rusty Tamblyn are United States Marines sent to South
Korea in the early days of the Korean War in the 1952 film “Retreat, Hell!,” available on DVD
and Blu-ray from Olive Films. The movie follows the fictionalized exploits of a
Marine battalion during America’s “forgotten war,” one often overlooked in film
as well as in our collective memories. We follow these Marines from training at
Camp Pendleton, California, to the 1950 landing at Inchon, South Korea, followed
by their battles with North Korean and Chinese soldiers through a bitterly cold
winter. Everything goes as planned until faced with the unexpected overwhelming
response by the enemy.
The
film features a fine performance by Richard Carlson as Captain Paul Hanson.
He’s a married reserve officer and WWII veteran recalled to active service. He balances
family and the needs of the military including military deployments. Carlson’s
Captain Hanson is not happy about being recalled to active duty and moving his
family to California. Soon after arriving, he’s informed he and his men will be
spending all their time in the field training which ratchets up his resentment because
he’s not able to spend any time with his family prior to deploying to Korea.
This creates conflict between Hanson and his commanding officer and mistrust of
his leadership skills. Frank Lovejoy is his commander, Lt. Colonel Steve
Corbett, who places duty above all else.
Captain
Hanson’s wife, Ruth, is played by Anita Louise. Louise is an actress remembered
today for her work in television after she made this film. She isn’t given much
to do here with only a couple of scenes as a supportive wife and mother, but
does the best she can given the limited time to develop her character. Lovejoy is
an actor who dies too young at age 50 in 1962. He’s best remembered for a wide
variety of credits on stage, screen and television often specializing as
military men, cops and detectives. He’s very good here as the Marine commander
holding his men together as they retreat after facing overwhelming Chinese and
North Korean troops.
Carlson
is best remembered today for his work in the sci-fi classics “It Came from
Outer Space,” “Creature from the Black Lagoon” and “The Valley of Gwangi.” He appeared
in another Korean War drama, “Flat Top,” as well as the Bob Hope comedy “The
Ghost Breakers,” the 1950 version of “King Solomon’s Mines,” the Elvis drama “Change
of Habit” and scores of television series and movies. According to IMdb, John
Wayne was scheduled to appear in the movie, but backed out due to other movie
commitments. It certainly would have changed the movie, depending on the role,
if the Duke would have been cast.
Rounding
out the cast is Russ Tamblyn (billed as Rusty Tamblyn) as Private Jimmy
McDermid, fresh from basic training. Tamblyn is undoubtably the best remembered
of the cast today for his role in the David Lynch cult classic “Twin Peaks.” He
also appeared in countless classic movies including “The Haunting,” How the
West Was Won,” “The Long Ships,” “Peyton Place,” “Seven Brides for Seven
Brothers,” “Tom Thumb,” “The War of the Gargantuas” (if you haven’t seen it,
you must!), “West Side Story,” “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” and
countless other movies and television series. Tamblyn remains one of the great
underrated talents in film and television.
The
movie’s title comes from a statement made by Major General O.P. Smith,
commanding general of the First Marine Division at the Battle of Chosin
Reservoir, who was asked if he was ordering his men to retreat. The general
replied, "Retreat, Hell! We're not retreating, we're just advancing in a
different direction." In the movie, the line is spoken by Frank Lovejoy.
The phrase, “Retreat, Hell!,” is common among Marines to this day. “Advancing
in a different direction” is a phrase often repeated by military troops in all
branches.
A
co-production of United States Pictures and Warner Bros., the movie was
released in February 1952 by Warner Bros. The movie could be easily mistaken
for propaganda as it was released during the Korean War and opens with the
Marine Corps song over the titles in a score by William Lava which plays
throughout the movie. Filmed with the approval of the Marine Corps, the drama is
apolitical with a focus on the personal drama of the men caught in
extraordinary circumstances. The movie was directed by Joseph H. Lewis with a
screenplay co-written by Milton Sperling and Ted Sherdeman. All three have a
variety of big and small screen credits from low-budget thrillers to television
into the 1960s.
The
film is lacking by the obvious California locations standing in for Korea which
was commonly used in military dramas and a score which consists mostly of
variations on the Marine Corps song But the movie stands out as a small gem about
the Korean War with fine performances by Carlson, Lovejoy and Tamblyn.
Prior
to the film’s release in San Antonio, Texas, the title was changed to “Retreat,
Heck” in local radio ads because the original title was deemed offensive. Both
the DVD and Blu-ray look terrific in glorious black & white in this disc
released by Olive films. The movie clocks in at 95 minutes in a 1.37:1 aspect
ratio. Unfortunately, there are no extras on the DVD or Blu-ray. I recommend
picking up the Blu-ray, but you can’t go wrong with the DVD version if that’s
your format of choice. In both cases, the movie looks and sounds terrific, although there are no bonus features.. “Retreat,
Hell!” is recommended for fans of military movies.
(Note:
It has been announced that Olive Films has unfortunately ceased operations.
However, this video is still available on Amazon.)
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
ENTER THE DRAGON COMES TO 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAYTM AND DIGITAL.
TO CELEBRATE THE ICONIC FILM’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY, ENTER THE DRAGON WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST
TIME IN 4K RESOLUTION HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR)
Purchase the film on 4K Ultra HD Disc and Digital on 8/8/23
As part of the year-long
centennial celebration for the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros.
Studio, the iconic martial arts film Enter the Dragon will be
available for purchase on 4K Ultra HD Disc and Digital this August.
Celebrating
the 50th anniversary of its 1973 release, on
August 8 Enter the Dragon 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. Enter the Dragon is considered one of the most
influential action films of
all time and is credited with bringing interest in the Asian martial
arts genre to mainstream Western cinema.
The
Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc includes both the theatrical
version of the film and the Special Edition of the film which features three
additional minutes of footage.
Directed
by Robert Clouse, Enter the Dragon stars Bruce Lee in his final
completed film role. Lee is widely regarded as one of the most influential
martial artists of all time and was a pop culture icon of the 20th
century. In addition to Lee, the film also stars John Saxon, Ahna Capri,
Bob Wall, Shih Kein, and introduces Jim Kelly. It was written by Michael
Allin and produced by Fred Weintraub, Paul Heller, and Raymond Chow with a
score by honorary Academy Award recipient Lalo Schifrin.
In 2004, the United States Library
of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National
Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or
aesthetically significant". In 1999, Bruce Lee was listed in Time
magazine’s “100 most influential people of the century.”
Enter the Dragonwill be
available on Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc for $24.99 ERP and includes an Ultra HD
Blu-ray disc with the theatrical version of the feature film in 4K with HDR,
the Special Edition version of the film in 4K with HDR, and a Digital download
of both versions of the film. Fans can also own Enter the Dragonin 4K
Ultra HD via purchase from select digital retailers beginning on
8/8/23.
About
the Film
Bruce Lee explodes onto the screen in the film that rocketed him
to international superstardom, Enter The Dragon. Lee plays a
martial arts expert determined to take down the ruthless gang leader, Han, who
was responsible for the death of his sister. Recruited by an intelligence
agency, he poses a student and attends a tournament at a remote island
fortress. His goal is to gather evidence that will prove Han’s involvement with
drug trafficking and prostitution. With one man focused on crime and the other
bent on revenge, the two engage in the now-classic fight-to-the-death finish.
They both enter a mirrored maze and deadly battle. Only one will exit.
Enter the DragonUltra HD
Blu-ray disc and Digital the following previously released special features:
·Introduction by Linda Lee Cadwell (run time: 2:17 minutes)
·Commentary by Paul Heller and Michael Allin (run time: 110
minutes)
Friedkin with Gene Hackman on location in New York City for "The French Connection", 1971.
(Photo: Cinema Retro Archive.)
By Lee Pfeiffer
William Friedkin, who reinvented the crime and horror film genres with "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist", has died in Los Angeles at age 87. Friedkin's first film was based on a personal obsession- to get a man incarcerated on Death Row exonerated. The 1962 documentary "The People vs. Paul Crump" was deemed a deciding factor in getting the innocent man released. The Chicago native first worked in the television industry before landing his first Hollywood feature film, directing the comedy "Good Times" starring Sonny and Cher in 1967. The film wasn't a hit but Friedkin was learning his craft. His diverse output included a screen adaptation of Harold Pinter's acclaimed, offbeat play "The Birthday Party" starring Robert Shaw and Donald Pleasence, the exuberant Prohibition era comedy "The Night They Raided Minsky's" and "The Boys in the Band", a daring screen version of the controversial play about the lives and relationships of gay men.
Friedkin's biggest break came when he was hired to direct "The French Connection" in 1971, an adaptation of the bestselling book that documented the biggest drug bust in U.S. history. Friedkin's passion for eschewing the trappings of conventional crime films paid off when he won the Oscar for directing. The film also won Best Picture and Best Actor for Gene Hackman in a star-making role. Friedkin's next film was also an adaptation of a bestseller- in this case William Peter Blatty's horror novel "The Exorcist". Friedkin resisted hiring popular leading actors of the day in place of casting reliable character actors and leads with little name recognition. His transformation of 12 year-old Linda Blair into a terrifying demon immediately became the stuff of horror film legend. However, the film won over critics and was nominated for numerous Oscars because Friedkin made the production a thinking person's horror film with interesting characters and believable reactions to the surrealistic events. Following the worldwide success of this second Friedkin blockbuster, Friedkin did not bring another film to the screen for four years. When he did, it was "Sorcerer", a lavish and grueling reinterpretation of French director Henri-Georges Clouzot's acclaimed 1953 adventure film "The Wages of Fear". The film seemed to be cursed. On location in the Dominican Republic, Friedkin had to face soaring budget costs due to natural disasters and other seemingly insurmountable problems. When the film opened, it flopped. Friedkin, in an interview about the film with this writer in Cinema Retro issue #29, said that studio executives threw him under the bus by implying the film had gone over-budget because Friedkin lacked self-control in terms of spending. Friedkin tried to set the record straight but the damage was done. His reputation had taken a hit and his next film, the comedy "The Brink's Job" was also a critical and financial disappointment. his 1980 crime thriller "Cruising" cast Al Pacino as a New York detective who goes under cover in Gotham's gay leather bar scene to find a serial killer. The film caused great controversy, with gay activists denouncing it even before filming had been completed. Critics assailed the film as vulgar and unsatisfying, but like "Sorcerer" it has been favorably re-evaluated in the ensuing years. Friedkin continued to work steadily but only the 1985 crime thriller "To Live and Die in L.A." gained any kind of attention and that was largely due to an extravagant car chase.
Over the following years, Friedkin would divide his time directing films and TV productions as well as live operas. He would never score another boxoffice hit but he appreciated the attention and accolades he received later in life that commemorated his body of work. He took satisfaction from the fact that his 2011 film "Killer Joe" starring Matthew McConaughey became a cult favorite for younger audiences. Friedkin is survived by his wife, producer and former studio head Sherry Lansing. His final film, a remake of "The Caine Mutiny", will premiere at this year's Venice Film Festival.
Friedkin with Cinema Retro's Todd Garbarini.
(Photo: Todd Garbarini)
Cinema Retro mourns the passing of this great filmmaker and we appreciate his contributions to our magazine. His last interview (with Todd Garbarini) appeared in issue #50 in which he discussed the 50th anniversary of "The French Connection".
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from the BFI concerning their new Region 2 Blu-ray of "Brannigan", which can be pre-ordered for 21 August release.
“The Duke is
in London, and London will never be the same!”
Veteran
Chicago detective Jim Brannigan (John Wayne, The
Searchers) is dispatched to London to bring back notorious gangster
Ben Larkin (John Vernon, Dirty
Harry), and is assured that the whole operation will run smoothly.
However, when things don’t go to plan, Brannigan finds himself in the
crosshairs of Larkin’s thugs. Reluctantly teaming up with by-the-book Commander
Swann of Scotland Yard (Richard Attenborough, The Great Escape), but determined to
recapture Larkin no matter what, Brannigan tears through London, leaving a
trail of destruction in his wake.
Boasting
incredible stunts, powerful punch-ups, dry dialogue and panoramic views of
1970s London shot by cinematographer Gerry Fisher (The Go-Between, Highlander), as well as a
superb supporting cast including Judy Geeson and Mel Ferrer, Brannigan still
stands tall as an explosive, action-packed, highly entertaining and peculiarly
British excursion for the legendary John Wayne.
Extras
Presented in High Definition
Audio commentary by Steve Mitchell and critic
Nathaniel Thompson (2017)
A Duke Out of Water (2023, 37 mins): reminiscences from the people
who made Brannigan
Frank Henson on Brannigan (2021, 4 mins): the veteran stuntman looks back
on doubling the Duke
Take It to the Bridge (1905-1956, 23 mins): historical glimpses of the
Thames, Tower Bridge and other Brannigan locations
A Policeman’s Lot (1896-1973, 35 mins): a copper’s clutch of films
concerning crimefighters and crooks, proceeding from the very earliest
days of cinema towards the Brannigan era
The Guardian Interview: Richard Attenborough (1983, 89 mins, audio only): the award-winning
actor and director, and John Wayne’s Brannigan co-star, reflects
upon his illustrious career
An extensive selection of location photographs,
featuring cast and crew
Original trailer
**FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Illustrated booklet with
new essays by Johnny Mains and John Oliver, notes on the special features
and credits
We film collectors are a spoiled lot: and, yes, I include
myself in that assessment.When Australian
video label Imprint first announced their seminal Silver Screams Cinema collection in 2021, I was ecstatic.Though the now defunct U.S. based Olive Films
had already given us Blu-rays of three titles soon-to-be featured on the
Imprint set (Return of the Ape Man
(Monogram, 1944) She Devil (1957) and
The Vampire’s Ghost (Republic, 1945),
it was the Aussie’s inclusion of several long-neglected films from the vault of
Republic Pictures - Valley of the Zombies
(1946), The Phantom Speaks (1945) and
The Lady and the Monster (1944) -
that compelled one to pre-order.
The Imprint set contained almost every title a fan of
Republic’s horror-mystery offerings might desire… with one notable
exception.Where was Lesley Selander’s The Catman of Paris (1946)? It was the
one Republic horror flick I had been wishing on the longest.Decades ago I gave up hope of ever seeing any
sort of legitimate home video issue. So I sought out the serviceable – if scratchy
and hazy - gray-market bootleg long making the rounds on the collector’s market.So the exclusion of The Catman of Paris from Imprint’s otherwise magnificent Silver Screams set was a bit
frustrating.
So it was with great anticipation when Imprint’s
single-disc Blu-ray of The Catman of
Paris recently arrived.I’m pleased
to report that the release not only looks great but also arrives with a couple
of bonus features.But while this film’s
arrival on Blu-ray brings with it a satisfying sense of closure, I think it’s best
to acknowledge that The Catman of Paris
is by no means a riveting lost classic of horror cinema.Though the film holds a certain charm in my personal
nostalgia bank, The Catman of Paris often
plods along for most of its hour or so running time.But I’m still a fan.
Republic Pictures was, of course - unfairly, in my mind –
deemed a Hollywood “Poverty Row” studio.But the production values of the studio were often of high-caliber
despite meager budgets, the studio producing more than a thousand features and
serials from its inception in 1935.Though associated with Monogram Pictures – a purveyor of a number of
1940s low-rent horror and mystery pictures (which often featured the likes of
genre stars Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, Lionel Atwill and John Carradine),
Republic was late in getting on the exploitative horror-film train.I suppose it can be argued that they nearly missed
the train entirely.The studio only really
began to test the horror-picture market when public interest in such fare was clearly
on the wane.
But the studio’s first horror pic The Lady and the Monster (1944), featuring Erich von Stroheim as a cold
and humorless mad scientist, did well enough for the studio to greenlight a
double-dose of new horror in 1945:The Vampire’s Ghost and The Phantom Speaks – two films which
we’ll get to in a moment.Generally
speaking, the Republic horrors were of similar construct to Monogram’s.But unlike the Monogram films – which have
been mostly available over the years on home video due to their public domain
status – the Republic horror pics have been, until recently, almost entirely commercially
inaccessible to students of the genre.
It’s possible the Republic horror pics have been glossed
over due to the fact that, unlike the studio’s western film counterparts – which
featured such star-spangled stars as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and John Wayne –
their horror pics offered no similar
marquee attraction.Perhaps if the
Republic horror and mysteries features offered such boogeymen as Lugosi or Boris
Karloff there might have been more of a commercial interest in getting these
out to fans and collectors.But
Paramount Pictures, the company that ultimately absorbed the Republic catalog,
seemed mostly disinterested in making available that studio’s horror film efforts.
To be fair, Republic wasn’t Universal: there actually wasn’t
a great deal of true “horrors” to choose from.In 1999, film historian Tom Weaver examined some of the Republic titles
in his tome Poverty Row Horrors!:
Monogram, PRC, and Republic Horror Films of the Forties (MacFarland).A decade- and -a -half later author Brian McFadden
published his Republic Horrors: The
Serial Studio’s Chillers.Both books
were welcome additions to the film scholar’s personal libraries.But while McFadden’s effort seemed to promise
a deeper-dive into the Republic’s long-neglected horror catalog, it mostly reminded
readers that the studio actually released very few true horror pictures during the Golden Age of the 1940s.Of the ten films chosen for examination by McFadden,
only five could justify being classified as genuine “horrors.”The remaining five titles selected were simply
mysteries with woven eerie elements.
But if Universal’s reign as the preeminent horror-movie
studio was beginning to wind down by the mid-1940s, Republic’s was just
beginning to rev up.In early May of
1945, the Los Angeles Times reported
that executives at Republic Pictures, “encouraged by the current success of The Vampire’s Ghost and The Phantom Speaks,” were already planning
a pair of thrillers of similar design.Under the watchful eye of producer William O’ Sullivan, Republic’s
newest horror pics, titled The Catman of
Paris and The Valley of the Zombies,
was to “be sold to exhibitors as a pair.”
Associate producer Marek M. Libkov told the Hollywood Reporter that their newest, The Catman of Paris, would have a
provisional start date of September 20, 1945 with casting to “start
immediately.”In fact, most of the
principal casting was already in
place by early September, though casting notices for small roles were still being
announced as late as October 5.It was also
later reported that the film’s start date would be pushed to September 22.The film’s presumed co-feature – Phil Ford’s Valley of the Zombies – was already just
shy of two weeks into production with production on The Catman of Paris set to follow immediately on its heels.But even the revised start date of September
22 is in doubt.On September 24, 1945,
the Los Angeles Times noted
production on Lesley Selander’s The
Catman of Paris was, at long last, to start “today at Republic.”
It’s of some interest that the two primary cast members
of The Catman of Paris, Carl Esmond
and Lenore Aubert, were both born in Vienna, Austria.Though neither had ever appeared in a horror
film, both already would share near-miss flirtations with real-life
horrors.Esmond left for the U.S. as
early as 1938 at the behest of MGM’s Louis B. Mayer.The actor had been performing with a touring
company in London when Nazi troops swept into Austria in March of 1938.Esmond reflected to Hollywood scribe Maxine
Garrison that Mayer dangled an MGM contract before him, warning ‘You would be
foolish not to come [to America].Europe
will be lost in war before long.”Esmond
admitted, “I had not thought of it that way, but he was right.”
Aubert too left Vienna, choosing travel to Paris.But with German troops already occupying the
City of Light, the actress also made the decision to immigrate to America.(Ironically, Aubert’s first screen credit was
for a performance as a villainous Nazi spy for Samuel Goldwyn’s They Got Me Covered (1943), an early Bob
Hope and Dorothy Lamour comedy).Though
not a household name to most cinephiles, the darkly beautiful Aubert is likely
best remembered for her performance as the sinister Dr. Mornay in the
time-tested Universal classic Abbott and
Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
The Hollywood trades were reporting a lot of activity on
the Republic Studios lot that first week of October of 1945… but most interest
was fixed on producer-director Frank Borsage’s ambitious and expensive Technicolor
effort Concerto.But a wandering journalist noted that only
“two stages away,” Republic’s dual monochrome horror pics, The Catman of Paris and Valley
of the Zombies, were being shot concurrently for a provisional
double-feature release.“On both sets,
the visitor must have nerves of steel,” it was reported, “to withstand sudden
appearances of perambulating cat people and corpses.”
By Thursday, October 11, 1945, the Hollywood Reporter noted that production on The Catman of Paris had wrapped on the night previous, when
“final exterior scenes were filmed on the studio’s back lot.” The report also indicated
that co-feature Valley of the Zombies
had finished shooting a mere “one day before Republic started rolling Selander’s
picture.”If true, the earlier reportage
of dual-picture sightings of “perambulating cat people and corpses” was little
more than promotional ballyhoo.
So who was this sinister cinematic Catman of Paris? Parisian police detectives are of the belief
that it’s none other than the best-selling, dashingly handsome French novelist
Charles Regnier (Carl Esmond).The
popular-selling author has recently returned to Paris following two years of
international travel – including a possibly fateful visit to the tropics.Not everyone has enjoyed his most recent
book.Regnier’s fiction-novel Fraudulent Justice has come to the
attention – and annoyance – of the French government.It seems Regnier’s narrative appears to have
been based on a true-life crime and trial: the details of which were never brought
to public scrutiny and the judicial outcome now thought a travesty of
justice.So how was it that Regnier
could accurately account so much about a secretive government trial?
Regnier has also returned to Paris to wrestle other demons.The writer suffers headaches which bring
about unexplainable subsequent episodes of amnesia.During such sessions Regnier is visited by
images of violent weather disturbances and of a mysterious black cat.Regnier’s moneyed patron, Henri Borchard
(Douglas Dumbrille), suggests Regnier’s fragile mental state is due to his having
contracted some sort of fever when visiting the tropics.There’s also a measure of astrological hokum
in the scripting mix as well.
Both Bouchard and Regnier’s publisher Paul Audet (Francis
Pierlot) are concerned that following two gruesome murders of which Regnier is
at least tangentially involved, the author’s book sales might plummet and
bankrupt the publishing house.And circumstantial
evidence of Regnier’s involvement in the murders continues to mount.The Catman’s most recent victim - Regnier’s
high-society fiancé Marguerite Duvall (Adele Mara), was recently jilted so the
author might enjoy a new romance with publisher’s daughter Marie (Lenore
Aubert).Having completely fallen for
the dashing author, Marie Audet is completely convinced of Regnier’s innocence…
until she herself is chased through a misty evening garden by a cloak and
top-hatted Catman on the prowl for her blood.
Though the film would eventually pair with Valley of the Zombies, The Catman of Paris was initially paired
on release with John English’s somewhat better-received ice-skating
musical-mystery Murder in the Music Hall.The first wave of reviews of The Catman of Paris were generally fair -
if mostly unfavorable.The Hollywood Reporter ignobly described the
film as an “absurdity,” a career embarrassments to all involved.The lugubrious screenplay of Republic scenarist
Sherman L. Lowe was decried as far too “wordy… every character uttering
editorials instead of dialog.”
There were complaints – also not unfair - that the film
displayed a curious lack of “physical action.”Variety was a bit more forgiving in its assessment,
calling the Valentine’s Day preview of The
Catman of Paris “a cross between a garden-variety whodunit and a
Jekyll-Hyde horror-meller […] that taxes belief to the breaking point.”The Christian
Science Monitor dismissed the film outright as a “routine horror story
based on far-fetched thrills.”
Despite the lukewarm reviews of both Murder in the Music Hall and The
Catman of Paris, the package managed a successful earning of $35,000 in its
first week.Which, at the very least, guaranteed
a second week of booking.Republic, presumptively
optimistic and encouraged by strong initial returns, inked producer Libkov to a
contract of three additional pictures. Though there was the inevitable revenue
fall-off in the second week of release, the trades were reporting box office
tallies in and around Los Angeles remained “good” if not showing signs of
sustained momentum. But by week three,
the box office receipts were down to disappointing four figure earnings.As the Catman
creeped regionally across the U.S. through autumn of 1946, local reviewers and small-town
theater managers found the film a mild mystery offering at best.Subsequently, four-figure weekly returns were
now the norm.
From
the vantage point of 2023, the domestic and professional situations depicted in
Mervyn Le Roy’s “Moment to Moment,” a romantic melodrama released on January
27, 1966, might as well be a portrait of an alien society.Kay Stanton (Jean Seberg) lives in a charming
rented villa in Cannes, France, thanks to her husband Neil’s sabbatical from
his tenured position as an eminent professor of psychology at Columbia
University.If you ask a professor
nowadays if he or she ever expects to receive a year’s paid leave on the French
Riviera complete with housing, the answer is likely to be, “Sure, in your
dreams.”In today’s penny-pinching,
increasingly conservative institutions of higher learning, most professors are
lucky to get tenure.
Kay
has no visible interests or pursuits outside of her role as a housewife, and
even the chores of cooking, cleaning, and supervising the couple’s well-behaved
ten-year-old son are fulfilled by paid help.Today’s overworked, stressed-out soccer moms would pant with envy, but
Kay is lonely.Neil (an archetypal
Arthur Hill role played here by . . . Arthur Hill!) is a loving husband, but he’s
on the road most of the time, happily accepting offers to lecture in London and
Edinburgh.In that pre-IT age, he and
Kay don’t even have the luxury of seeing each other on FaceTime.The best Kay can expect is a hurried call on
her landline as Neil rushes off to an appointment, and the most excitement she
can muster are the afternoon cocktails with her impish, divorced neighbor
Daphne (Honor Blackman).Daphne is as
happily promiscuous as Kay is strait-laced, offering a perpetual open house to
randy gangs of officers on leave from a nearby American Navy base.Despite her good-times facade, we eventually
learn that Daphne’s objective is as middle-class as they come, hoping
eventually to land Mr. Right in the form of a well-to-do, well-connected
commander or admiral.
For
Kay, temptation enters as she encounters Mark Dominic (Sean Garrison), a
handsome Naval ensign with ambitions as an artist.They meet when her son Timmy notices Mark
painting at an easel in town, and from there they drift into a relationship when
she offers to drive him around to scout out potential backdrops at quaint
village plazas and cafes.In the best
Soap Opera tradition of smart people who do stupid things against their better
judgment — not unlike real life, come to think of it — Kay goes to bed with
Mark one night when her son is sleeping over at a friend’s house and the
housekeeper is on vacation.Next
morning, Kay suffers remorse and tells Mark it’s over.Mark reacts angrily, a gun is brandished and
goes off, and he drops to the floor, apparently dead.Kay compounds one stupid act with another
when she convinces Daphne to help her dispose of the body.
At
that point, the movie finds its surest footing as a suspense thriller.Kay calls the police anonymously to tell them
where to find Mark, and soon the shrewd Inspector DeFargo (Grégoire Aslan) is
on the case.He suspects Kay of being
the culprit, and begins to tighten the screws by asking Neil, newly arrived
home not knowing about Kay’s infidelity, to help treat a young man with amnesia.The patient is Mark, alive but suffering a
total loss of memory beginning with the morning he met Kay.In scenes of sadistic comedy that nearly
rival Alfred Hitchcock’s best, DeFargo engineers a series of meetings with
Neil, Kay, and Mark in which various visual and acoustic clues threaten to jog
the young officer’s memory.Kay cringes,
Neil is oblivious, and DeFargo watches like a spider contemplating a fly in its
web.To say the least, it’s unorthodox
police procedure.At least he doesn’t
propose the old Hollywood remedy of smacking Mark on the head again to see if
that does the trick.Maybe he found it
more amusing to torment Kay.
“Moment
to Moment” was the final film of Melvyn Le Roy’s long and versatile career,
except for uncredited assistance on John Wayne’s “The Green Berets,” and it is
largely forgotten today even as new generations of movie buffs rediscover “Little
Caesar,” “Gold Diggers of 1933,” “The Bad Seed,” and “Gypsy.”In part, it was probably a matter of having a
B+ cast instead of an A cast.Jean
Seberg was a well-established actress, but not a proven box-office draw like
Audrey Hepburn or a rising luminary like Faye Dunaway.Sean Garrison co-starred in a short-lived TV
Western, “Dundee and the Culhane,” and then drifted into a busy but low-key
career as a supporting actor.He had the
misfortune of entering the business at the same time as dozens of other young,
good-looking hopefuls, and unlike James Brolin, Chad Everett, Harrison Ford,
Lee Majors, and Robert Redford, he never quite had the charisma or lucky break
needed to surface above the pack.
But
the main jinx for the movie was bad timing.Released the same year that “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “Blow-Up”
began to shake Hollywood’s taboos against explicit language and nudity, “Moment
to Moment” struck critics and probably most viewers as glossy, old-fashioned
entertainment not much racier than the TV Soap Operas of the era.Today, that very quality is likely to work in
its favor among viewers who weren’t even born in 1966.Who wouldn’t be curious about a world in
which a thirty-something woman lounges around the house in Yves Saint Laurent
dresses instead of yoga pants and a sweatshirt?The plot about marital infidelity and attempted murder is mirrored now
by true-crime podcasts and “NBC Dateline Two-Hour Events,” although the
culprits there are usually less attractive and a lot less classy than Kay
Stanton, and the cops less idiosyncratic than Inspector DeFargo.
A
new Blu-ray edition of “Moment to Moment” from Kino Lorber Studio Classics
presents the movie in a sharp, 1.85:1 image much richer than the old prints
that used to run on local TV stations in the 1980s, before “Dr. Phil” and “The
View” claimed their time-slot.Special
features include an amusing, informative audio commentary by Howard S. Berger
and Nathaniel Thompson, and a short 1966 featurette, “Moment to Moment with
Henry Mancini.”The featurette, actually
a slightly extended trailer, intercuts shots of the composer conducting his
lush score for the picture with quick scenes illustrating how the music
underlines Le Roy’s moods of romance and suspense.Would that we had more composers now as
talented as Henry Mancini, and more directors with Mervyn Le Roy’s versatility,
sharp sense of composition, and confident pace.
CNN is reporting that Paul Reubens, the comedy star who created the iconic Pee-Wee Herman character, has died from cancer at age 70. Reubens had been battling cancer for the last six years. He had pre-written a public statement to be read in anticipation of his death. In the statement, which was read on CNN, Reubens apologized to his fans for keeping his health crisis secret and encouraged the public to continue to fund cancer research. Reuben's show, "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" started off as a spoof of 1950s children's programs and had risque elements to it. However, when Reubens learned that children had gravitated to the show, he made the program more family-friendly. The character became so popular in the 1980s and 1990s that Reubens starred in big screen Pee-Wee Herman feature films.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from The History Press:
Featuring a host of unpublished interviews, this is the first book to explore the greatest year in Hollywood's history - 1971
By anyone’s estimate 1971 was a great year for cinema. Has any other
year boasted such a mass of talented filmmakers plying their trade?
Polanski, Woody Allen, Spielberg, Kubrick, Peckinpah, Sergio Leone,
Robert Altman, George Lucas, Dario Argento, Nicolas Roeg and Ingmar
Bergman, among many others, were behind the camera, while the stars were
out in force, too. Clint Eastwood, Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, Michael
Caine, Al Pacino, Jane Fonda, Gene Hackman, Paul Newman, Raquel Welch,
Dustin Hoffman, Robert de Niro, Jack Nicholson, Steve McQueen and Warren
Beatty all had films come out in 1971.
This remarkable artistic
flowering that came from the ‘New Hollywood’ of the '70s was just
beginning in 1971. The old guard was fading away and the new guard was
taking over. With a decline in box office attendances by the end of the
'60s, along with a genuine inability to come up with a reliable
barometer of box office success, studio heads gave unprecedented freedom
to younger filmmakers to lead the way. Featuring interviews with some
of Hollywood's biggest names, bestselling author Robert Sellers explores
this landmark year in Hollywood and in Britain, when this new age was
at its freshest, and where the transfer of power was felt most
exhilaratingly.
The
Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935) is
frequently referred to as the greatest horror film ever made, something which
Emma Westwood, the editor of this new collection of essays, would not disagree
with. In building on the incredible work done on the original Frankenstein (1931)
whilst bringing in the dark humour of The Old Dark House (1932), along
with key cast member and fellow Brit Ernest Thesiger, director James Whale
delivered incredible imagery, dark themes and iconic performances. In doing so,
he was establishing the comedy-horror template that would be utilised so
effectively for decades to come (An American Werewolf in London (John
Landis, 1981) owes it a great debt, for one). It also became perhaps the first example
of a sequel being superior to the original, which is still something that does
not happen very often. So how did this happen? What is it about The Bride of
Frankenstein that has ensured its legendary status for almost one hundred
years?
That
question is something that this fascinating collection of new essays addresses
from a number of angles. This new addition to the Midnight Movie Monographs
series from Electric Dreamhouse (previous entries have included books devoted
to Spirits of the Dead (Roger Vadim/ Federico Fellini/ Louis Malle,
1968), Plan 9 from Outer Space (Ed Wood Jr., 1959) and Horror Express
(Eugenio Martín, 1972)) presents twelve different chapters covering the
production, censorship, the astonishing hair, makeup and costume design, the
pioneering use of sound, readings of sexuality, the many films over the years
which draw on elements of Bride of Frankenstein, including my own
personal horror-comedy favourite Bride of Re-Animator (Brian Yuzna,
1990), an examination of star Elsa Lanchester herself, and much more. Who
exactly is ‘the Bride of Frankenstein’? is another question to be mulled over;
after all, shouldn’t the film have been called ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’s
Monster’?
Whether
you have a passing interest in the Universal horrors or if The Bride of
Frankenstein is your favourite film, this new monograph, with a foreword
from Sara Karloff, daughter of Boris, will cause you to think about the film
differently, and brings great wit and insight to this endlessly fascinating
film from Hollywood’s golden age of horror cinema. In hardcover with a wealth
of imagery and a terrific cover design, this is a beautiful book for any
serious cinema lover’s library.
You can order a copy direct
from PB Publishing by clicking here.
There were passing
moments when watching this gorgeously curated Blu-ray of Phil Tucker’s cult 3-D
masterwork Robot Monster (1953) that
I mulled its reputation as cinema’s most fabled wreck was undeserved.Surely, I thought, I’ve cringingly sat
through worse sci-fi films produced before and since.But then some particularly awful line of dialogue
(delivered woodenly, of course), or a bizarre plot turn, or a not-so-special
effect, or an inexplicable episode of dinosaur wrangling would interrupt my
musings, causing a return to sober reality.Phil Tucker’s low-low-low
budget monster-piece is a crazed vision, to be sure.But acknowledging that, Robot Monster is most certainly not
one of the world’s worst films: it’s too entertaining to be dismissed as such.On the same token, it’s undeniably one of the
most desperate and unhinged cinematic artifacts lensed by an indie Hollywood film-outfit
of the ‘50s.
The sullied reputation of Robot Monster is the result, no doubt, due to the merciless
flailing of the production by the smirking Medved brothers - Michael and Harry –
who infamously skewered the film in their pop-culture, eminently readable and
caustic tomes The Fifty Worst Films of
All Time (1978) and The Golden Turkey
Awards (1980).Still the film’s space
helmet and gorilla-suit sporting “Ro-man” (as listed in the film’s end credits)
– has somehow managed to become as
visually iconic a totem of 1950s sci-fi as the gigantic robot Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still (2oth
Century Fox, 1951) or the Metaluna monster in This Island Earth (Universal-International, 1955).
As is so often the case, the backstory to the creation of
Robot Monster is perhaps more
interesting than the artifact produced.The
screenplay was written by Wyott “Barney” Ordung.The Californian was trying desperately to
break into the film business, initially as an acting student working
occasionally in walk-on roles, often uncredited.In a 1983 interview with the late film and
3-D historian Ray Zone, Ordung recalled it was in 1952 when he was approached
by Tucker – who he’d known casually from working on a previous picture – to write
the script for Robot Monster.Ordung recalled he was originally tasked to
play the role of the “Ro-Man” – at least in earliest test footage photography.
Ordung’s script for Robot
Monster would serve as his springboard into the world of professional
filmmaking.Following that film’s
release, the Californian would script the war film Combat Squad (1953) as well as another sci-fi guilty pleasure Target Earth (1954).Still (mercifully) unproduced is the script Ordung
wrote directly following the release of Robot
Monster.That prospective film was,
according to Sun Valley’s Valley Times,
to feature Ordung’s “3-D comedy” scenario based on “Mildred Seamster’s
Hollywood beauty salon.”The plot would
“deal with the varied individuals who patronize a beauty salon and their
interesting escapades.”Oy.
That film would not materialize, but it was of little
matter as Ordung would soon receive his first directing credit when Roger
Corman tapped him to helm Monster from
the Ocean Floor (1954).Though Ordung
had not previously helmed any sort of film production, it was an offer and
partnership of economic necessity.Corman agreed to allow Ordung to direct on the condition he contribute
$2,000 of his Robot Monster earnings
to the new film’s budget and work for “a piece of the picture.”Hey, a break’s a break.
First-time director Phil Tucker too was looking for his first
big break in the film industry and was of the mind that Robot Monster just might be the ticket.But his experience working on Robot Monster was, alas, bittersweet.Less than two months following the release of
that film, Tucker was found in Fairbanks, Alaska – of all places - shooting his
non-union follow-up epic: the seventy-five minute Venusian “science-fiction
thriller” Space Jockey – a film never
released and now thought lost.Tucker grudgingly
told a journalist in Fairbanks that with only Robot Monster to his credit, he had already soured on the politics
of Tinseltown.
“The movie industry is stifled in Hollywood,” he director
complained.“They tell you what to
write, how to produce it, when to direct it, who [to] put in it and when to try
to sell it.It’s a tight little island of rulers and it’s
a hard place in which to breathe free.”Tucker did confess he wasn’t trying to be a true auteur in any sense of the word: “I’m not trying to create
art.I’m trying to make money,” he
offered plainly.
The primary stumbling block to Tucker’s earning any
monies was New York-born Al Zimbalist, the executive producer and guiding hand
of Robot Monster.The movie was the first of the films Zimbalist
would oversee as producer – and occasionally as “writer,” though that was mostly
as concoctor of “original stories” and little more.Throughout the 1950s and a bit beyond,
Zimbalist delivered such bargain-basement fare as Cat-Women of the Moon (1953), Miss
Robin Crusoe (1953), King Dinosaur
(1955) and Monster from Green Hell
(1957) to the pleasures of a mostly undiscerning cinema-going audience.It was also Zimbalist who steered Robot Monster to go the then popular 3-D
filming route.It was an unusual decision
for an indie film to be shot on a shoestring budget.
It made some sense.Hollywood’s production of 3-D films was at its zenith in 1953.Box
Office would note in April of 1953 that no fewer than sixty-two films to
offer the 3-D treatment were either completed, in production or in the planning
stages.Practically every major studio
was readying a slate of 3-D cinematic fare: Columbia, Paramount, RKO Radio,
United Artists and Warner Bros. among them.By far, 20th Century Fox was leading the way with a scheduled
twenty-two 3-D films on the drawing
board.There were only a couple of
independents in the mix, having chosen to dip their toe in the 3-D pool.Al Zimbalist and Phil Tucker’s “newly
organized” Third Dimension Pictures was one of them.
The trades reported on March 21, 1953 that Zimbalist was to
employ a unique “Tru-Depth system of 3-D” photography for his in-the-works Robot Monster project. Then, a mere week
following the start of the film’s
production, Box Office noted that Robot Monster had completed shooting… though no release date had yet been set.Zimbalist was so pleased with the results of
the “Tru-Depth” system, that in April of ’53 the Hollywood maverick announced
the formation of his “Tru-Stereo Corporation.”The company would “make available a stereoscopic 3-D system to
independent producers.” “Tru-Stereo” would serve as an affordable,
budget-conscious alternative to the more expensive 3-D systems used by the
Hollywood majors.
In fact, there were no fewer than twenty-two competing 3-D systems being used by filmmakers by late
spring of 1953.(“Tru-Depth” had since been
rechristened as “Tru-Stereo.)”The
Tru-Stereo 3-D was proffered as being similar to the others: it too employed
two cameras to create the three-dimensional effect.But the system also boasted “an authentic
interlocking control which is said to insure against faulty
synchronization.”Robot Monster had also boastingly employed “a newly developed
stereophonic sound system devised by the Master-Tone Sound Corporation.”
The first casting notices for Robot Monster were announced in March of 1953.Handsome leading man George Nader was reportedly
hired to play the role of “Roy” following his appearance in the still
unreleased pic Miss Robin Crusoe.Nader’s performance in that film impressed
Zimbalist who worked on the same as associate producer.Roy’s love interest, Alice (Claudia Barrett)
hadn’t much big-screen experience, but had been steadily working on any number
of early television series.The film’s
egghead professor would be played by the long-working Ukrainian actor John
Mylong, his children, Johnny and Carla, by stage-kids Gregory Moffett and
Pamela Paulson, respectively.
The role of the professor’s wife went to Selena Royle, an
actress with a familiar face due to her long run as a dependable player at MGM.Royle was happy to get the role – any role –
as she had recently been blacklisted in the pages of Red Channels, “the American Legion’s list of 200 motion picture
workers suspected of communist leanings.”Her crime was the organizing and serving of free meals to the
un-and-under employed actors in and around New York City during the throes of
the Depression.Royle vowed to fight the
accusations, telling journalist her post-blacklist acting income had dropped
from six figures to a mere three figures by mid-summer of 1952. Robot
Monster would be one of her two final feature film appearances, Royle and
her husband choosing to immigrate to Mexico in 1957.
Imprint, the Australian-based video label, has announced some more forthcoming releases. All Blu-rays are region-free. Please keep in mind that prices quoted are in Australian dollars. Use a currency converter to see what the price is in your local currency.
In this excerpt from the 1975 Academy Awards broadcast, director Howard Hawks receives a lifetime achievement Oscar, presented (fittingly enough) by John Wayne. Curiously, Wayne cites all of the films that he collaborated with Hawks on but by accident or design omits their final collaboration, "Rio Lobo" from 1970. Given the fact that the film was made only a few years before this presentation, it's a puzzling omission. Nevertheless, Hawks lives up to his reputation as a quiet, humble man of few words.
Long before his film The Accused (1988) helped earn Jodie Foster an Academy Award and
even longer before receiving Emmy Nominations for his work on TV’s ER, talented producer/director Jonathan
Kaplan made some very entertaining drive-in/exploitations films. His first, a 1972
sexploitation classic called Night Call
Nurses, was done for the immortal Roger Corman’s legendary New World
Pictures. The last of Corman’s “Nurses Trilogy”, Night Call Nurses, whichwas
made for a measly $75,000 and brought in over a million at the box office,
jumpstarted Kaplan’s filmmaking career as Corman immediately offered Kaplan The Student Teachers; a movie with
basically the same formula as the “Nurse” films (except with schoolteachers).
Released in June of 1973, Teachers
was another huge success for New World, so, impressed with Kaplan’s newest work,
Corman’s brother, Gene, hired him to direct the Jim Brown-starring heist/prison
flick The Slams (also 1973). This led
to Kaplan being approached by legendary production company American
International Pictures to helm the enjoyable 1974 “Blaxploitation” film Truck Turner starring the late, great
Isaac Hayes. Due to the success of this action-oriented film, Kaplan was hired
by Columbia Pictures to direct (and co-write) another actioner which would be
the biggest hit of his career so far: 1975’s White Line Fever, which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
War hero Carrol Jo Hummer (Jan-Michael
Vincent, Big Wednesday) returns home
to Tucson, Arizona and marries his sweetheart, Jerri (Kay Lenz, Breezy). He then gets a bank loan and
uses it to buy a rig named “The Blue Mule.” Anxious to start a family, Carrol
Jo begins work at Red River Shipping where his job is to haul produce. CJ soon
discovers that he is also expected to haul illegal cargo such as untaxed
cigarettes and slot machines. He refuses and gets his ribs broken by several
Red River employees. Once healed, CJ attempts to find work at other shipping
companies, but, due to being blackballed by Red River, cannot get hired. An
enraged CJ returns to Red River and holds his superiors, Duane Haller (Slim Pickens,
1972’s The Getaway) and Buck Wessler
(L.Q. Jones, The Wild Bunch) at
gunpoint until Buck agrees to let CJ do things his way. The men do agree, but
once CJ goes back to work, he is attacked by more Red River thugs who he manages
to successfully fight off. CJ eventually discovers that Red River is owned by a
huge corporation called Glass House which is not only run by a man named Cutler
(Don Porter, TV’s Gidget), but also
has ties to organized crime. The more CJ tries to do what’s right, the more
he’s attacked, with devastating consequences to his friends and family. Enraged,
CJ grabs his shotgun, jumps inside the Blue Mule and heads for Glass House. But
can one man stand up to the corrupt corporation and win?
Directed with a sure hand by Kaplan, White Line Fever is not only a modern
western with trucks instead of horses, but, according to the director, a Sam
Peckinpah-influenced western which, beside the fact that they are fabulous
actors, would explain why Peckinpah regulars like Slim Pickens, L.Q. Jones and
R.G. Armstrong (Pat Garrett and Billy the
Kid) are in the film. (Peckinpah would soon direct his own action/trucker
film; 1978’s enjoyable Convoy.) A
well-done addition to the revenge/man against the system formula, White Line Fever, as stated by co-writer
Ken Friedman (Cadillac Man),is similar in story/structure to Phil
Karlson films like Walking Tall or The Phenix City Story except with a
major twist at the end. The well-made film also benefits from some wonderful
cinematography by the Oscar nominated (for Patton)
Fred Koenekamp as well as extremely well-written, multi-dimensional characters
and terrific, believable performances from Jan-Michael Vincent, Kay Lenz, Slim
Pickens, L.Q. Jones, Sam Laws, Don Porter and R.G. Armstrong; not to mention an
early appearance by the always welcome Martin Kove (Steele Justice) as one of the Red River thugs and, last, but
certainly not least, the legendary Dick Miller (A Bucket of Blood, The Howling, Gremlins) as one of CJ’s fellow
truckers.
White Line Fever has also been
released as a Region-Free Blu-ray by the German video label Explosive Media and is
presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The beautiful transfer is sharp,
colorful and has perfect sound. The disc also contains two theatrical trailers
(one in English and one in German); a still gallery which features the film’s
posters and lobby cards; an introduction by director Kaplan and an almost hour-long
featurette with co-writer Ken Friedman who reminisces about many different
aspects of the film including working with screen veterans like Slim Pickens
and Don Porter as well as discussing the film’s darker, more realistic ending. The
Blu-ray can be ordered from Amazon Germany.The film is also streaming for free on YouTube (with advertisements.)
If you’re looking for a well-made,
enthralling and realistic trucker movie, White
Line Fever is definitely the way to go.
Corman/ Poe: Interviews and Essays
Exploring the Making of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe Films, 1960-1964
By Chris Alexander
Foreword by Roger
Corman
Headpress paperback
Size: 235mm x 191mm
Pages: 150
105 colour and B&W stills images
ISBN:
978-1-915316-07-3
Retail Price: UK£22.99 / US $27.95
Review by Adrian
Smith
The early 1960s was a
boom time for gothic horror films. Spurred on by the Hammer Films one-two punch
of Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958), film
companies around the world fell over themselves to produce films set in cobweb-strewn
castles and mist-enshrouded graveyards. Directors such as Mario Bava and
Antonio Margheriti made several Italian gothics, frequently starring
Christopher Lee or Barbara Steele, but no one director had such a successful
run as Roger Corman, who in the space of five years brought us an incredible
series of eight films adapted from the disturbed writing of Edgar Allan Poe: The
Fall of the House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Premature
Burial, Tales of Terror, (both 1962), The Haunted Palace, The
Raven (both 1963), Masque of the Red Death and The Tomb of Ligeia
(both 1964). All but one starred Vincent Price, and they also featured the
talents of Ray Milland, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Barbara
Steele (again, proving she was a gothic icon on both sides of the Atlantic),
Hazel Court, and even a young Jack Nicholson.
In this new book, the
first dedicated solely to these films, Fangoria's Chris Alexander has interviewed
Roger Corman (a mere 97 years old, with a pin-sharp memory) at length on each one
of these low- budget gems, discussing the themes, the productions, his love-hate
relationship with American International Pictures, the cast and crew, and much
more. He reflects thoughtfully on his collaborative relationship with Vincent
Price, who he rightly describes as a “brilliant actor,” and he is not too proud
of his own achievements to acknowledge the important contribution of others,
including writer Richard Matheson, who he says was, “One of the finest writers
I’ve ever had the chance to work with,” crediting him “for much of the success
of those early Poe pictures.” Also featured
in the book is a critical appraisal for each film and a wealth of archival
material, including a full-colour international poster gallery and censorship
documents related to the most controversial of them all, Masque of the Red
Death.
Roger Corman is one
of the most prolific directors and producers we have ever had, and as such
there is always more to be said about his work. Corman/ Poe is an
essential addition to the growing Corman library.
The old adage that good things come in small packages applies to movies, specifically "B" movies. They were once a valued staple of the film business during the eras in which local theaters generally showed double features. "B" movies were sometimes the top-billed feature but more often than not they were produced simply to provide programming for the bottom half of the bill at a low cost. This is not to diminish their worth. Most of these productions were quite entertaining and some have gone on to be regarded as cult classics. "The Gun Runners", a 1958 United Artists film, is not a cult classic but it is a "B" movie and it is quite good, largely because this story about a deep sea fisherman has director Don Siegel's firm hand on the tiller. The screenplay is derived from two Ernest Hemingway sources: a 1934 short story, "One Trip Across" and his classic novel "To Have and Have Not" which was brought to the screenin 1944 by director Howard Hawks and star Humphrey Bogart. Only a few years later, it had been remade as "The Breaking Point" starring John Garfield. For whatever reason, the producers assumed there was still fertile ground to be exploit in Hemingway's tales and this loose adaptation also owes some obvious inspiration to John Huston's 1948 classic "Key Largo". Despite the hodgepodge nature of its source material and a micro budget, "The Gun Runners" is engrossing throughout.
Audie Murphy stars as Sam Martin, a down-on-his-luck deep sea fisherman who operates a charter boat out of Key West. Sam is happily married to Lucy (Patricia Owens), a devoted wife whose passion for her husband results in the film having a somewhat edgy content in terms of sexual innuendo, as the young couple can barely keep their hands off each other. Sam's home life may be blissful but he's in deep debt due to slumping rentals of his boat. On an excursion to Havana during the midst of the revolution (which was in progress when the movie was filmed, though California locations are stand ins for Cuban locales), Sam is approached by a couple of shady revolutionaries who want to employ his boat for illicit purposes. Sam rejects their overture but within seconds, he witnesses an inquisitive police officer brutally murdered by the men. He flees Cuba before anyone can place him as an eyewitness. Back home, his fortunes continue to decline and he fears having his boat foreclosed on. Good fortune seems to smile upon him when a wealthy man named Hanagan (Eddie Albert), accompanied by his beautiful young mistress Eva (Gita Hall), wants to pay to charter Sam's boat for a princely sum- with the caveat that they make an unauthorized nighttime visit to Havana without getting a travel permit. Sam takes an immediate dislike to the perpetually jovial Hannigan and doubts his story that he and Eva simply want to sample the nightlife in Havana. Sam reluctantly agrees out of financial desperation. Once in Cuba, however, Hannigan is actually secretly meeting with revolutionaries, who pay him a large sum of cash in return for promising to deliver a cache of weapons to them on his next visit. Things get hairier from there when Hannigan uses financial blackmail to force Sam into making a return visit to Cuba in order to drop off the weapons. In the "Key Largo"-like finale, he finds himself on board the small vessel with Hannigan and his gang of cutthroats (including sadistic Richard Jaeckel) who have every incentive to kill him once the mission is complete. Of particular interest is the screenplay's attempts to remain politically ambivalent in dealing with the Cuban revolution, though the writers clearly seem to paint the rebels in an unfavorable light. (Only a few months after the film's release, the Batista regime would fall to Castro's forces.)
Director Siegel was known for making his films lean and mean and this is no exception. Working with a threadbare budget, he manages to squeeze considerable suspense out of the scenarios with nary a wasted frame of film or a superfluous line of dialogue. Audie Murphy suffices in the lead role, but the part calls out for someone with a harder edge. The film benefits from a marvelous cast of supporting actors with Everett Sloane especially good as Sam's elderly, wino first mate who he keeps on simply out of sentiment. There are also bit parts by Jack Elam and John Ford regular John Qualen. The two female leads are very good but Gita Hall steals the show in the traditional role of glamorous femme fatale, a young woman who is mortgaging her future for the trappings of luxury by serving as Hannigan's mistress. (If she were in a higher profile film, she may have gone on to stardom.) By far the best performance is given by Eddie Albert, who makes for a larger-than-life, smarmy villain. The diversity of this actor is often overlooked. He could play light comedy (he was great in "Green Acres") with exceptional skill while also delivering dramatic performances that are equally impressive.
The Kino Lorber Blu-ray features the original trailer with an English track but Italian titles (go figure) and some bonus trailers. I don't want to overstate the merits of "The Gun Runners" but as a "B" movie it exceeds expectations. Recommended.
Birkin in the 1969 cult film "La Piscine". (Photo: Cinema Retro Archive.)
By Lee Pfeiffer
Actress and singer Jane Birkin has died at age 76. A cause of death did not accompany the announcement. Birkin was one of the "It Girls" of the mod period of the mid-to-late 1960s when censorship boundaries were removed and sexual behavior became celebrated rather than condemned. Because Birkin had been so closely associated with France, many people thought she was French by birth. Indeed, in commenting on her passing, President Macron referred to her as a "French icon". But Birkin was British by birth and came of age during an era of social rebellion that afforded her liberated attitudes to be celebrated in the arts. She first appeared in bit roles in "The Knack...and How to Use It", "The Idol",, "Kaleidoscope" and, more importantly, in a memorable nude scene in director Michelangelo Antonioni's bizarre but acclaimed 1966 "Blow-up". She also starred in the 1969 French film "La Piscine" with Alain Delon, which has become a popular cult film in recent years. She married British composer John Barry, whose own popularity was exploding due in no small part to his association with the James Bond films. The marriage didn't last and Birkin went to France to appear in a film. There she met and fell in love with songwriter and actor Serge Gainsbourg. Their relationship became the stuff of gossip columns after the couple recorded the smash hit, provocative record "Je t'aime...moi non plus". She and Gainsbourg stayed together for ten years. In addition to her concert appearances, Birkin was also known for inadvertently inspiring a top-end handbag design manufactured by Hermes, after an executive for the company overheard her complain that they needed to create a larger bag.
With Russia currently dominating world news in an unfavorable way and authoritarian political figures making headlines even in democracies, it's relevant to look back on the 1983 crime thriller "Gorky Park", which has been released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. The film was based on Martin Cruz Smith's international bestseller and was unique in its day because it centered on subterfuge within the Soviet law enforcement system and was set primarily in Moscow. Director Michael Apted had hoped to be the first major Hollywood studio production to shoot within the Soviet Union but unsurprisingly he was turned down due to the fact that the story dealt with systemic corruption throughout every layer of the government. Apted settled for the next best thing, shooting in Finland and Sweden, both of which make convincing substitutes for the USSR. Transforming the lengthy, complex novel to a screenplay could have been no easy task, even for acclaimed screenwriter Dennis Potter ("Pennies from Heaven"). Although the film has a leisurely running time of 128 minutes, there are still some portions of the story that are not fleshed out enough to be easily understood.
The movie gets off to a gripping start when three young people drift away from the crowd at a winter festival in Moscow's Gorky Park. They are shot dead shortly thereafter, although we don't know why or by who. Police detective Arkady Renko (William Hurt) is first on the scene and he discovers that the snow-covered bodies have been horribly mutilated with their fingers removed and their faces skinned so that their can be no recognition of the victims. This leads to some particularly gory scenes in which a pathologist skillfully manages to recreate their facial features using synthetic skin. In a country and political system in which everyone is justifiably paranoid, Renko begins to suspect that the KGB might have been behind the killings and are looking to set him up as a fall guy. An interesting cast of characters is gradually introduced. Irina Asanova (Joanna Pacula in her screen debut) is a glamorous actress who was a friend of the victims. Renko cannot persuade her that they are dead, as she has been assured that they escaped into exile by Jack Osborne (Lee Marvin). He's a well-connected, rich American businessman who deals in the lucrative trade of sable furs. Renko is immediately suspicious that Osborne, with his bought-and-paid for allies in Soviet law enforcement, is somehow tied to the murders. This results in a few of those scenes moviegoers love in which the hero and villain banter words, using euphemisms to represent their actual thoughts as they engage in a duel of wits. The more dedicated Renko becomes in solving the crime, the more he realizes his is putting his own life in danger. He later gets assistance from an American visitor, William Kirwill (Brian Dennehy), a detective who is in Moscow to try to solve the murder of his brother, who was one of the three victims. Together, he and Renko begin to unravel a tangled web of corruption, deceit, betrayal and more murders.
"Gorky Park" enjoyed good reviews at the time of its release but it was a boxoffice disappointment. Viewing the new Blu-ray, I found it more intriguing and enjoyable than I had previously- even though the plot gets very complicated and so many characters are introduced that by the end of the movie, I can't say for sure why the original three murder victims were killed. The movie was an important early starring role for William Hurt and he's adequate in the role but rather bland at times, although he and Pacula engage in the kind of steamy sex scene that was de rigueur at a time before movies became largely devoid of eroticism. Pacula gives a very fine performance that earned her a Golden Globe nomination and Dennehy steals every scene he's in, although the premise of an American detective thinking he will have free reign to operate in one of the most oppressive societies in the world is a bit of a stretch. Ian Bannen is a welcome presence as Renko's superior officer, who may be in the pocket of Osborne. As the American fur trader, Lee Marvin is terrific in a marvelous late-career role. It must be said that the largely British cast of supporting actors retain their natural accents, which proves to be a distraction since they are supposed to be playing Russians. Hurt supposedly complained about this because, for the sake of consistency, it forced him to adapt his own version of a British accent, which seems like a hybrid with American English. It doesn't work at all and it's surprising that a skilled director like Apted didn't simply encourage his cast to adopt Russian accents. The production design is rich and expensive-looking but James Horner's score, which was acclaimed in some quarters, sounds dated and very much from an era in which synthesizers were employed ad nauseum.
For those of who came of age during the Cold War period, the film is a reminder of how every aspect of Soviet life was put under scrutiny, with paranoia instilled in citizens to keep everyone off-balance and reluctant to trust anyone else. Despite the Putin regime's quashing of many societal freedoms, today's Russia still enjoys far more freedoms and prosperity than it did when "Gorky Park" was made. Michael Apted's direction is first-rate. Dennis Potter's screenplay excels at showing what life is like in an authoritarian state, where the trappings of democracy are undermined by the fact that everyone knows that there are people who follow the people who follow them. What I found surprising and refreshing is that Renko, who is aware of and frustrated by the Orwellian aspects of his country, remains a dedicated law enforcement official who proudly serves the Soviet state. "Gorky Park" is not a classic but it is a compelling and offbeat thriller that holds up today.
The Kino Lorber Blu-ray looks very good, indeed. Cinematographer Rolf D. Bode's cinematography really impresses, as he shot the film in a rather washed out, colorless manner to reflect the blandness of the Soviet state. The release is one of the few from KL that doesn't include a commentary track, but there is an excellent 16-minute recent interview with Michael Apted, who says he rarely revisits his own films but did so in this case. He says he was surprised at how well the film has held up but expresses his frustration that, despite good reviews, the movie was not successful at the American boxoffice, though it did well internationally. Apted recalls the challenges of trying to replicate Moscow in Helsinki and speaks well of his cast and crew. He says that Lee Marvin, though appearing healthy on screen, was in intensive care in a hospital just prior to filming, as he suffered from emphysema. He relates that Marvin was especially enthused about the film because it gave him a rare opportunity to play a character who was sophisticated and highly cultured. The Blu-ray also includes the original trailer, a teaser trailer and TV spots for "Gorky Park" and an extensive number of trailers for other action films available from KL.
A personal observation: it should be noted that the interview segment with Michael Apted was produced by Walter Olsen, co-founder with his brother Bill of the Scorpion Releasing video label. Scorpion had partnered with KL in recent years to release many under-radar-films on Blu-ray. Walter passed away in May just months after his brother died. Those of us who value their contributions to the home video industry mourn their passing.
Richard
Loncraine’s The Haunting of Julia (aka Full Circle, 1977) is a chilling,
emotionally charged ghost story shot in London in 1976 with Canadian funding
which fell into a legal limbo and was destined to remain largely forgotten
until film historian and writer Simon Fitzjohn began researching the film for a
magazine article in 2016. The rabbit hole grew deeper and he became a man on a
mission to bring the film back to the public. The years of struggle paid off
and the film has now been restored and released around the world on Blu-ray and
UHD, so Cinema Retro sat down with him to find out how it all happened.
Cinema
Retro – How does it feel to finally be at the end
of this epic journey?
Simon
Fitzjohn - We had a screening at the BFI in London
recently which was a massive thrill. There was a good audience and we got quite
a few of the crew along as well as Richard Loncraine, the director. It was a
bit of a party, to be perfectly honest with you, a fantastic experience.
CR
– So how did this all start?
SF
- I read a BFI article at Halloween in 2016 called ‘Forgotten British Horror
Films of the 1970s,’ and I thought, “Right, okay, I'm pretty sure I'm just
going to tick everything off this list.” So I went through them all and it was
Pete Walker's Frightmare, things like that. And then there was Full Circle,
or The Haunting of Julia and this picture of Mia Farrow with her arms
out. I thought “I don't think I've seen that one.” I took it as a bit of an
affront really that I hadn't seen it. That was when I then found out that it
wasn't available commercially at all, no DVD release, however, there was a
version of it on YouTube as they'd shown it on the Sony Movie Channel in 2011.
So I watched it and I was floored by it. You know, I remember when it ended and
I just sat there in silence for about 15 minutes trying to sort of process it
and thinking, ‘Oh, my God, this is just such a sad film. How has this film been
allowed to disappear?” You know, why is this not heralded as an amazing British
horror film?
CR
– You would think it would be better known, particularly because it starred Mia
Farrow.
SF
- Originally my idea was just to write about it, so the first person I reached
out to was Peter Fetterman, who was the producer on it, and he said, “Well, I'm
still friends with Richard Loncraine, I'll give him your number.” So I had a
call with Richard, who was quite bewildered, as he always is. When anybody says
they love the film, he hates it! He seems flabbergasted, because he doesn't
think it's a good film. I think a lot of that was down to all the pressures
from the external people when they were making it, certainly the Canadian side
of it, who wanted this Omen-style bloodbath, whereas Richard wanted this
more ambiguous, psychological film. Then he put me in touch with Peter Hannon,
who was the director of cinematography on it, and then we found out that Technicolor
had found the negative, so Richard and I thought, “Right, here we go!” We needed
to get that negative, get it restored and get it rereleased.
CR
- Were there rights issues? Is that one of the reasons why it had fallen out of
circulation?
SF
- Yes. It wasn't that the negative was missing. The last known owner of it was
a guy called Julian Mills who was the exec producer on the film. Technicolor
had documents for Full Circle with Julian Melzack at Albian Films, and he
obviously didn't care about the film because he never bothered to release it
himself, and then he died in early 2016. So we had to somehow jump through all
these hoops to prove that he hadn't passed the film on to anybody else before
he passed away, so that we could prove an ownership chain. It was about six
years of working with Technicolor, Companies House, solicitors, Julian Melzack's
daughter, all these people going round and round trying to find paperwork. It
was just exasperating, to be perfectly honest with you, and there were numerous
times where we just thought it wasn’t going to happen because we would answer a
question and then they would give us another obstacle and we would jump over
that, and then they'd give us another obstacle. There were times when I
flagged, but then I would get people messaging me on the Twitter account I had
(@full_julia), saying, “Keep going, keep going!” Eventually we were able to do
it.
CR
– Who funded the restoration?
SF
- It was Shout! Factory, but there were numerous people that worked together on
this. Shout! Factory sorted the restoration, but the BFI now keep the negative,
that was the deal. It was done at Silver Salt in London. Richard Loncraine was
involved in that as well.
CR
- You've also been heavily involved in the release, with a commentary track
(with the director) and some of the extra features for the BFI release.
SF
- It was great, because I'd always said right from the start that the key for
me was that the film was going to be back out there. It deserves to be talked about,
it deserves to be celebrated. But it was still really nice when the BFI came to
me straight away and said we want you front and centre on this because Richard
said, "Look, if you don't involve Simon, I'm not getting involved.” I was
able to help as well because I was in touch with so many people, so Tom Conti
was interviewed as was Samantha Gates, who plays Olivia in the film. I've been
reading some very positive comments about it in reviews. It was fun, it was a
great thrill.
CR
– There are rumours that something is missing from the film, specifically a
graphic tracheotomy scene, which of course is the tragic event at the beginning
of the film [Julia’s daughter is choking to death, and in a last desperate
attempt to save her she attempts a tracheotomy which fails and the daughter
dies]. What do you know about this?
SF
- There was this guy and he would constantly
message me on Twitter to ask, “Have you found the tracheotomy scene?” And he
was the one that apparently somehow added it to IMDb that this was missing, but
nobody has it because it doesn't exist. Why would they randomly have had this
blood- spurting tracheotomy? That was never the intention for the film. I've
read the BBFC censors report when they classified the film, and they referenced
the fact that there was no blood in it. They gave it an AA certificate because
it was so tame. So there was never anything filmed, but when they were filming
that scene Alfred Pariser, who was the Canadian producer on it, he wanted it to
be bloody so he had a cup of stage blood. When Mia stabbed Sophie Ward with the
knife, he threw the cup of blood over them. Mia Farrow just got up and ran out
screaming because she thought she had cut Sophie Ward's throat! But they
obviously didn't use that footage. They weren't interested in having anything
like that.
CR
– Fantastic. And your commentary track with Richard Loncraine is packed with
stories like that. Congratulations on what must feel like such a tremendous
achievement.
SF
– Thank you. And I ended up somehow randomly getting a Rondo Award too!
The
Haunting of Julia/ Full Circle is
available on Blu-ray and UHD in the States from Shout! Factory, in Australia
from Imprint, and on Blu-ray and UHD in the UK from the BFI. Each edition
shares some bonus features whilst also having some which are unique. The
Imprint release comes in a beautiful hardbox with a lenticular cover, a book
discussing the adaptation from Peter Straub’s novel Julia, and best of
all a CD with the full remastered Colin Towns soundtrack including some tracks
which were never used or included on the original vinyl release.
After years of considering new book projects, I decided that it was time to write another book on the Beatles. My first book on the Beatles was Let It Be, part of the 33 1/3 series published by Bloomsbury. The subject of pop music and film always intrigued me, and obviously I touched on this subject with the Let It Be book, so choosing to write about the films of the Beatles seemed like a natural fit for my interests.
There hasn’t been a book that has concentrated on the five Beatles films for the general book trade in some time. Those books also didn’t include any of the rich vein of materials from the DVD and Blu-ray reissues of the films or the vinyl reissues (and lavish box set of theLet It Be album) of the soundtrack albums and related reissues. Having access to the Get Back project from Peter Jackson fleshed out the story of the Let It Be film in ways that were truly illuminating.
All of the films of the Beatles came out between 1964 and 1970. This was also a key period for British movies in general, so I knew that I wanted to provide context on British cinema of the period in the book. This would include the iconic spy movies of the era, most notably the James Bond films. There were also plenty of directors, actors, writers and others behind the scenes of not only the films of the Beatles, but of other British films and movies in general that I wanted to include in the book. Some of those people also worked on the films of the Beatles. There is also much musical and cultural context in the book.
I started the book before the pandemic, and due to how the virus affected various aspects of the world at large, it also impacted the entire process of the book, from the writing through its publication.
The hard deadline of the book changed twice. The book was originally conceived to be muchshorter, but as I did my research and wrote and with the additional time added, the book ballooned to a final manuscript of nearly 500 pages. That manuscript was edited down to the nearly 350-page book that was published on May 15th in the U.S. and July 15th in the U.K. from Roman & Littlefield, through its Backbeat imprint.
The book has been warmly received by the Beatles community at large. Among my chief concerns were ensuring factual accuracy and creating a book that offered an expanded scope from that of previous volumes on the films of the Beatles. The feedback I have received so far makes me feel like I have succeeded.
I didn’t interview Paul or Ringo for the book. Given that the films were made in some cases nearly 60 years ago, there were many people I would have liked to have to talked to, but many are no longer with us and some have long since ceased doing interviews for a variety of reasons. Some of the people I did interview who worked on the films or with the Beatles or who could provide insight and context include Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Billy J. Kramer, Anthony Richmond, Cameron Crowe, Ralph Bakshi, Gered Mankowitz, John Kosh, Ryan White and Marijke Koger, among many others.
This is definitely a book for fans of the Beatles, but also for fans of the British films, music and cultural history of the time and place.
Tom
Johnson, noted Hammer Film expert and longtime friend of many a Hammer star,
passed away at his home in Shillington, PA on July 11th. He was 76.
Tom’s
best-known work was his 1995 book, Hammer Films – An Exhaustive Filmography
(co-written with Debra Del Vecchio) and exhaustive it was with over 400 pages
covering every film the studio made from the 1930s onward.He wrote other books like The Christopher
Lee Filmography (co-written with Mark A. Miller and Jimmy Sangster), The
Films of Oliver Reed (with Susan D. Cowie) and The Mummy in Fact and
Fiction (with Susan D. Cowie) and others.His 2015 tribute to Christopher Lee for Little Shoppe of Horrors –
“Christopher Lee – He May Not Have Been… Who You Thought He Was” won the Rondo
Award for Best Horror Article.
I
met Tom when I covered the 1997 Midnight Marquee Hammer Convention for
Cinemax.Along with spending time with
Caroline Munro, Freddie Francis and Jimmy Sangster, I got to know Tom.Very smart, with a dry wit and an
encyclopedic knowledge of cinema, he was easy to befriend. Tom was close to
many Hammer actors and filmmakers, most noticeably Christopher Lee and Peter
Cushing.I will forever be in his debt
for his getting Lee to sign my UK one-sheet to Scars of Dracula.Tom said when he unfolded it for the star,
Lee rolled his eyes and mumbled, “Oh my God.” The Count, it seems, was not a
fan of the film!
Along
with his literary efforts, Tom taught and coached high School track. (He was a
medal-winning runner himself back in the day.) An avowed Luddite, Tom didn’t own a computer,
never had an e-mail account and never once browsed the web. I remember telling
him how great it would be if he got an email address.His response?“Nah.” Old school to his core, he
would write his books by hand and his wonderful British writing partner Sue
Cowie would type them up and bring them into the 21st Century.
(Tom with Joyce Broughton, Peter Cushing's long-time secretary and personal assistant.)
As
years went by, Tom’s health got worse and he seldom ventured far from his PA
home, but we would talk on the phone.He
took great delight in my collecting tales – the items that got away and also the
things I managed to get, especially anything expensive. Tom laughed uproariously when I told him about
buying a rather large helicopter model from You Only Live Twice sight
unseen and my wife’s less than enthusiastic reaction.He made ME laugh when he recounted buying an ultra-rare
window card for 1935’s Mad Love at an antique store, putting it under his
mattress to “straighten it out,” then FORGETTING it for years!When he finally removed it, the brittle paper
was in tatters. Ouch.
Tom
stoically faced his mounting health problems with his sense of humor and
curiosity unchanged.He was a kind and
gentle man who truly loved the art of filmmaking and was unrivalled in his
knowledge of the entire Hammer canon.He
leaves behind seven books, countless articles and an army of people who will
truly miss him.Thank you, dear Tom.
“WHEN YOU’RE ALONE AND LIFE IS MAKING YOU LONELY, YOU CAN ALWAYS GO… DOWNTOWN”
By Raymond Benson
Certainly one of the films from the 1980s that genuinely typifies that decade is Martin Scorsese’s dark comedy, After Hours (1985). The picture is especially potent for anyone who might have lived in New York City during those years (as this reviewer did). Did the film work as well at the time for audiences without the New York frame of reference? Likely so, as the movie was a box office success… but there is no question that After Hours was funnier and more frighteningly familiar to native New Yorkers.
After Hours belongs in the surprisingly large group of movies that skew Manhattan into a metaphor for hell on earth. Others might include Midnight Cowboy (1969), The Out-of-Towners (1970), and Scorsese’s own Taxi Driver (1976). As someone who did live in Manhattan for many years, this reviewer can say with assurance that New York City was not hell on earth—but, like anywhere, it could become so if circumstances surrounding a person continually went from bad to worse on a given day (or, in this case, night).
Today, After Hours exists firmly entrenched in the decade in which it appeared. This was a time before mobile phones, for the movie’s plot could not occur had cell phones been in existence. A young, contemporary audience may not “get” After Hours without the 1980s milieu context. That said, After Hours is still a biting, fast-moving, comedy that is simultaneously realistic and surreal. As the director and author/comic Fran Lebowitz agree in an interview supplement, if one does not suspend disbelief and allow oneself to be in the movie while viewing it, then the insane logic of it all could fall apart.
By his own admission, in 1983-1984, Scorsese was in a dark place. Despite the huge success and acclaim for Raging Bull (1980), the director’s next picture, The King of Comedy (1982) was a financial flop and mostly disregarded by critics (although today it is held in very high esteem). Scorsese spent 1983 developing his passion project, The Last Temptation of Christ, and was all set to begin production when the studio got skittish and pulled the plug. Suddenly, Scorsese was box office poison.
Enter Griffin Dunne and Amy Robinson, actors who had taken up producing films. A film school thesis script by student Joseph Minion entitled Lies landed in their laps, and they loved it. Robinson, who had starred in Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1973), managed to get the script to the director. Scorsese, however, was busy with The Last Temptation of Christ and couldn’t do it. Dunne and Robinson had seen Tim Burton’s short film, Vincent, and they offered it to him, even though Burton had yet to make his first feature film. Burton was ready to sign on to do it, but then Last Temptation got cancelled, and Scorsese was unexpectedly free. Burton gracefully bowed out, and Scorsese thought the project might be a way to get him back into the film industry’s good graces. After some work on the script and the retitling to After Hours, the movie became a reality.
Griffin Dunne stars as Paul, an ordinary Joe who works in a boring Manhattan office job. One evening after work he meets Marcy (Rosanna Arquette) at an uptowndiner. The flirtation feels real, and she invites him downtown to SoHo later. (This reviewer always wondered why the movie did not incorporate, along with all the other great pop tunes in the soundtrack, the Petula Clark song “Downtown”—“When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go… downtown!” It would have fit well.) Armed with a twenty dollar bill, Paul takes a cab to lower Manhattan, but uh-oh, the money literally flies out the open window on the way there. Now with only 97 cents in his pocket, Paul meets up with Marcy, who begins exhibiting strange behavior. She’s staying in the loft of an equally strange artist, Kiki (Linda Fiorentino), who makes bizarre plaster-of-Paris statues and objects. Without giving away too much, the “date” with Marcy does not go as planned, and Paul finds himself stranded in SoHo without the means to get home to the upper east side. The subway fare had gone up to $1.50 at midnight. In attempts to contact someone he knows so he can crash on a couch, Paul encounters a succession of even stranger characters such as thieves Pepe and Neil (Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin), neurotic waitress Julie (Teri Garr), maybe-sane, maybe-psychotic bartender Tom (John Heard), scary ice cream truck vendor Gail (Catherine O’Hara), lonely spinster June (Verna Bloom), and other misfits. Paul’s night indeed goes from bad to worse.
Scorsese’s direction of the proceedings is top-notch. He makes the film move with lightning speed (and the picture is only a brisk 97 minutes long) with his signature dynamic camera actions (the cinematography is by the great Michael Ballhaus, and the editing by longtime Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker). The cast is all-in on the dark comedy, and each member is excellent. Other Scorsese character actor regulars make appearances (Victor Argo, Murray Moston, and Rocco Sisto) as well as familiar faces like Dick Miller, Bronson Pinchot, Larry Block, and Clarence Felder. Even Scorsese does a cameo as a searchlight operator in the extreme “Berlin Club,” that portrays a Manhattan nightmare of downtown danger.
The Criterion Collection’s new 4K digital restoration, approved by editor Schoonmaker, is presented on a 4K UHD disc with Dolby Vision HDR, and on a second Blu-ray disc with the film and special features. The picture quality is superb. There is an informative and fun audio commentary accompanying the movie with Scorsese, Schoonmaker, Ballhaus, Dunne, and Robinson. Supplements include the new and delightful aforementioned conversation between Scorsese and Fran Lebowitz about the film; a 2004 documentary on the making of the film with Dunne and Robinson; a new feature on the look of the film with production designer Jeffrey Townsend and costume designer Rita Ryack; and a few brief deleted scenes. An essay by critic Sheila O’Malley is contained in the package booklet.
After Hours may not be remembered as a top tier entry in Martin Scorsese’s filmography, but it is undoubtedly an important stepping stone for the director. After Hours is thoroughly entertaining, funny, and a tiny bit scary, too. Recommended for fans of Scorsese, New York City, and any of the featured actors.
“The
Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear” by Nat Segaloff (Kensington Publishing, $28)
304 pages, Illustrated (B&W), Hardback, ISBN: 978-0-8065-4194-5
By
Todd Garbarini
As
long as there are films and film criticism, one of the most debated aspects of
recent memory is whether or not film director William Friedkin’s 1973
masterwork The Exorcist is a horror film or not. The very question could
perplex average readers who might feel that that the inquiry itself is completely
ludicrous and make one ponder how the image of a young girl vomiting pea soup
from her bed or the face of a white-faced demon flashing manically before our
eyes could be considered anything but horror. Despite this, neither did the
novel’s author William Peter Blatty, nor the film’s director set out to make a
horror film at all. Instead, The Exorcist, largely considered by many to
be one of the most (if not the most) terrifying films ever made, was
fashioned to be a serious study about the mystery of faith.
Coming
upon the fiftieth anniversary of the film’s release – yes, you read that right
– a new book entitled The Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear is now
available and places the story about the phenomenon of the novel, the controversial
film and their inevitable sequels and prequels, definitively and squarely in
our laps. Penned by longtime Friedkin champion and prolific author of many
other film books Nat Segaloff, who wrote the excellent Hurricane Billy: The
Stormy Life and Films of William Friedkin (1990), The Exorcist Legacy
is an absolute must-read for adherents of the novel and film. With a foreword
by horror film writer John Russo of Night of the Living Dead fame, author
Segaloff takes us back to the beginning on how a 1966 meeting between Friedkin
and director Blake Edwards – and the former’s vituperative assessment of a Peter
Gunn screenplay – led to an introduction to and lifelong friendship between
Friedkin and Blatty; Warner Brothers and their initial reluctance to hire
Friedkin until the release of his brilliant The French Connection in
1971 garnered sudden critical and financial success and changed the game
completely; the original 1949 real-life case of an ostensibly possessed
Maryland boy; Blatty’s writing of the novel; the making of the film; a
multitude of issues that beset the film’s production giving way to the supposed
“curse” on the set; the controversy surrounding the release of the film; in-depth
looks at the much-maligned Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and the
superior The Exorcist III (1990), the latter both written and directed
by Blatty; and the prequels and television series.
Segaloff,
who was Publicity Director for the Sack Theater chain in Boston,provides personal insights into the marketing
challenges pertaining to the film, as he worked with Friedkin and Warner
Brothers to open the film at the showplace Cinema 57, one of only 22 theatres
that initially played the movie nationwide. Writing in a very down-to-earth
style with new interviews and meticulously researched details, The Exorcist
Legacy is simultaneously entertaining and informative and is the new go-to reference
book for all things related to the phenomenon with a fresh look from real life
to reel life.
Italian writer/director Fernando Di Leo has
had quite a prolific career. Between 1964 and 1985, he directed 17 films
(including 1971’s Slaughter Hotel,
1972’s Caliber 9 and 1973’s The Boss) and wrote/co-wrote many
screenplays (including contributions to Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars and For
A Few Dollars More). Recently, one of his last directorial efforts, The Violent Breed, was finally released
on Blu-ray.
The Violent Breed aka Razza Violenta follows ‘nam vet Mike
Martin (Harrison Muller, 2020 Texas
Gladiators) who is sent to Southeast Asia by CIA head Kirk Cooper (Henry
Silva, Sharkey’s Machine) in order to
take out a dangerous drug lord named Polo (Woody Strode, Sergeant Rutledge).
Solidly directed by Di Leo (who also co-wrote
with Nino Marino), The Violent Breed,
although not in the same league as similar films by action icons Schwarzenegger,
Stallone and Norris,is an enjoyable
80s action film which is definitely worth checking out. The movie also features
the lovely Carole Andre (The Bloodstained
Butterfly), and a memorable score from Paolo Rustichelli (Urban Warriors).
The Violent Breed has been released on
a region one Blu-ray, comes from a brand new 2K master, and is presented in its
original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The disc boasts clear images (but the audio is a
bit low in a few spots) and also contains English subtitles, the original
theatrical trailer as well as trailers for the films The Last Hunter; The Violent
Professionals; Street Law; Seven Blood-stained Orchids and Blastfighter.
On September 27, the Australian video company Imprint/ViaVision will release a 4-film box set showcasing films starring George Peppard. Here are the details:
With his dashing good looks and
irresistible charm, George Peppard became one of the most iconic actors of the
1960s.
Enjoy four forgotten gems from his
prolific career for the first time on Blu-ray in Australia:
P.J. (1968)
Pendulum (1969)
The Executioner (1970) – Worldwide first on
Blu-ray!
Newman’s Law (1974)
Limited Edition 4-Disc Hardbox. 1500
copies only.
P.J.
(1968) – Imprint Collection #252
Peppard faces off against Raymond Burr
(Rear Window) when he becomes entangled in an affair with deadly
consequences in P.J.
Private eye P.J. Detweiler is
reluctant to protect the mistress of a millionaire from attacks by his client’s
wife and greedy family. In truth, P.J. is walking into a deadly intrigue in
which he is to play a central part.
Special Features & Technical
Specs:
1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from
a 2K scan
NEW Audio Commentary by film historian & author Toby Roan
Audio Commentary by critics Howard S. Berger and
Steve Mitchell
NEW Interview with author & screenwriter Courtney Joyner on the
career of director John Guillermin
NEW Video essay on George Peppard & John Guillermin
Theatrical Trailer
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono
Pendulum
(1969) – Imprint Collection #253
George Peppard embarks on a relentless
quest for justice in this thrilling classic.
Cynical Washington, DC, police captain
Frank Matthews risked his life to catch a young rapist and murderer. But the
psychopath is set free when a civil liberties’ attorney proves to the Supreme
Court that Matthews never read the killer his rights. When Matthews’ wife is
found murdered alongside her lover, and he becomes the prime suspect, Matthews
decides his best option is to capture the real killer himself.
Special Features & Technical
Specs:
1080P High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
Special Features TBC
Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono
The
Executioner (1970) – Imprint Collection #254
Worldwide first on Blu-ray!
Joan Collins, Keith Mitchell and Judy
Geeson also star in The Executioner, the nail-biting thriller and
worldwide first on Blu-ray.
When a covert operation in Vienna goes
awry, British Intelligence operative John Shay suspects his colleague, Adam
Booth, may be a double agent. Appointing himself executioner, Shay kills Booth
and then assumes his identity to obtain conclusive evidence that Booth was a
traitor.
Special Features & Technical
Specs:
1080P High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
Special Features TBC
Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono
Newman’s
Law (1974) – Imprint Collection #255
The creator of Banacek, Anthony
Wilson, and George Peppard reunite in the gritty police drama Newman’s Law.
When a hard-nosed LA cop is booted from
duty after being falsely accused of extortion, he goes rogue to investigate an
organised crime case, uncovering a conspiracy that might extend to the highest
levels of his own department.
Special Features & Technical
Specs:
1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from
a 2K scan
NEW Audio Commentary by film historian Steve Mitchell and
producer/screenwriter Cyrus Voris
NEW Interview with director Jeff Burr on the career of director Richard
T. Heffron
Radio Spots
Theatrical Trailer
Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono
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.
Imprint limited editions tend to sell out quickly. Click here to pre-order. (Prices are in Australian dollars. Use a currency converter to see what the price is in your local currency.) The Blu-ray set is Region-Free.
Anyone
going into Dutch film director Rene Daalder’s 1976 film Massacre at Central
High might very well be expecting an all-out slasher film. While the poster
art might give this impression, audiences will be sorely disappointed as it is
essentially a variant of Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel Ten Little Indians
but with a much different tone. The opening credits and the strains of an inappropriate
and perfunctory title song Crossroads (which is better suited to a
made-for-television movie of the period) demanded by producer Harold Sobel to
the consternation of the director immediately sends the wrong message to the
viewer. Much of what has been written about the film over the years demonstrates
the consensus that Massacre, the title of which appears to want to
capitalize on the Tobe Hooper horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
from two years earlier, is a political allegory, and one can certainly analyze
the film from that perspective, though it is doubtful that audiences at the
time, especially those seeing the film at a drive-in of all places, looked so
deeply into a film that on the surface looks to be a story about simple revenge.
Set
inside the battleground of Central High School in Southern California, David
(Derrel Maury) is the new student and therefore automatically becomes a mark.
He is no stud, but certainly not a pushover either. Mark (Andrew Stevens from
Brian DePalma’s The Fury from 1977) is an old friend who owes David a
favor from his past, one that we are not privy to, and appears to be willing to
do whatever it takes to make David feel welcome. The ground rules for making it
through Central High are simple: you’re either a somebody or you’re a nobody,
to quote American Gangster’s Frank Lucas. Mark’s clique includes Bruce (the
late Ray Underwood from Brice Mack’s Jennifer from 1978, another film
about high school revenge), Craig (Steve Bond from Joel Bender’s Gas Pump
Girls from 1979), and Paul (the late Damon Douglas of John D. Hancock’s Baby
Blue Marine, also from 1976). These three bullies, for lack of a better
word, essentially rule Central High which is presented as a seemingly insular
world of jocks, jerks, and losers. For the first hour and a quarter of the
film, adults are only spoken of and never seen onscreen. It is worth noting
that Mark walks a tightrope in this film – his allegiance to David makes him hesitant
to be included completely with this terrible triumvirate who harass pretty much
anyone they want without fear of reprisal.
David
is subjected to seeing other students mercilessly harassed by the bullies, especially
Mary (the late Cheryl Lynn “Rainbeaux” Smith) and Jane (the late Lani O’Grady)
who are practically raped in a despicable sequence. David comes to their rescue
and beats up their harassers, only to be partially crushed under his car by the
group in an “accident” soon afterwards. Enraged, David single-handedly kills
all three bullies in a fantasy right out of today’s high school killer headlines
by sabotaging one’s hang-glider, one’s Dodge Tradesman 300’s brakes, and
exploiting an empty swimming pool in a sequence almost too ridiculous to
believe.
This
scenario creates an interesting situation at the school as the once oppressed
and harassed “losers” see the existence of a power vacuum and seize it, becoming
bullies themselves and embodying everything they hated about their tormentors, Apparently,
David is also well-versed in the art of bomb-making! What a coincidence. There
is no mention of how he developed these skills (The Anarchist’s Cookbook,
perhaps?), but he manages to come up with some fairly ornate methods of blowing
away the new bullies, and they all go off without a hitch: (spoiler alerts!)
one is blow away while at his locker; another is blown to Kingdom Come a la Sam
Rothstein at the start of Martin Scorsese’s Casino (1995) but,
unfortunately, no St. Matthew Passion for this guy; and last but not
least Mary, Jane and their friend (Robert Carradine) are crushed by a rock in
the middle of a threesome while in a tent (it comes out that police believe
that they were involved in the killings – how convenient). I suppose this
sequence gives new meaning to the term “die hard.”
Despite
all this mayhem, the school still moves ahead with a dance(!), and now the adults
and police show up. David gets the idea to blow up the school – until Mark and
his girlfriend Theresa (Kimberly Beck of television series fame), whom David
fancies, tell him they are going to the dance. When he gets wind of this, David
retrieves the bomb from the boiler room and, straight out of a James Bond film,
makes it to the front lawn to save the day, but not without paying a price for
his actions.
There
seems to be a need to prop the film up in a bright light and look at it for
evidence of it being a highly political film that is making a commentary on society
and the members who dwell in it. I am unsure if that was the real motivation
behind the film, however if one chooses to view it that way, the film is an
interesting social commentary on what creates a bully or an oppressor, and how
the oppressed end up taking over the positions of the long-gone bullies. The script
is schematic, and the film is not particularly well-acted, but to be fair the director
and crew had a 20-day shooting schedule on a modest $400,000 budget, so he
certainly had his work cut out for him. The fight scenes suffer from performer
restraint and the bullies are so annoying that the audience can only hope for a
miserable end for all of them but when they come, the releases are more of a
whimper than an all-out rise out of the seats that one would experience at the
end of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) when the shark is finally
killed.
Synapse Films released a steelbook
edition of this film in November 2020 and now it is available in a Standard
Edition from the same company. The following extras are included:
The Projection Booth Podcast
Interviews with Cast Members
(87:00) – this is an audio playback that needs to be selected on the audio menu
to access it and it can be listened to through the entire length of the film.
This is a great listen as I was initially disappointed to see the absence of a
commentary, but this is the next best thing. It is hosted by Mike White who
speaks to Derrel Maury, Andrew Stevens, Robert Carradine, and Rex Sikes over
the phone.
Audio Interview with Director Renee
Daalder (25:00) – likewise, this is an audio
playback that needs to be selected on the audio menu to access it and it can be
listened to through the first 25 minutes of the film, after which the film
audio resumes. It is an audio interview with the director conducted by writer
Michael Gingold and it is a wonderful record of their discussion as Mr. Daalder
sadly passed away in 2019.
Hell in the Hallways (42:27) – this is a really nice look
back at the making of the film, shot in high definition, with Derrel Maury, Tom
Logan, Rex Sikes, Robert Carradine, Andrew Stevens, and Jeffrey Winner, in
addition to some behind-the-scenes crew members who discuss how much fun and
also how challenging it was to make. Tragically, Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith and Lani
O’Grady both died way before their time. I recall seeing Lemora, A Child’s
Tale of the Supernatural (1973) on October 24, 2002, as part of a “scary
movies” retrospective at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, and wishing that
I could interview Ms. Smith about her starring role in the film. Unbelievably,
she passed away the very next day at age 47. Ms. Smith was 21 when she appeared
in Massacre and is heartbreakingly beautiful, completely naked in her
death scene that arrives 70 minutes into the film. She was a free spirit and
appeared in some of the most interesting films of the 1970s and her presence
brought something special to those films. Along with Candace Rialson, another performer
from the 1970s who sadly died way before her time, they are two of my favorite
actresses from this era.
Original Theatrical Trailer (2:23) – this is in full-blown high
definition and looks culled from the new master. The same cannot be said for
the TV Spot (00:33), however, which is framed 1.33:1 and looks its age,
beat up and contrasty. There is also a great-sounding Radio Spot (00:27)
as well as a nice Still Gallery (3:14).
Young Raquel in the 1966 sci-fi classic "Fantastic Voyage", one of the few films from this era that didn't require her to appear on screen in a bikini. (Photo: Cinema Retro Archive.)
Writing on the Turner Classic Movies web site, Jessica Pickens provides an informative look at Raquel Welch as both an actress and the real-life person behind the sex symbol image. Click here to view.
Chuck Norris is an American icon. His resume
is amazingly impressive—undefeated world karate champion, celebrity trainer,
best-selling author, television personality, and action movie superstar. Many
remember him from his eight season stint on the TV favorite Walker, Texas Ranger as well as in action movie classics Missing in Action, Code of Silence,
Invasion U.S.A. and The Delta Force.
However, some forget about Norris’s earlier efforts like Slaughter in San Francisco (1974), Breaker! Breaker! (1977) and Good
Guys Wear Black (1978); films where the talented athlete-turned-actor was
just starting his long, cinematic career. In 1979, Norris headlined A Force of One; a film which,
appropriately enough, cast him as a competitive martial artist.
A Force of One follows karate
champion Matt Logan (Norris) who, while rigorously training to defend his title
in an upcoming match, is contacted by the local police in order to aid them in
their current investigation. It seems that several officers have been murdered
by an assassin who the cops are convinced is a well-trained martial artist.
Matt agrees to help, but doesn’t realize that the killer is someone very close
to him.
Written by Academy Award winner Ernest
Tidyman and 9th degree black belt Pat E. Johnson, A Force of One was directed by Paul
Aaron; filmed in San Diego, California and released on May 18, 1979 by American
Cinema Releasing.
The very entertaining and well-written film,
which functions as an engaging police investigation/murder mystery, boasts solid
direction by Aaron, who more than competently handles the exciting martial arts
and action sequences. We are also given several well-drawn characters that are
brought to life by the talented cast. Naturally, Chuck Norris is totally
believable as the low-key, laid back, but extremely focused karate master Matt
Logan. Norris also brings a bit of humor to this somewhat biographical role.
Next, we have the beautiful Jennifer O’Neill conveying toughness, intelligence,
humor and sensitivity as dedicated undercover cop Amanda Rust. The late, great
Clu Gulager shines as a concerned police captain as does the always welcome Ron
O’Neal, who plays one of the undercover team searching for the killer. Last,
but not least, Eric Laneuville is extremely likeable as Norris’s adopted son,
Charlie.
Adding to the fun and captivating film are a
bunch of incredibly talented character actors/familiar faces such as James
Whitmore, Jr., Ray Vitte, Clint Ritchie, Pepe Serna, Taylor Lacher, Charles
Cyphers, Lisa James, Mel Novak and G.W. Bailey.
Lastly, we have the impressive acting debut
of undefeated middleweight karate champion Bill “Superfoot” Wallace; a brief
appearance by two-time Golden Gloves champion Edwin “Chu Chu” Malave, and Chuck
Norris’s younger brother, Aaron Norris, who does quadruple duty by being stunt
coordinator, performing stunts, choreographing fight scenes (with his brother),
and playing Chuck’s corner man.
In addition to all this goodness is a
wonderful, thriller-type musical score by composer Dick Halligan which, when
combined with everything else, makes A
Force of One a very enjoyable 90 minutes.
A Force of One has been released on
Blu-ray in anamorphic (1.85:1) widescreen from a brand new 2K transfer and the
movie, which I always remember looking a bit washed out, now looks crystal
clear and vibrant. This film has always been a favorite of mine and I’ve never
seen it look this good. The Region 1 disc also contains two audio commentaries;
one with director Paul Aaron, and another with action film historians Brandon
Bentley and Mike Leeder. We are also given the featurette“The Making of A Force of One”
as well as the original theatrical trailer, TV spots, radio spots, a trailer
for The Reincarnation of Peter Proud
(which also stars Jennifer O’Neill) and trailers for five Chuck Norris action
classics: Good Guys Wear Black, The
Octagon, An Eye for an Eye, Code of Silence and Hero and the Terror.
If,
like me, you’re a fan of this Chuck Norris martial arts classic, I highly
recommend picking up a copy of this Blu-ray.
Action film icon Charles Bronson did it all.
He made westerns (The Magnificent Seven,
Once Upon a Time in the West), war films (The Great Escape, The Dirty Dozen), lone cop movies (The Stone Killer, 10 to Midnight) and
vigilante films (Death Wish series).
Just to name a few. Between 1968 and 1972, after mostly being a supporting
actor in Hollywood movies and before become a Hollywood leading man due to
films like Mr. Majestyk and Death Wish (both 1974), Bronson did a
lot of great work in Europe and starred in many different roles; cop (Rider on the Rain aka Le passager de la pluie), thief (Farewell Friend aka Adieu l'ami), gangster (The
Valachi Papers), etc. In 1970, he played a hitman (two years before playing
a similar role in Michael Winner’s fantastic
The Mechanic) in the underrated Italian-French co-production Violent City.
While vacationing with his lover Vanessa
(Jill Ireland, Love and Bullets),
professional hitman Jeff Heston (Bronson) is shot and left for dead. Heston
survives, however, and tracks the killer down. After murdering him, Jeff
decides to retire and live happily with Vanessa. But before the couple can
leave town, Heston is asked by crime boss, Al Weber (Telly Savalas), to come
work for him. Heston refuses, but Weber produces evidence of Heston’s previous
murder. Jeff must now figure out a way to obtain the evidence from the
dangerous crime boss and escape unharmed with the lovely Vanessa. However, Jeff
is unaware that there are much more sinister forces conspiring against him.
Very well-directed by Sergio Sollima (The Big Gundown aka La resa dei conti, Revolver) from a thoroughly enjoyable script
co-written by Lina Wertmüller (Seven
Beauties), Violent City (aka Città violenta), is a well-done,
entertaining piece of action cinema as well as one of the first examples of the
subgenre called Poliziotteschi (Italian crime and action films of the 1960s and
70s which featured car chases, corruption, graphic violence, etc. as well as
lone heroes who stood up to the system). Sergio Sollima does a wonderful job directing
intricate, entertaining action sequences; most notably a Bullitt-like car chase Sollima swears was ripped off from one of
his previous films and not from the 1968 Peter Yates/Steve McQueen action
classic.
The adrenaline-charged script not only gives
us plenty of action, but also a number of unexpected twist and turns;
especially the ending. The well-written characters are made convincing by the estimable
talents of Bronson, Savalas and Ireland. Through another terrific, mostly
low-key performance, steely-eyed Bronson shows us that not only can he take
care of business, but that his character possesses a softer side when necessary.
Telly Savalas infuses his vicious character with quite a bit of humor, and the
beautiful Jill Ireland gives several dimensions to Vanessa.
Violent City features even more
great acting talent such as Michael Constantin (Cold Sweat, 1978’s The
Inglorious Bastards), Umberto Orsini (The
Damned), and Telly’s brother, George Savalas (The Slender Thread, Kelly’s Heroes).
Last, but not least, the engaging film, which
was shot in the United States and distributed (in Italy) by Universal Pictures,
benefits from a great musical score by the immortal Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Bird
with the Crystal Plumage, Once Upon a Time in America).
Although it’s not one of Bronson’s more
well-known titles, that shouldn’t stop you. I enjoyed Violent City very much. It’s an entertaining action-thriller with a
solid cast and an interesting story. I highly recommend checking it out.
Violent City has been released on
a Region 1 Blu-ray from the always reliable folks at Kino Lorber. The
wonderful-looking transfer is presented in the film’s original 2.35:1 aspect
ratio and the disc also contains a highly informative audio commentary by Paul
Talbot, author of the “Bronson’s Loose!” books; a terrific interview with director
Sergio Sollima and the original theatrical trailer. We are also treated to a
second disc which features Città violenta,
the Italian print of the film as well as the 1973 U.S. cut known as The Family. Lastly, both discs feature
exciting trailers to many different Bronson films.
(Forrest in "Apocalypse Now". Photo: Cinema Retro Archives.)
Actor Frederic Forrest has passed away at age 86. Forrest was a favorite character actor of director Francis Ford Coppola. He appeared in Coppola's "The Conversation", "Hammett", "One from the Heart" and "Tucker: The Man and His Dream". He also had a scene-stealing role as "Chef" in Coppola's 1979 masterpiece "Apocalypse Now" playing a reluctant soldier on a mission to find and assassinate Marlon Brando's mad Colonel Kurtz. Forrest rarely had leading roles but was widely respected in the industry. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his 1973 screen debut in "When the Legends Die" and was nominated for an Oscar for starring opposite Bette Midler in "The Rose". His other films include "The Two Jakes", "The Missouri Breaks" and "Falling Down". Upon hearing of his passing, Coppola said he found the news "heartbreaking". For more, click here.
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.
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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Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
“A terrific read that puts the Fabs’ films into an
insightful and fact-filled context with a fresh perspective on just how
important the movies were to their lasting legacy.” —Dennis Elsas, legendary
WNEW FM and WFUV New York disc jockey and co-host of Fab Fourum on Sirius XM
“With Act Naturally: The Beatles on Film, Steve Matteo
provides readers with the definitive, go-to book for understanding the group’s
cinematic forays. Chockful of new information, Act Naturally is rife with
stories about the Fabs’ filmic excursions and key aspects of their unparalleled
contribution to music and celebrity culture.” —Kenneth Womack, author of John
Lennon 1980 and Fandom and the Beatles
“Steve Matteo is the perfect companion and tour guide in
navigating the Beatles’ fascinating dalliance with film, from the British New
Wave of Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night to the atmospheric verité of
Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Let It Be. This is a most welcome—and long
overdue—exploration of an important but often overlooked facet of the Beatles’
saga.” —Mark Rozzo, author of Everybody Thought We Were Crazy and a founding
member of Bambi Kino
“Fans of the films of the Beatles have not been given a
book to revel in for many years. Steve Matteo has provided one: a deep-dive
look at the Beatles, their soundtrack music, and their films. The Beatles
remain the epitome of what a band can be. All-time greats. Matteo's history
swiftly and clearly follows their path, transporting the reader to swinging
’60s London and beyond. This book is every Beatles fan's ticket to ride.”
—Noah Charney, author of The Devil in the Gallery: How
Scandal, Shock, and Rivalry Shaped the Art World
“The Beatles are a gift that keeps on giving. Steve
Matteo’s book is a gift in itself. For those of us who will always love the
Beatles, Matteo’s book renews and expands this love of the songs and the four
guys we thought we knew.” —David Yaffe, author of Reckless Daughter: A Portrait
of Joni Mitchell
“Act Naturally is saturated with the author’s contagious
love for his subject. It’s a miraculous chronicle of how those precious films
came to be, their history from every imaginable angle, the characters—likely
and unlikely—who had a hand in the productions, and industry logistics. I am so
grateful to have been shuttled back to the 1960s, to swinging London, and to
the Beatles’ glorious films. I learned a lot, and anyone interested in films of
the ‘50s and ‘60s will get a huge charge out of this wonderful and meticulous
history.” —Maura Spiegel, author of Sidney Lumet: A Life and Professor of
English and Film at Columbia University
Backbeat Books is proud to announce the release of Act Naturally by Steve
Matteo. The five films the Beatles worked on during their time together (A Hard
Day’s Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine, Let It Be) all
represent key phases in the group’s career—some successful, some not. Subsequent
reissues of the films have provided a deeper understanding of the group with
the addition of bonus material, along with the recent release of Get Back on
DVD and Blu-ray. With Let It Be last available on VHS in 1981, the Get Back
series of Let It Be film footage by Peter Jackson, culled fifty-five hours of
raw footage, to piece together a companion documentary to the original Let It
Be film. The Beatles have never done anything like this before with any of
their films.
In this most up-to-date deep dive into the band's
cinematic output, author and longtime music journalist Steve Matteo follows the
fan frenzy around their films from the 1964 premiere of A Hard Day’s Night through
1970's Let It Be to the release of Get Back in late 2021. Their earlier films
parallel an unprecedented period in the artistic and commercial evolution of
British world cinema. Matteo explores the production process, original
theatrical film releases, subsequent VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray releases and bonus
material, along with the U.S. and U.K. soundtracks. The film legacy of the
Beatles is an exciting inside look at the group and their music-making process.
Steve Matteo is the author of the books Let It Be and Dylan
and contributed to the collection The Beatles in Context. He is a contributing
editor for The Vinyl District and has written for such publications as The New
York Times, The Los Angeles Times, New York magazine, Time Out New York, Rolling
Stone, Spin, Rock's Backpages, Elle, Interview, and Salon. He often appears on
radio in his capacity as a music journalist and author.
Since 1991, Backbeat Books have been favorites among passionate music fans and musicians.
Known for their depth, spirit, and authority, Backbeat offers a diverse range
of books - from biographies and memoirs, critical examinations and histories,
to authoritative volumes on musical instruments and instruction - covering all
areas of rock 'n' roll, jazz, and beyond.
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.
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.
These
days, filmmaker Joseph Losey doesn’t get the acclaim he deserves. An American
who showed great talent in Hollywood in the early 1940s and was well on his way
to a lucrative and respectable career, got sidelined by HUAC—the House
Un-American Activities Committee. Because Losey had ties with the early
Communist Party in the U.S., he, along with many, many other artists working in
Tinsel Town, was blacklisted. He fled his native country to the United Kingdom,
where he remained until his death. Losey made films in England and France, many
of which are admired films noir. In the 1960s and beyond he moved toward
making provocative art films, working with writers such as Harold Pinter and
generally pushing the envelope in the cinema.
The
Servant (1963)
is one of those art films that Losey made, and it was his first collaboration
with playwright Pinter (they did three pictures together). Based on a 1948
novella by Robin Maugham, The Servant is also one of Pinter’s first
attempts at screenwriting. Pinter had been enjoying some success in the theatre
since the late 1950s but was still not yet a fully established theatrical
superstar at that time (this would occur a couple of years later). His own
adaptation of his play, The Caretaker, was also made in 1963. Pinter
took Maugham’s novella and re-tooled it to emphasize the class warfare that is
going on in the subtext of the story, as well as adding what can only be
described as the Pinter’s Theatre of Menace—a sense of subtle, unnerving threat
that exists in most all of his work.
The
story is about a wealthy international real estate developer, Tony (James Fox,
in a debut role), a bachelor who hires a manservant, Hugo Barrett (Dirk
Bogarde). They get along splendidly at first, although Tony’s girlfriend, Susan
(Wendy Craig), senses something off about Barrett and wants Tony to get rid of
him. Tony refuses. Barrett one day convinces Tony to hire his sister, Vera
(Sarah Miles), to be a maid. Vera seduces Tony one night when Barrett is away.
But then one day Tony and Susan come home to the flat and find Vera and Barrett
in bed together. Turns out they’re not brother and sister at all. And then the
tale takes a sharp left turn into nightmare territory as relationships change
and power dynamics are reversed. To reveal more would spoil the creepiness of
what happens next.
The
Servant is
a powerful, disturbing film. The crowning touch is the superb, unsettling
performance by Bogarde, who won the BAFTA award that year for Best Actor (the
film was nominated for Best Picture). The movie was ignored by the Oscars, but
Pinter did win the award for Best Screenplay by the New York Film Critics
Circle. Today, the movie resides at #22 on the BFI Top 100 British Films of the
20th Century list.
Losey’s
perceptive direction masterfully uses mise-en-scène in a carefully
staged sense of place that is claustrophobic and austere. He treats the
theatre-of-the-absurd goings-on with absolute sincerity and realism… a perfect
approach to Pinter’s exceptional dialogue and the mood established by the piece.
The
Servant is
very much an adult film, something that couldn’t have been made in America in
1963, and it’s a bit surprising that Britain’s censors weren’t all over it. But,
then again, everything lies in the subtext. What you don’t see on screen can’t
be censored, can it? The film is a brilliant display of shocking subject matter
done in an ordinary, matter-of-fact presentation.
The
Criterion Collection’s new Blu-ray release features a new 4K digital
restoration with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack. It shows off the striking
black and white cinematography by Douglas Slocombe, a longtime British DP who later
won three Academy Awards (including one for Raiders of the Lost Ark).
Supplements
include a new, interesting overview of Joseph Losey’s career by film critic
Imogen Sara Smith; a rare audio interview with Losey from 1976; a revealing
1996 interview with Harold Pinter; vintage interviews with actors Dirk Bogarde,
Sarah Miles, James Fox, and Wendy Craig; and the theatrical trailer. The
enclosed booklet contains an essay by author Colm Tóibín.
The Servant is for fans of Joseph Losey, Harold Pinter, and, especially,
Dirk Bogarde, who owns this motion picture. His portrayal of Hugo
Barrett surely upends the old adage that ‘you can’t get good help these days.’
Cinema Retro has received the following notification from Bondstars.com:
In this 70th year of the literary James Bond,
we are celebrating the written legacy of all things 007 at Pinewood Studios
with a very special event on October 29th in association with Ian Fleming
Publications.
The day will kick-off with morning coffee in
the John Barry Theatre and terrace – which faces the new ‘Sean Connery Stage’ –
followed by the first ever UK cinema screening of the original 1954 version of
Casino Royale, plus an exclusive and never-before-seen filmed interview with
Jimmy Bond himself, actor Barry Nelson discussing the production.
We’ll continue in the theatre …
With readings of extracts from books by Bond
actors throughout, as we introduce: Jon Turner to discuss his mentor Richard
Chopping’s designs for Fleming’s James Bond books and archive (which he
curates) as well as Ian Fleming biographer Andrew Lycett will discussing all
things Ian Fleming.
David Lowbridge-Ellis will then host
interviews and discussions with continuity authors Raymond Benson, Charlie
Higson, 00-series author Kim Sherwood, Young Bond author Steve Cole and
(pending filming commitments) Anthony Horowitz.
Lunch will follow and then we’ll move into
the Pinewood Picture Gallery for book signings, mingling, informal chat, some
memorabilia tables and a talk about Pinewood filming locations by author Dave
Worrall on the garden patio, before afternoon tea brings the day to a close.
There’ll also be a 24- page exclusive
commemorative souvenir brochure included.
The cost per ticket will be around £175.00 (excluding
a non-refundable booking fee if you pay by debit \ credit card).
Glenda Jackson, the esteemed British actress who later launched a successful political career, has passed away at age 87 at her home in London. Jackson rose from working in live theater to making her mark in British films in the 1960s and 1970s. She won two Best Actress Oscars over the course of three years for "Women in Love" and "A Touch of Class". In the interim, she was also nominated for "Sunday, Bloody Sunday". She later won praise for her work in television, most notably in the acclaimed productions of "The Patricia Neal Story" and "Elizabeth R." Jackson later left acting to concentrate on a career in politics, becoming an MP under Tony Blair's New Labour movement in the late 1990s, though she would later have a public falling out with Blair over his support for the U.S.-led war against Iraq. After leaving politics in 2015, she resumed her acting career. She had recently completed a film with Michael Caine. For more, click here. -Lee Pfeiffer
The fifteenth annual New York City Independent Film
Festival was held during the week of June 4 through 11 at Manhattan’s
Producer’s Club on West 44th Street, a few blocks west of Times
Square.The week-long festival would
host the screenings of over two hundred indie films. Co-Directors John Anderson and Bob Sarles' absorbing and
authoritatively assembled music doc Born
in Chicago, screened on the festival’s final day, doesn’t pretend to serve
as the definitive nor most academically-minded treatise on the history of blues
music in America.Such studies as the seven-episode
PBS series The Blues (2003) had
already touched lightly on many aspects of multi-layered history of the blues
in America.This film’s primary interest
lies elsewhere.
The state of Mississippi, the birthplace of the blues and
home of some of the music’s greatest practitioners is, of course, referenced
early on in Born in Chicago.But the fertile musical and agricultural area
surrounding the Mississippi Delta region serves merely as the pregnant preface of
what’s to come.There’s no mention that
I can recall of the high-end music of band leader W.C. Handy, the
self-proclaimed “Father of the Blues,” or of Ma Rainy, “Mother of the Blues” or
even of such a master figure as songster Charley Patton, the acknowledged progenitor
of the rough and tumble country blues.
Alan Lomax’s 1941-1942 Library of Congress recordings of one
McKinley Morganfield (soon to be rechristened as “Muddy Waters”) down on
Stovall’s Plantation near Clarksdale, MS is briefly referenced in Born in Chicago, but only in
passing.The film recalls Waters as merely
one of the many immigrant blues singers who, among non-musical travelers and those
feeling racism and economic hardship, would abandon Mississippi - and neighboring
states - to seek employment in Chicago’s burgeoning meat-packing and steel industries.
The blues singers arriving in the Windy City would often perform
for pocket change on Chicago’s fabled Maxwell Street, and there’s a bit of
historic film footage included in the film to document it.But ultimately Born in Chicago assumes that a knowledgeable blues aficionado is already
conversant with the complex reasons that Chicago would birth the raw and
immeasurably emotive electric blues.Born in Chicago soon time-jumps from a
basic introductory primer to a particular moment in history – a period roughly
encompassing 1964 through 1970 - when public interest in the blues music would peculiarly
shift along color lines.
Though the blues was created by black artists for a
primarily black audience, by the mid-1960s it was lovingly embraced by a cabal
of young, white and often gifted musicians. In some sense these mostly suburban
youngsters were oddballs.Not only were
they complete outsiders to African-American life and musical culture, but estranged
from even their own middle-class heritages.The best of them were determined to apprentice with the real-deal blues masters
whose recordings they had painstakingly studied and cherished.
Such Chicago blues artists as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf
(aka Chester Burnett), and Little Walter Jacobs were at their musical – if not money-earning
career peaks – in the 1950s.Though
Chicago boasted any number of record labels pressing 78 rpm discs of the talent
grinding their music out almost nightly in such saloons as Pepper’s Lounge, Silvio’s,
Smitty’s Corner, Big John’s, the Blue Flame Lounge, and Frost’s Corner, it was
Chess Records that emerged the most important and iconic.Though label co-founder Leonard Chess appears
in an archive footage interview alongside his son Marshall, Born in Chicago wisely chooses not to revisit
the company’s backstory.That’s a tale
already told in several docs as well as in Darnell Martin’s ill-disguised
Chess-mirror fiction-feature Cadillac
Records (2008).
There’s lots of archival footage threaded throughout Born in Chicago.Some of the film’s moodiest and most intimate
saloon environ images come courtesy of several reels of silent B-roll 8mm color
footage shot by drummer Sam Lay and his wife.Lay is an important figure here due to his key role in the blues tradition’s
transition: he not only worked the South Side taverns with nearly all the blues
giants but was also a founding member (along with bassist Jerome Arnold) in the
inter-racial Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
Though not a concert film by any means – all performances
featured in Born in Chicago are
offered in truncated form - there are extended clips of Muddy Waters and Howlin’
Wolf to offer insight into the power of their stage presence and hypnotic
powers.This inclusion is not
unreasonable as the two singers were the figurehead totems of the Chicago blues
scene of the 1950s.Muddy and Wolf were
also among the most generous and least suspicious of interlopers. They were
appreciative of the enthusiasm and interest of these young, white blues
revivalists and allowed them to share the stage and showcase their talents.
Of course, Muddy and Wolf didn’t singularly or together
create the Chicago blues scene.During
the course of Born in Chicago we’re briefly
introduced to a number of the first and second wave Chicago’s bluesmen, as well
as the iconic sidemen who helped create the sound: Otis Spann, Yank Rachel,
Robert Lockwood, Willie Dixon, Junior Wells, Sonny Boy Williamson, Otis Rush,
Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Magic Sam, Walter and Big Walter “Shakey” Horton all pass
through the film in either image or musical snippet, all honorably referenced as
“engines” of the scene.
Though the blues was derived partly from African musical traditions,
the blues as the world knows it today was birthed in the area of the
Mississippi Delta.Chicago blues was, at
the very beginning anyway, mostly an electric, highly amplified extension of
that earlier homegrown music, improvised out-of-necessity to cut through the
din of celebratory patrons gathered inside cramped and sweaty neighborhood
taverns.
The 1950s was the decade Chicago’s blues scene was at its
creative peak.The musicians who arrived
in Chicago during the great migration from the southern U.S. quickly bonded to
a natural audience.They were warmly
embraced by audiences that were once – and now again - neighbors.The musicians and their fans shared similar customs,
life experiences and musical interests, and such familiarity allowed Chicago’s
blues scene to thrive during the 1950s.
But by the early 1960s, the musical tastes of black
audiences began to shift, particularly among younger listeners.This group held no bonding memories or immediate
connections to blues or rustic southern musical culture.The rhythm-and-blues and soul of Sam Cooke,
Jackie Wilson, and James Brown was in emergence and such artists were now the most
favored of black audiences.It wasn’t
long until the Motown and Stax labels would supplant Chess as the recording
mecca for black artists.
But just as black interest in blues was seemingly on the wane,
there was a sudden curious interest in the art by young, rebellious and hip
Midwestern middle-class whites.Their
passion for the music was often ignited by their discovery of late-night
broadcasts of blues and old-school R&B found on the far ends of their radio
dials.Many of these disciples – which would
include such 1960’s blues and rock luminaries as Barry Goldberg, Michael Bloomfield,
Nick Gravenites, Paul Butterfield, Corky Siegel, Harvey Mandel, Charlie Musselwhite,
Elvin Bishop, Steve Miller and Bob Dylan – are all featured in Born in Chicago.It could be argued they were actually re-born in Chicago.
In any case, this is the time period under analysis in Born in Chicago.Liberal and open-minded students attending (or
merely hanging on the fringes) of the University of Chicago – the campus itself
nestled within the city’s Southside – played a role in the blossoming blues
revival.Through the interventions of on-campus
folk music clubs Chicago U. would stage not only small folk-music gatherings
but several important folk music festivals – several showcasing such blues artists
as Willie Dixon, Memphis Slim, Big Joe Williams and blind street singer Arvella
Gray. This new interest in folk-blues
music brought many students and scene hanger-on’s to Chicago’s pawn shops in
search of guitars and friends and subsequent musical fellow travelers.
The most dedicated – and talented of these musicians –
would reverse “integrate” these black-only Southside blues taverns - often under
the suspicious and unwelcome gaze of black patrons in attendance.But both Muddy and Wolf and their respective
band members would embrace such musicians as guitarist Michael Bloomfield and blues
harpist Paul Butterfield et.al. once they realized these searching white
youngsters – many demonstrating superlative musical talent – were looking to absorb,
as best they could, the essence and emotional comport of the blues.
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.
Actor Treat Williams, the ruggedly handsome star of feature films and television, has died from injuries incurred in an accident while he was riding a motorcycle. The incident, which is still under investigation, occurred in rural Vermont, where Williams had resided in recent years. An SUV had apparently crossed the road in front of Williams, who was unable to avoid a collision. Williams was 71 years-old. He had gained prominence in the film industry in the late 1970s by scoring the leading role in director Milos Forman's 1979 screen adaptation of the Broadway sensation "Hair". In 1981, he won praise for his starring role in Sidney Lumet's true-life crime film "Prince of the City". Other major films included "Deep Rising", "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead" and "Hollywood Ending". He later starred in the hit TV series "Everwood". For more, click here.
