BY LEE PFEIFFER

Charles Grodin,  the actor and prolific writer who made droll comedy his trademark, has died at age 86. His first big break on the silver screen came with a dramatic role in Roman Polanski's 1968 classic "Rosemary's Baby", after Grodin failed to land the lead in "The Graduate". He shot to stardom in 1972 with his leading role in the comedy "The Heartbreak Kid" and from then on he became known for often playing charismatic cads. He also scored with memorable roles in the 1978 remake of  "Heaven Can Wait" and opposite Robert De Niro in the 1988 crime comedy "Midnight Run". He also played the harried father in the "Beethoven" family comedies. One of his most impressive late career roles was in the little-seen and critically disparaged "An Imperfect Murder" in which he excelled in a brief appearance as a man trying to cope with the onset of dementia. Click here for more about his life and career.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

As I've written in previous reviews, comedy is the most subjective type of movie genre. Two people view the same film and one finds it hilarious while the other sits stone-faced. Which brings us to the segment above from director Joe Dante's addictive "Trailers from Hell" web site. Here, filmmaker Larry Karaszewski weighs in on director Blake Edwards' 1966 madcap WWII comedy "What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?". Karaszewski finds the movie amusing enough to recommend, while I sat with the aforementioned stone face through most of it. Edwards was a highly successful writer/producer/director and was also capable of making memorable dramatic movies such as "Days of Wine and Roses" and "Experiment in Terror". His direction of "Breakfast at Tiffanys" ensured it would become a timeless classic and his collaborations with Peter Sellers on the Pink Panther films became the stuff of Hollywood legend. Yet, I've found that while I still find some laughs and value in most of Edwards' comedies, with the exception of "Tiffanys'", "The Pink Panther" and "A Shot in the Dark", many of his movies seemed far funnier back in the day than they do now. I had never seen "What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?" and looked forward to finally catching it as a streaming title on Amazon. It seemed to be a "can't miss" type of scenario: Edwards at the peak of his powers aided by an impressive cast headed by James Coburn (finally a leading man following recent success of "Our Man Flint"), Dick Shawn and some top-rung second bananas: Harry Morgan, Carroll O'Connor, Aldo Ray, Vito Scotti and Leon Askin. Additionally, he had the services of screenwriter William Peter Blatty, who had written the script for "A Shot in the Dark" a decade before he became a sensation with the publication of his novel "The Exorcist". Add to the mix a score by Edwards' frequent collaborator, the great Henry Mancini. It all looked promising but the end result fizzles in nearly every aspect.

The film opens with a traditional battle scene of American troops invading Sicily in 1943. General Bolt (Carroll O'Connor playing the type of commanding officer role he would recreate over the next couple of years in "The Devil's Brigade" and "Kelly's Heroes") informs his straight-laced humorless aide Captain Lionel Cash (Dick Shawn) that he needs to loosen up and get some battlefield experience and assigns him to lead a company of men to seize a German controlled local village that is deemed important to the U.S. advance. Cash has zero people skills and goes strictly by the book. He's shocked to find he's inherited a company of misfits and party animals who are temporarily under the command of Lt. Christian (James Coburn), who only encourages his men's undisciplined behavior.  When Cash and the troops arrive at the village, they are shocked to find the Germans have abandoned it and their Italian allies are all too willing to surrender immediately as long as Cash agrees to allow them to hold their sacred annual wine festival. Cash concedes to avoid bloodshed and a wild, drunken evening ensues. The men enjoy their time in the village, making use of the wine and prostitutes. They also have a charismatic anti-Nazi Italian officer to interpret for them, Capt. Oppo (Sergio Fantoni), who also eschews military discipline in favor of the good life. Things are going swimmingly until General Bolt asks how the advance is going. Cash and Christian try to cover up their escapades by telling him they have encountered strong resistance and a battle for control of the town is raging. They reinforce this by filming phony battles scenes and sending them to HQ. Bolt is impressed and sets off with reinforcements, unbeknownst to Christian and  Cash, who is quickly adopting the slovenly habits of his men.

BY FRED BLOSSER

“Hercules and the Captive Women” (1963), a sword-and-toga epic directed by Vittorio Cottafavi, has been released in a Blu-ray special edition by The Film Detective. In the movie, a strange and seemingly supernatural force from across the sea threatens ancient Greece. Troubled, the rival kings of the Greek city-states gather to confront the problem. They do so in the same way that our modern leaders take the stage to debate COVID relief, climate change, gun violence, and other crises. They posture, jeer at each other, and dither. It’s left to King Androcles of Thebes to set sail and figure out what’s going on. He seeks the help of his friend Hercules (Reg Park), but the fabled strongman has promised his wife that he’ll stay home and give up adventuring. Androcles can’t even get the backing of his own advisors -- “the soothsayers, the senators, the commanders of the army” -- so he’s left with a second-string crew of debtors and jailbirds. Fortunately for the success of his mission, Hercules comes along after all, although not of his own choosing. With the help of Hercules‘ son, Illos, the king has drugged and shanghaied his friend. Not that the jovial Hercules seems to mind when he wakes up after the ship is well out to sea. The decision was out of his hands, and his friend needs his support. Anyway, gorgeous wife back home or not, the legendary hero seems happy to get out of the house.

Presently, it’s revealed that the aggressor behind the weird phenomena is Antinea (Fay Spain), the ruthless queen of Atlantis, who schemes to conquer the world. First, she needs to find the right consort and grow her army of invincible warriors to large enough numbers. Androcles fails her test for a suitably pitiless mate. He becomes an amnesiac phantom who wanders her palace with a blank stare. She next approaches Hercules, but the strongman is already committed to his wife, and besides, he wants nothing to do with her scheme. Elsewhere on the island, having rescued Antinea’s teenaged daughter Ismene from sacrifice, Illos discovers a quarry where scores of starved and disfigured men are imprisoned. Meanwhile, Hercules learns that Atlantis harbors a stone with infernal properties. The stone formed from a drop of blood shed by the god Uranus. Young boys are confiscated from their families by Antinea and exposed to the stone’s power. Those who succumb to the radiation become supermen who join the expanding ranks of the queen’s army. Those who resist it become miserable scarecrows and are thrown into the pit with their predecessors. It’s up to Hercules in the usual formula of such movies, from Steve Reeves’ “Hercules” in 1959 to Dwayne Johnson’s incarnation in 2014, to administer justice and thwart Antinea’s tyrannical plot.

“Hercules and the Captive Women” debuted in Italy in 1961 as “Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide,” at the height of the sword-and-sandal or “peplum” genre. Released in the U.K. as “Hercules Conquers Atlantis,” it impressed British critic Ian Cameron with the “strength and economy” of Cottafavi’s direction. By the time it reached the U.S. in 1963 -- edited, dubbed, minus six minutes of footage, and retitled by two B-movie entrepreneurs, Bernard and Lawrence Woolner -- toga epics were already on the wane. I remember seeing the movie ad in the local newspaper in July 1963. I was interested, as what thirteen-year-old wouldn’t be? The ad showed a scantily clad blonde cowering between a guy’s bare legs. She seems to be staring up under the bottom of his tunic. A chalice dangles and drips suggestively from one of the guy’s hands. “Could she subdue this GIANT OF A MAN with her SORCERY?’ the ad teased. I had other (if not necessarily better) things to do that summer, so I never made it to the movie theater. If I had, I probably would have been duly entertained, notwithstanding that the ad art was something of a bait-and-switch tactic. There isn’t anything in the story that wouldn’t be PG-rated today, nor any “captive women” aside from the winsome Ismene. Still, I would have been entertained by the fantasy elements of the story, including Hercules’ fight with a shape-shifting god, Proteus, who looks like an elderly man one minute, and then a lion, a vulture, a flame, and a horned monster the next. As a kid, I had been disappointed that some of the Italian-made Hercules, Goliath, and Samson sagas turned out to be quasi-historical movies with no supernatural content, so I would have welcomed the comic-book vibe of “Hercules and the Captive Women.” I wasn’t familiar with Reg Park, who had been Mr. Universe in 1951 and 1959, and later would become Arnold Schwarzenegger’s friend and mentor in competitive bodybuilding, but I did know the gorgeous Fay Spain. Fay guest-starred in nearly every Western and Private Eye TV show in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, sometimes playing a good girl, sometimes a bad one. As in “Hercules and the Captive Women,” she was memorably sultry in bad-girl roles. I definitely would not have name-checked Gian Maria Volantè, nor probably would have any other casual filmgoer in 1963. As the king of Sparta in the scene where the monarchs assemble to argue the Atlantis problem, he has seventeenth billing in the cast list. He swaggers and sneers through his two minutes of screen time as flamboyantly as Sir Laurence Olivier playing royalty from Shakespeare. Maybe the classically trained Italian actor was hoping the role, even if a minor one, would be a step up to bigger things. But his breakout part, as the central villain in “A Fistful of Dollars,” was still three years away.

The Film Detective’s Blu-ray special edition offers “Hercules and the Captive Women” in the sort of dressed-to-the-nines package usually reserved for more prestigious films. The print is a 4K restoration from the original 35mm negative. If not as sharp as a transfer from today’s digital prints of FX spectacles like “Wonder Woman 1984,” it’s nevertheless a vast improvement over the way the film used to show up dismally on TV and VHS. The always-informative Tim Lucas provides audio commentary, and a new mini-documentary, “Hercules and the Conquest of Cinema,” nicely summarizes the history of the peplum genre. There’s also an illustrated booklet by C. Courtney Joyner, and, almost like the second feature on a double-bill, the complete episode of “Mystery Science Theater 3000” from 1992 that made fun of the movie. Predictably, Tom Servo, Gypsy, and Crow are ready with a joke whenever Hercules and Antinea mention “Uranus.” At least “Uranus” is always good for a laugh. After thirty years, the other wisecracks involving “Bonanza,” Bob Dylan, “A Chorus Line,” and other pop-culture relics will be as inscrutable to younger viewers as the ancient inscriptions on the Parthenon.

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

In 1966, with Batmania sweeping the world, everyone was trying to get a piece of the action. Columbia Pictures came up with a novel idea. The studio rereleased the 1943 Batman and Robin serials collectively under the title An Evening with Batman and Robin. Naturally, this was more than twenty years before Adam West and Burt Ward slid down the Batpoles for the first time. The gimmick turned a tidy profit, though some of the more naive fans may have been stunned to see the Dynamic Duo in black and white and attired in costumes that looked like they came in last place in the local school Halloween contest. This rare trade ad extols the regional grosses the film event was scoring across America. Did you know that Lewis Wilson, who played Batman in these serials, was the father of James Bond producer Michael G. Wilson?

BY JOHN M. WHALEN 

“Springtime in the Sierras” (1947) is one of Roy Rogers’ better movies. There are three or four great action scenes, half a dozen songs, a solid cast, including the most cold-blooded villainesses to ever show up at a Saturday matinee, and a worthy theme dealing with wildlife protection. Republic Pictures must have splurged on the budget for this one too, just for wardrobe alone. By my count Roy wore a dozen of those colorful western shirts that John McClain said he was so partial to. It’s a very cool movie but it’s a pity that most people have only seen a version of it that has 20 minutes of footage missing. A quarter of the original 75 minute version ended up on the cutting room floor back in the 1950s, when it, along with many other of Rogers’ movies, were sold to television and had to be edited to fit into a one-hour TV broadcast. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there is a full-length version available. It’s not perfect but better than the alternative. We’ll get into the details later.

“Springtime in the Sierras” starts with Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers delivering a herd of horses to Jean Loring (Stephanie Bachelor) the new owner of the Lazy W ranch in the Sierra Nevada country where Roy grew up. Things seem normal at first except for an abandoned fawn that Roy finds wondering in the forest. He takes the fawn to an animal sanctuary run by his old friend, game warden Cap Foster (Harry Cheshire), where he finds the fawn’s mother dying of a gunshot wound. Foster tells him a lot of animals are being killed out of season by a gang of professional hunters who sell the illegal meat at a high profit to big city restaurants and private clubs.

Roy leaves the game warden, who puts Bambi’s mother out of her misery, and goes into town where he meets with old friends, brother and sister Bert (Harold Landon) and Taffy Baker (Jane Frazee). Taffy is gaga over Roy and while Bert seems to be glad to see Roy, there’s a dark cloud of some kind hanging over him. The next day Roy spots a hunter with a high-powered rifle and chases him through the woods. The hunter manages to get away, but Roy suspects, much to his dismay, that it was Bert. A little later, Cap Foster comes upon the gang of hunters, which, as it turns out, includes Bert, and attempts to place them under arrest. Jean Loring, with her vicious sidekick Matt Wilkes (Roy Barcroft), comes up behind Foster and take his gun. Bert is horrified when Jean aims Cap’s pistol at the game warden, saying very casually, “This might hurt a little,” and cold-bloodedly shoots him. For a movie filled with cuddly animals, and cowboy serenades, this, nonchalant burst of brutality comes as a shock. It certainly unnerves Bert, who decides he no longer wants any part of the hunting racket.

Let’s stop the action here and discuss this unusual twist in the screenplay by A. Sloan Nibley, who wrote this and several of Roy’s other flicks. Normally a writer would have had Roy Barcroft, as Jean Loring’s henchman, do the killing. But Nibley and director William Witney give the story a decidedly dark turn by having the femme fatale shoot him herself. And from that point on the story takes a decidedly weird direction, especially when Cookie Bullfincher (Andy Devine), the local photographer, tells Roy that shortly after Loring bought the ranch she had a bunch of refrigeration equipment brought in. Dum-de-dum-dum. Of course I don’t have to tell you that the freezers are used to store the illegal meat and that it won’t be too long before Roy and Bert both end up hogtied and left to turn into popsicles in one of the freezers.

While Roy and Bert freeze, Jean is all smiles hosting a big party for everyone, as a farewell tribute to the late Cap Foster no less. She was a cold one. Obviously Roy isn’t going to freeze to death, and I don’t want to give away the ending, but I will say it involves the use of a large white truck. That’s right a truck. And that’s exactly what makes Roy Rogers’ movies so unique. Up until that scene, which is near the end of the movie, we’ve seen every one riding on horseback, dressed in cowboy outfits in scenes that could have taken place in the 1880s. But now all of a sudden there’s a big 1947 Ford Box Truck in the movie and you know what? We really don’t even notice the incongruity. We’re not jolted by it because Roy Rogers’ movies take place in a world of their own. In a Roy Rogers movie, the horses and stagecoaches of the Old West exist in the same world as modern day airplanes, cars, radios and movies.

Quentin Tarantino, who is a big William Witney and Roy Rogers fan, in an interview once said Sergio Leone’s “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” tops his Top Ten List of great movies, because Leone creates his own world in his films. He said Leone is a combination of “a complete film stylist, where he creates his own world, and storyteller.” The same thing is true in a good Roy Rogers film, especially those directed by Witney. They exist in Roy Rogers’ special world, and it’s a damn cool world.

While the most often seen version of “Springtime in the Sierras” is the 55-minute one, back in 2012 Film Chest released a DVD that it billed as a “restored” version “in its original Trucolor.” At the current time, it’s the only full-length version available, but if you’re expecting to see a Blu-ray quality picture in vivid color and detail, you’ll be disappointed. There’s been no attempt to clean up the DVD, and the result is something about as good as a decent VHS tape. It’s a far cry from Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray restoration of “Sunset in the West,” which has brilliant color and sharp picture detail. What has been “restored” in “Springtime in the Sierras,” apparently, is the film’s original 75-minute length. The DVD has gone out of print but is still available through Amazon and other outlets, and until someone like Kino Lorber, decides to restore it on Blu-Ray, it’s the best version available.

There’s another feature that makes this DVD even more worth checking out. As a bonus feature, there’s a copy of a 1961 Chevy Show, an Easter special starring Roy and Dale Evans, with special guests that include Charley Weaver and a rare live appearance by Martin Milner and George Maharis, the two dudes from the “Route 66” TV series. They actually do a live Chevy commercial—something they never did on “Route 66,” even though Chevrolet sponsored the adventures of the two guys in the Corvette. Maharis, who was trying to launch a singing career at the time, gets to sing “Free and Easy.” It’s a real curiosity. Does anybody do Easter specials anymore?

So there it is—the good the bad and the ugly of “Springtime in the Sierras.” All in all, it’s a DVD worth owning until a truly “restored” version becomes available. Happy Trails.

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(John M. Whalen is the author of "Vampire Siege at Rio Muerto". Click here to order from Amazon.)

“SKIP THE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND GET RIGHT TO THE SEX”

By Raymond Benson

Kino Lorber and Something Weird Video continue their collaboration to present “Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture” with Volume 10—Wages of Sin. Unlike the other exploitation titles that have appeared over the last two years, Wages is not an American picture; instead, it comes from Switzerland and was originally released as a serious drama examining the social problem of illegal abortions and the need to educate the public in birth control, as well as make a case for the legalization of a woman’s right to choose. The original German title translates to, roughly, The Doctor Says… or The Doctor Speaks Out…

However, American producer/director/actor Donn Davison, who at the time was a practitioner in the grindhouse and exploitation film circuit, secured the U.S. rights to the film and released it in 1966 with the salacious title of Wages of Sin. The movie was dubbed into English—although the dubbing actors speak with German accents, so go figure. Davison would appear in a “professional” capacity as a doctor (it is unclear if he really had any medical credentials) to provide a short lecture to the audience and hawk “how-to” sex manuals during intermission. Davison filmed his 15-minute presentation to show at drive-in theaters, where obviously he couldn’t speak in person. (This filmed lecture is included as a supplement on the new Kino Lorber/Something Weird disk, and it is hilarious. He tells us that we “may have seen him on Johnny Carson talking about juvenile delinquency and sexual matters… but tonight he’s going to skip the juvenile delinquency and get right to the sex.”)

These delicious and suitably sleazy pictures in the “Forbidden Fruit” series were made cheaply and outside the Hollywood system, and certainly in this case outside of the U.S. They were distributed independently in the manner of a circus sideshow, often by renting a movie theater for a few nights, advertising in the local papers, and promoting the scandalous title as “educational.” For adults only, mind you, but exhibited all in the good name of science or health or whatever.

Wages of Sin is such a serious and sincere take on the subject matter that it is mind-boggling to think that anyone would be titillated by it. One can imagine trench coat wearing patrons complaining to the theater management afterwards and asking for their money back, because there is absolutely no nudity or sex in the film. Instead, there is real, clinical footage of childbirth, frank talk about birth control, and dramatized depictions of back-alley abortions.

The story concerns well-meaning Dr. Maurer (Tadeusz Lomnicki) and his superior Dr. Diener (René Deltgen) as they deal with several female patients for various maladies regarding pregnancy, botched abortions, and childbirth. Some of the women’s stories end happily, but others are not so fortunate. Maurer is determined to get the illegal abortionists behind bars but also stop the insane law that criminalizes the women who receive the procedure. In short, the film, while melodramatic and a bit stodgy, has an important message that is still relevant today.

And yet, in the U.S., the picture was promoted with sensational taglines such as, “Shocking! Beyond Description!” and “No one under 16 admitted without parents!” Shocking indeed.

At most exhibitions of Wages of Sin, a second feature, The Misery and Fortune of Women (aka Frauennot, Frauenglück) was shown. This picture, from 1929, is also a Swiss production of the same ilk—a serious drama about pregnancy, illegal abortions, and childbirth—that was just as potent in its original year of release as today. In fact, it might be the better movie in the “package.” It was directed by Eduard Tissé, but the picture was “supervised” and co-edited by none other than Sergei Eisenstein (of Battleship Potemkin fame)! One can see Eisenstein’s influence, especially in the close-ups of faces.

The new Kino Lorber Blu-ray presents both features in high-def restorations and they both look remarkably good. Wages of Sin comes with an informative audio commentary by film historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, who brings a welcome feminine point of view to the proceedings. Supplements include the previously mentioned Donn Davison “lecture” and two shorts that were sometimes also exhibited with the two main features—Life and Its Secrecies (with clinical footage of various types of childbirth), and Triplets by Cesarean Section (a silent film of the real delivery of triplets). Both the latter short films suffer from poor visual quality, but it doesn’t make them less icky. Trailers from other Forbidden Fruit titles round out the package.

For fans of exploitation pictures, or for those interested in how the subject matter was handled both in 1966 and 1929, the Wages of Sin disk is for you!

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BY TODD GARBARINI

I love home video. It has introduced me to the films that have been held near and dear to me in a far more intimate way than broadcast television ever could. The first home video system that I ever owned was the RCA SelectaVision Capacitance Electronic Disc system, a $500M failure that nearly bankrupted its creator, RCA, just five years after its inauspicious introduction in March 1981, Following 17 years of research and development hell, it proved to be a technological also-ran even before it left the gate. Star Wars (1977) and Poltergeist (1982) were the first two films that I owned on a caddie-enclosed 12-inch capacitive disc that were played over and over again during the spring and summer of 1983. These were not just movies that I saw, these were movies that I owned. They were mine and they became a part of my identity.

I came of age during the video store rental era. I broke my VHS rental cherry by illegally duplicating the only store copy of Media Home Entertainment’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) on Independence Day in 1985 from a local drug store’s video department. I did this even before I owned a VCR and before the anti-copying encoding scheme called Macrovision infiltrated pre-recorded tapes, forcing me to finagle work-arounds. Like so many towns in the surrounding areas, video stores proliferated with their original scent resulting from a mixture of the new carpet and the video boxes that adorned the aisles and shelves. Despite the eclectic assortment of titles, each store was severely limited in terms of the sheer number of VHS titles that they carried. One store actually rented Beta cassettes!

In December 1988, a new and exceptionally large video store with blue and yellow lettering appeared three miles from my house. It was called Blockbuster Video and it offered movies I never knew even made it to home video. I managed to see Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960), Brian DePalma’s Sisters (1973), Ulu Grosbard’s Straight Time (1978), and James Toback’s Fingers (1978) all from this one store. I was in heaven! The glaring absence of adult titles was curious since all the local stores had them, even the corporate chains like Palmer Video and later on Easy Video. Porn was most definitely a lucrative part of a store’s weekend intake, but the religious-owned Blockbuster spurned such fare in favor of unrated violent gorefests like Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985) and Bad Taste (1986). Little by little, however, Blockbusters started to show up in neighboring towns sporting multiple key differentiators: having upwards of 25 VHS copies of the newest releases on hand whereas local stores generally only had one copy in stock; allowing renters to keep movies for three days and two nights as opposed to two days and one night; and allowing renters to return the tape to a store after hours through a drop box.

Once VHS was supplanted by DVD as the primary method of home video viewing, Blockbuster was forced to change as well and after having pushed out many of the local rental shops into bankruptcy, Blockbuster found itself up against Netflix, a company that Blockbuster was offered to purchase for $50M - but simply did not have the capital to do so. It is this event (misunderstood by lay people as Blockbuster simply not wanting to buy Netflix), coupled with poor management and the elimination of late fees, that sounded the death knell for the ubiquitous company that at one time had over 9,000 locations. The Last Blockbuster, a 2020 documentary produced by Netflix ironically enough (ouch!), directed by Taylor Morden and narrated by Lauren Lapkus, attempts to both chronicle the rise and fall of one of the most well-known companies in the United States and answer the questions as to why the company ultimately failed. The film succeeds for the most part, but my favorite sections of the film are people reminiscing about renting tangible cassettes and DVDs.

The title itself refers to the last single remaining Blockbuster Video located at 211 NE Revere Avenue in the town of Bend, Oregon, about three-and-a-half hours southeast of Portland. It is still a functioning video rental store, run by the Harding Family. It began life in 1992 by Ken and Debbie Tisher who opened it as Pacific Video until it was franchised and rebranded Blockbuster Video in eight years later. Today, the store finds itself in the same dilemma that it put so many local stores into decades ago – either soldier on or fold. Sandi Harding has worked for the company for over 15 years and pretty much takes care of the entire store. The film depicts her coming in early, checking back in the titles left in the drop box, and disclosing what it takes to keep a store like this in business. She keeps a collection of old computers salvaged from long shuttered Blockbusters in an attempt to keep the database and methods of renting titles up-to-date and running.

The film is not focused on just this last remaining store but rather bemoans the lost art of getting in one’s car and going to the video store to peruse the aisles and pick out something to watch on the weekend. Hanging out with the person behind the checkout counter on slow evenings to talk about movies is another casualty in the time of the Internet and movies at our fingertips. Among the other personalities interviewed in the film are Kevin Smith, Ione Skye, Brian Posehn, Doug Benson, Paul Scheer, and Samm Levine.

As with any disruptive technology, the previous methods of watching movies are invariably swept away and forgotten by the masses. However there is always a small and significant percentage of people who recall with fondness the halcyon days of renting movies from a store. Watching The Last Blockbuster, it becomes clear that video stores were my generation’s equivalent of a drive-in.

Passion River's DVD/Blu-ray package of the film contains an assortment of extras:

The film’s original trailer.

Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee – This is a four-and-a-half-minute piece about a video store that opened in Los Angeles in December 1968 as a thrift store and over the next few decades amassed an enormous collection of tapes and discs. COVID-19 forced this store to temporarily close in May 2020 as they were looking for a new venue.

More with Kevin Smith – Director Kevin Smith is the most fun to listen to, as he really has a true love of movies. His explanation of working as a video store clerk and wanting to do that for the rest of his life is heartfelt and honest. He talks about renting Bloodsucking Freaks, a movie that I have heard of but still have not seen despite growing up with sick friends who loved the 1980 film Mother’s Day. This bit runs six minutes.

Talkin’ Movies with David McAbee – Just over two minutes, this is another movie fan who explains the joys of buying tangible product. I completely agree!

JC from Scum and Villainy – This bit is about two-and-a-half-minutes and echoes similar cineaste sentiments.

Andres The Last Blockbuster Music Video – Under three minutes, this is a clever song about renting movies.

Our Chat with Coach Pete – This piece runs under one minute and discusses the love of renting. I wish that these pieces were longer!

MTV’s Matt Pinfield – This runs about three-and-a-half minutes – I share Matt’s love of going to the record stores and video stores, talking with fellow music lovers and movie lovers, and having other people recommend titles I would not have normally gone for.

Wordburglar “Rental Patient” Music Video – At four minutes, this is a clever song about renting movies.

Ska-Punk show at Costa Mesa, CA Blockbuster Video – This is something that I think you had to be there in order to appreciate it.

The Last Blockbuster is a loving tribute to the extraordinary experience of renting and watching movies. It will not win the Academy Award for Best Documentary, but it belongs in every movie lover’s collection.

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“WHIPPING OUT A STORY”

By Raymond Benson

Kino Lorber and Something Weird Video continue their collaboration to present “Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture” with Volume 9—The Lash of the Penitentes. Like the other exploitation titles that have appeared over the last two years, Lash is another piece of American celluloid that will surely elicit jaw-dropping, eye-rolling, and headshaking. How did these things ever get made and distributed? Who went to see them? How corrupted was one after a viewing?

These delicious and suitably sleazy pictures in the “Forbidden Fruit” series were made cheaply and outside the Hollywood system. They were distributed independently in the manner of a circus sideshow, often by renting a movie theater for a few nights, advertising in the local papers, and promoting the salacious title as “educational.” For adults only, mind you, but exhibited all in the good name of science or health or whatever. Reefer Madness. Narcotic. Ingagi. Test Tube Babies. She Should’a Said No!. Mom and Dad. That sort of fare.

The Lash of the Penitentes, from 1936, is sort of a documentary with re-staged and fictionalized elements. Los Hermanos Penitentes, the “Penitentes” of the title, (were? are?) a real religious sect in New Mexico and Colorado that practices extreme rituals on Good Friday of every year. The main course is a re-enactment of Christ’s passion by having “penitents” carry crosses up a mountain while being flagellated by the religious leaders, and then ending with the “chosen penitent” being crucified on a cross (not with nails). The film implies that the man dies, but that is unlikely. Apparently, for decades, these activities were public until more recent years in which the whole gruesome spectacle is performed in private and probably with more care not to really hurt anyone.

However, back when the picture was made, this was some seriously twisted stuff. And much of the real thing is caught on camera.

It has an interesting history, too. A cameraman named Roland Price (we think) went to New Mexico and surreptitiously filmed some of the ritual for the purposes of a future documentary. However, nothing was done with the approximately 18,000 feet of footage. Then, in early 1936, a journalist by the name of Carl Taylor went to write about the Penitentes. He was caught spying on the ceremony, which is forbidden to outside parties. He was murdered. The crime made headlines.

Enter exploitation moviemaker Harry Revier (also responsible for another “Forbidden Fruit” entry, Child Bride). He somehow acquired the rights to the documentary footage, fashioned a fictional murder mystery plot to wrap around it, and shot new material with actors. Of course, the mystery is based on—or at least inspired by—the true killing of Taylor.

In Revier’s version, journalist George Mack (José Rubio) goes to New Mexico to whip out a story about the Penitentes, hires a local young man, Chico (William Marcos), to assist him, and then witnesses the sensational ritual. He is discovered and then slain.

The approximately 48-minute movie was titled The Penitente Murder Case. Besides the (for the time) violent depiction of the flagellation and the creepy religious sect stuff that would assuredly freak out “normal” American Christians of 1936, the motion picture also contained footage of actress Marie DeForrest also being stripped and flagellated on the mountainside, and then “crucified” naked. Why this was included is unclear plot-wise, but it has something to do with her helping Mack in his mission.

The censors (the Hays Office) understandably would have nothing to do with the movie, so Revier edited his masterwork down to 35 minutes—deleting DeForrest’s footage and making other trims. This version was then released to the public as The Lash of the Penitentes and this is what grindhouse cinemas on the exploitation circuit have shown since. It was even released on VHS and DVD in this version by fly-by-night companies in the past.

Now, Kino Lorber has issued a high-def Blu-ray of the full-length 48-minute version that looks about as best as it can get. It comes with a highly informative audio commentary by Bret Wood, co-author of the book Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Film and curator of the “Forbidden Fruit” series for Kino.

Also included is the 35-minute censored version. What makes the entire thing even more mysterious is the inclusion of the theatrical trailer, which contains scandalous footage that does not appear in either edit of the film. The trailer has scenes of a woman being assaulted by her boyfriend, saved by a young boy, but then flagellated while hanging from her arms. Full nudity. In a trailer. None of it is in The Penitente Murder Case or The Lash of the Penitentes. One supposes that this was the only way the distributors could lure an audience—mostly male, it is assumed—to come see the picture when it opened.

Since both versions of the feature are short, Kino Lorber and Something Weird probably could have added another “Forbidden Fruit” title to the disk; after all, several other Volumes in the series contain double features. Why not this one? With that the only quibble, The Lash of the Penitentes should appeal to those fans of film history, exploitation films, and just plain kooky, weird stuff.

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BY MARK CERULLI 

Mike Henry, the rugged former football player-turned-actor, passed away on January 8, 2021 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease and Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, likely from his heavy physical contact during his years in the NFL playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers and LA Rams. Although not a household name, Henry carved out an impressive career playing heroic roles, most notably Tarzan in three films from 1966 – 68. I remember stumbling across Tarzan And the Valley of Gold on network TV as a kid and being enthralled by this hulking, well-spoken Tarzan who wore a suit in one scene and the traditional loincloth in the next. (The series’ producer, Sy Weintraub, cannily tried to jump on the then-raging Bondmania in 1966 by offering up a suave Tarzan equally at home in a city as in the jungle. The fact that Henry bore a passing resemblance to Sean Connery didn’t hurt.) Henry took over the role of Tarzan from Jock Mahoney (who suffered dysentery making Tarzan’s Three Challenges that was so severe, he emerged emaciated from the shoot in Thailand.) Blessed with a chiseled physique that Weintraub crowed looked like it was “sculpted by Michelangelo”, Henry could easily handle the athletic demands of the coveted part.

What Henry endured making the Tarzan films was even more heroic than the role itself. While filming Tarzan and the Great River, the script called for Tarzan to pick up Cheeta (a chimpanzee) and run with him. The film was shot in the jungles of Brazil, so all the onscreen animals had to be flown in – one imagines they were under severe stress in a totally unfamiliar environment. The chimp reacted by biting Henry in the face, requiring 20 stitches in his jaw and a stay in the local hospital for bouts of “monkey fever”.

Mike Henry in a Brazilian hospital after being treated from wounds inflicted by a chimpanzee.

In the course of making his three Tarzan epics, Henry suffered a severe ear infection, food poisoning, fatigue, liver ailments, almost got clawed by an enraged leopard and was so exhausted by the back-to-back film shoots that when his contract required him to jump right into a Tarzan television series, the actor wanted out. Who who could have blamed him? Ron Ely took over as Tarzan on TV and racked up an equally impressive number of injuries including numerous broken bones and several lion bites during its 2-year run. Henry, reportedly one of the most humble and affable people in the biz, was so traumatized that he sued producer Weintraub for almost $1 million for “maltreatment, abuse and working conditions detrimental to my health…” (Both this and a related lawsuit were unsuccessful in court.)

Although he had a successful career behind the camera, producing TV commercials and documentaries, Henry continued to act – in films like The Green Berets, The Longest Yard, Soylent Green and on episodes of M*A*S*H, The Six Million Dollar Man, Scrubs, Fantasy Island and others. His role as Jackie Gleason’s dimwitted son in three Smokey and the Bandit movies introduced this versatile performer to a new generation of fans. Sadly, due to his illnesses, he had to retire from the industry in 1988.

I made several attempts to interview Mr. Henry, especially when I discovered he lived near me in Los Angeles, but Covid and not wanting to intrude kept me from pushing too hard. Still, he is one of the actors I most remember from my movie-going youth and his dashing appearances at Tarzan, in spite of all the trauma he personally endured, makes him a true hero in my book. Thanks for the magic, Mike.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Yaphet Kotto, the distinctive and distinguished actor, has passed away at age 81. Kotto was born in Harlem and began to study acting at age 16. He made his big screen debut in 1964 in the acclaimed race-themed drama "Nothing But a Man" opposite Ivan Dixon, a fellow African-American whose star would rise on the basis of the film. Kotto also appeared in "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968) and was a regular presence in guest star roles on top TV series such as "Gunsmoke", "Daniel Boone", "Night Gallery", "The Big Valley", "Hawaii Five-0", "Mannix" and "The High Chapparal". He was nominated for an Emmy award for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 1976 TV production of "Raid on Entebbe". Kotto simultaneously kept landing good parts in major movies such as "5 Card Stud", "The Liberation of L.B. Jones" and "Across 110th Street". In 1973, he appeared in what is perhaps his most memorable role, opposite Roger Moore in the James Bond film "Live and Let Die". In it, he played the villain Dr. Kananga, who uses his Caribbean base of operations and the symbolism of voodoo to terrify the local population and gain control of an international drug smuggling operation. In 1979, Kotto played another prominent role in the classic science fiction film "Alien", appearing as a member of a doomed space flight crew that is being systematically killed by a monstrous being from another planet. Kotto's other films include "Report to the Commissioner", "Friday Foster", "Drum", "Midnight Run", "Brubaker", "The Star Chamber" and "The Running Man". In the 1990s, he was one of the stars of the long-running hit TV series "Homocide: Life on the Streets". For more about his life and career, click here.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

J.B. Priestly's much-loved play "An Inspector Calls" premiered in 1945. It went on to be a perennial on the stage in London's West End and even enjoyed two productions on Broadway. Additionally, it was brought to the screen in 1954 under the direction of Guy Hamilton with Alastair Sim in the titular role of the inspector. The BBC's well-received 2015 adaptation of the play is now available for streaming on Amazon Prime. It boasts an outstanding cast, a fine script and admirable direction by Aisling Walsh. To a degree, the story plays out very much in the style of a traditional Agatha Christie mystery in that it concerns the arrival of a detective to interrogate a group of rich snobs about the recent death of an indigent young woman. However, the play isn't a whodunnit because we learn early in the story that none of the snobs being interrogated murdered her, as she committed suicide. Then what is the angle here? Ah, that would be telling. As with all films of this type, the less said in terms of providing details, the better it is for the viewer. Thus, here are basics: the story is set in London in 1912. Arthur Birling (Ken Stott) is a rich industrialist who has heard he is on the short list for knighthood. He is throwing a dinner party in honor of his daughter Sheila's (Chloe Pirrie) engagement to her equally rich beau, Gerald Croft (Kyle Sotter). Also in attendance is the family matriarch, Arthur's wife Sybil (Miranda Richardson) and their son Eric (Finn Cole), who is Sheila's younger brother. The family is in a jovial mood. Business has been good and Arthur assumes it will be even better once his daughter marries Gerald, whose father is a potential business partner. The wine is flowing and the cigarettes and cigars are being passed when the maid announces the inexplicable late night appearance of a new local police inspector, Goole (David Thewlis), who announces he is there to interview all present about the tragic suicide of Eva Smith (Sophie Rundel). Each of the party attendees professes ignorance of her existence but as the dour inspector presses on, shocking information is revealed that will quickly dispel the upbeat atmosphere and thrust the family into a potentially ruinous crisis. Unlike a Christie tale, however, this one contains a criticism of societal inequities that one might associate with the works of Dickens. However, it never becomes preachy, just thought-provoking.

Director Walsh wisely minimizes exterior sequences and confines most of the action to the dining room where the increasingly tense and uncomfortable evening plays out. Each member of the cast is excellent but David Thewlis is mesmerizing as the unorthodox detective and Ken Stott is a standout among standouts as the snooty, blustery patriarch. The film ends on a note that may seem unsatisfying to some and seems tailored to make you debate what you just saw with a fellow viewer. It's ambiguity turns out to be an asset, once reflected upon.

BY JOHN M. WHALEN

In “Wings of the Hawk” (1953), Van Heflin stars as Irish Gallagher, an American mining for gold down in Mexico. He and his partner Marco (Mario Siletti) are ripped off by local military ruler Coronel Paco Ruiz (George Dolenz), who takes over the mine and kills Marco. Irish barely manages to escape on horseback and is rescued by insurrectionists led by Raquel Noriega (Julia Adams), who gets a bullet in the shoulder for her trouble. Irish patches her up in exchange for his freedom and romance rears its ugly head. Jealousy also flares when revolutionary leader Arturo Torres (Rudolpho Acosta), who had been her lover, sees what’s going on. Enter Pascual Orozco (Noah Beery, Jr.) who asks for Arturo’s help in taking Ciudad Juarez. They’ll need $5,000 to buy 200 rifles but the revolutionaries have no money. However, they come up with a brainstorm. They’ll steal $5,000 in gold from Irish’s mine, which is now under Coronel Ruiz’s control. Irish must be gaga over Raquel because he agrees to go along with it, “as long as I get my money back later.” There’s a lot of shooting after that, chases on horseback, and a firing squad kills some villagers.

It’s all crammed in to a fast-paced 81 minutes, leaving little time for reflection or character development for that matter. Julia Adams, most famous as Kay, the beauty who lures the Creature out of the Black Lagoon, is always a delight to see on screen, but her performance as Raquel goes no deeper than the Mexican makeup painted on her face and the black hair pieces tacked on her head. Heflin gives his usual solidly rugged performance as the Irish miner-turned-revolutionary, and George Dolenz (father of Monkee Micky Dolenz) is sufficiently snide as the local gendarme, but there is little heat generated by any of them in the on- screen proceedings.

This is not to say that “Wings of the Hawk” should be dismissed as just another run-of-the-mill fifties western. Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray is noteworthy for several reasons. First of all, historically, it was only the second feature film to be released by Universal International in 3-D, and the first to adopt the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, which became the standard for all non-Cinemascope films made since then. It’s also one of the first “Mexican Westerns,” that is, a western about an American cowboy caught in the midst of the Mexican Revolution. Other such include “Vera Cruz,” “Viva Villa,”, “The Professionals” and the most notable of them all, “The Wild Bunch.” It was also the last of nine films that Cult Director Budd Boetticher did under contract for Universal between 1952 and 1953. Boetticher achieved his cult status for a series of seven westerns he did later for Columbia shortly after that, between 1956 and 1960. Known as the “Ranown Cycle” of films, because they starred Randolph Scott and were produced by Joe Brown. “Seven Men from Now”(1956), “Ride Lonesome” (1959), “The Tall T” (1957), and “Comanche Station” (1960), among others, are some of the greatest cinematic achievements of this or any other time. Not just films, they are truly works of a certain kind of art.

“Wings of the Hawk,” is not filmmaking on that level. Boetticher had not yet perfected his vision, nor achieved the clout to make films his own way. But as the jumping off point from turning out formulaic studio fare to creating individualistic masterpieces, glimmers of what was to come are evident. Most prominent are the relationships between the three male characters. In all of Boetticher’s best films there is a contest between what can best be described as “men of stature. In “The Tall T” Randolph Scott is pitted against Richard Boone. The two stand out against the weaker men in the story, including Boone’s outlaw gang, and the cowardly fiancé of one of the female passengers on a stagecoach. In “Seven Men from Now” Scott faced Lee Marvin, the baddest of the bad. In “Comanche Station” Scott faced off against Claude Akins, who stood taller than either of the two gunmen who rode with him. As film historian Jeremy Arnold notes in his audio commentary provided on a separate audio track, in all of these films, the Randolph Scott character could just as easily switched places with his antagonist. They’re both the same kind of man. Arnold says the difference is that one is weak and the other strong. I disagree with that assessment. I think the difference is that one has maintained his stature as a man to be looked up to, and the other has let himself down somewhere along the way.

In “Wings of the Hawk,” Boetticher did not really develop the conflict between Irish, Ruiz and Arturo as fully as he would with the antagonists in the later films, but elements of it are there, if you look close enough. It’s interesting to see the embryonic Boetticher at work.

Kino Lorber’s Blu Ray contains both 2-D and 3-D versions of the movie from 2K Scans of the left and Right Eye Interpositive. The picture is generally good, but some scenes are too dark, and others a bit too grainy. Color is by Technicolor and the transfer goes a good job preserving the original look of the film. Clifford Stine’s 3-D cinematography is rather stunning in the way it emphasized picture depth over the gimmicky hurling of stones, and bodies at the 3-D audience. Many action shots feature deep focus of riders on horseback coming toward the camera from a great distance, while actors and stunt men move about at various distances in between riders and camera. Another impressive shot has a knife being lowered slowly on a rope from a skylight. Even at 2-D the knife almost seems to float out from the screen.

Frank Skinner’s soundtrack has a lot of Mexican flare, and is presented on the disc in what is described by KL as “High Dynamic Range Theatrical Mix plus 5.1 Surround Sound.” Bonus features include the audio commentary by Jeremy Arnold (which I can’t recommend highly enough, for all the detailed information he imparts), and a 3-D Woody Woodpecker cartoon. “Wings of the Hawk,” is another important film restoration by Kino Lorber of a bygone era of filmmaking, the likes of which we’ll never see again.

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(John M. Whalen is the author of "Vampire Siege at Rio Muerto". Click here to order from Amazon.)

BY DARREN ALLISON

Fireball XL5

It’s always a gratifying feeling when Silva screen produces another title in their successful Gerry Anderson collection. This time around, they have focused on the 1962-63 series, Fireball XL5 (SILLP1595).

The black & white puppet television series followed the missions of Fireball XL5, a vessel of the World Space Patrol in the year 2062. Commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac, XL5 travels the universe encountering alien civilisations and defending planet Earth from interstellar threats. It was produced, like most other Anderson productions, in Supermarionation, using puppetry techniques that captured the imagination of a generation.

The Fireball XL5 soundtrack has been newly compiled, mastered and designed by the creative and committed team at Fanderson – The Official Gerry And Sylvia Anderson Appreciation Society.

The album features 24 tracks from 16 episodes, including the Fireball XL5 main theme and single version. In the opening theme, Barry Gray employs, for the first time, the Ondes Martenot, bringing an eerie and other-worldly sound to the series. The contrast of detached electronic music with the jazzy musical language served as a perfect juxtaposition of the alien and human Worlds. Each episode would finish with the pop song “Fireball”, bringing the viewer back to the warmth of their 60s lounge. The song was performed by Don Spencer and was a minor hit in the UK, spending 12 weeks in the UK charts and peaking at number 32.

Barry Gray was a classically trained composer and a versatile musician and was amongst the first composers to use electronic instruments in music for television. Best known for creating the music for most of the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson television series in the 1960s and 70s (Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, UFO, Space:1999), Barry Gray’s complete musical opus is still not commercially available in its entirety. Fanderson, dedicated to the productions of Gerry Anderson, has gained access to all Barry Gray’s original studio tapes and have undertaken a major re-issue project. Together with Fanderson, Silva Screen Records is championing Barry Gray’s incredible musical opus and is releasing the material in a series of physical and digital albums and vinyl records.

Given the age of this early soundtrack, the music is crisp, clean and has a wide dynamic range. One has to applaud the production team who have really exceeded expectations. As with the rest of the series of albums, the packaging is superb, presented in a thick, sturdy gatefold sleeve and with both platters pressed in a transparent orange vinyl, it really is a thing of beauty and nothing less of what is deserved.

The album is also available on CD format (SILCD1595) and as a digital download.

Rawhead Rex

Released in 1986, horror film Rawhead Rex (SILLP1606) was based on a short story by Clive (Hellraiser) Barker. The tale is set in 1980s rural Ireland. The Demon, alive for millennia and trapped in the depths of Hell, is unleashed on the sleepy local farming community. Remembered faintly through pre-Christian myth, the only one that can stop Rawhead’s bloody rampage is the historian, desperately racing against the time.

Composer Colin Towns is not only one of Europe’s most prolific film, television and theatre composers, but also a pianist, songwriter, arranger, producer and collaborator. His name has graced the credits of many prestigious and popular features. "The first film I scored was Full Circle which starred Mia Farrow and is still in the BFI top ten for best score for horror films. I felt that film was more of a dark scary mystery. Rawhead Rex on the other hand was clearly a horror film 100%. I visited the film set in Ireland during the filming to take in the atmosphere and meet the actors after which I decided to record the music at CTS in London with a sixty piece orchestra plus electronics. I have always orchestrated my own work and had a wild time with Rawhead which is what I really love doing". Colin Towns

Towns, known for The Puppet Masters, Space Truckers, Maybe Baby, Foyle’s War, Doc Martin and Pie in The Sky, created a hugely enjoyable and diverse score for Rawhead Rex. It’s main theme especially conveys plenty of power, tension and full-on threatening brass. However, on the flip side of that, tracks such as ‘Welcome to Ireland’ or ‘The Family is Leaving’ are open and lush with some beautiful use of the string section - all of which makes for a nicely balanced and entirely rewarding mix.

This long-awaited score album is packaged in an attractive gatefold sleeve with both of the LPs pressed in an appropriate blood red vinyl. The soundtrack is also available on CD format (SILCD1606) and as a digital download from Silva screen’s website.

Both the Gerry Anderson and Rawhead Rex releases can be ordered from:

https://www.silvascreen.com/

BY TIM MCGLYNN

During the 1970s, small distribution companies such as Sunn Classic Pictures, began to carve out a niche in the film industry by concentrating on low budget family-oriented movies. With the MPAA rating system firmly in place, moms and dads needed to search for G-rated titles they knew would be suitable for younger audiences. Aside from Disney features, it was often difficult to find such films.

Documentaries with educationally sound titles such as Cougar Country, In Search of Noah’s Ark and The Outer Space Connection played matinees at theaters across the country. Usually shot in 16mm and sometimes a tad boring, these movies were a safe destination for parents looking to drop the kids off for a couple of hours.

If any of these children happened to be unloaded at a local cinema playing The Legend of Boggy Creek, they were in for quite a surprise. Initially, it may have looked safe with a G rating and a storyline concerning a Bigfoot type of creature. Little did these kids realize they were in for a scary trip through the Arkansas wetlands where there had been stories of a large, two-legged monster over the past two decades. Farmers and ranchers had reported mutilated or missing livestock along with sightings of the creature.

Charles B. Pierce of Louisiana, a local television personality and creator of commercials, made his directorial debut with 1972’s The Legend of Boggy Creek, a quasi-documentary. The film chronicled the search for a seven-foot tall Bigfoot like creature that dwelled in the swamps near the town of Fouke, AR. Pierce allowed local residents to relate their experiences with what became known as the Fouke Monster. Dramatic recreations of sightings and confrontations with the creature were also filmed with local actors playing the roles of real life witnesses.

Adhering to the idea of “less is more,” Pierce never showed a close-up or an otherwise clear shot of the monster and there is no graphic violence or gore. He felt that what you didn’t see was more frightening than a man in a hairy suit. This style of storytelling would serve Steven Spielberg well in 1975 with his epic thriller Jaws.

While the production budget was about $160,000, which Pierce borrowed from a local trucking company, the director achieved an incredibly effective film by shooting in 35mm Techniscope. The photography in the creeks and marshes near Fouke is gorgeous and there are many shots of indigenous creatures and birds. The soundtrack of forest sounds lends a creepy atmosphere to the movie especially in the night scenes outside of local cabins.

The script by Earl E. Smith opens with several eyewitness accounts and some very distant shots of the monster that only define it as a large shape. Then there are depictions of actual contact with the beast where the residents in cabins attempt to kill it with shotguns and rifles. It is in these scenes that we hear the ferocious roar of the animal as it slips back into the darkness. Special mention needs to be made of the excellent narration by Vern Stierman. His news-anchor like professionalism adds an air of authenticity to the docu-drama style of the film.

A serviceable music score is provided by Jamie Mendoza-Nava, which includes a folksong type ballad sung by the filmmaker Charles Pierce. The director also served as his own photographer, using an older camera to which he made several modifications for this film. Pierce is very adept at setting up several jump scares where the creature is suddenly in the frame, often shown from the back. The 2.35 widescreen ratio is vital to these shots and they are quite effective. Another startling scene involves the creature being spotted as it suddenly crosses the road. This is filmed through a car windshield as the occupants are fleeing the scene.

I found the most impressive parts of the film are the two extended scenes where residents in a cabin and a mobile home are threatened by the monster. The whole “something is out there” scenario is well-played as the actors react to the danger in a realistic fashion. No randy teenagers doing drugs in the woods, just parents protecting their families by any means necessary.

Without giving away too much information about the conclusion, I’ll just say that the story has a possible open ending. Multiple sightings of the Fouke Monster were reported by more than 250 individuals over a period of 20 years until the making of this film. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that people in the area continue to see the monster. There were two sequels, one authorized and one not. Charles Pierce made Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues in 1984, but by his own admission it was not a very successful effort.

In 1976 director Pierce worked with Samuel Z. Arkoff and American International Pictures in creating his best-known work, The Town That Dreaded Sundown. This film pre-dated the slasher film craze of the 1980s with the true story of a masked killer terrorizing the town of Texarkana, TX. The cast included Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, Dawn Wells and, once again, narrator Vern Stierman.

I recently communicated by e-mail with Pamula Pierce Barecelou, daughter of Charles Pierce, and asked about the re-mastering of the film. She replied that one of the challenges was locating a quality print. “After gaining permission from Mr. Ledwell (the film’s financier) to pursue the restoration in 2014, I had to find a good print to work from and that hunt took four years. One was finally found at the British Film Institute of all places!”

Ms. Pierce went on to describe the actual process. “I was able to connect with the venerable George Eastman Museum and Audio Mechanics to have to the work performed. I trusted their expertise.”

BY LEE PFEIFFER

It's never good when a film becomes the object of derision and controversy while it is still in production. There's a good chance it will be a dead duck by the time it opens to the public. MGM's ill-fated 1982 screen adaptation of "Cannery Row" may not have been a dead a duck when it arrived in theaters but it was definitely a mortally wounded one. The intent was to tell a sweet story about lovable eccentrics so it's not without irony that the film would be drenched in bad will and a legal case that extended for six years before it was resolved. Things started out swimmingly enough with David S. Ward, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of "The Sting", set to not only write the script (an adaption of two John Steinbeck stories: "Cannery Row" and "Sweet Thursday") but to also make his directing debut. Nick Nolte and Raquel Welch were the two leads and production was underway when Welch received a letter from the studio advising her that she was fired forthwith, ostensibly for making unreasonable demands on the set. Welch was shocked, since the only "demands" she had made had been contractually agreed to and were hardly excessive. She suspected that her name had been used to drum up interest in the project with the intent of ultimately replacing her with a younger actress, in this case up-and-comer Debra Winger. Welch was 40 years-old at the time; Winger was 25. Welch had been hoping that the role would finally allow her to be cast in more mature, intelligent parts than the sex kitten characters that had brought her to stardom. The case resulted in Welch receiving a good deal of sympathy from women who had been battling sexism and ageism in all aspects of life. The case dragged on for six years and Welch prevailed, winning a judgment of $10 million. However, it was a pyrrhic victory, as she found she had been essentially blacklisted from starring in feature films. 

It was against this dramatic backdrop that "Cannery Row"'s first time director had to ensure completion of the film. To his credit, he did just that, although the result was largely negative reviews and measly international gross of $5 million. The film is set in Monterey, California and though no specific date is mentioned, we assume it is in the 1940s. The inhabitants of Cannery Row (so named because it once was home to a thriving canning industry that has now gone defunct) are a motley lot of friendly but not-too-ambitious people from the outer fringes of society. The most prominent residence of this skid row community is Doc (Nick Nolte), an educated man who works as a marine biologist, though it is never made clear how he earns a salary by sitting around his modest home studying the  habits of various octopusses that he keeps throughout the house. He's a confirmed bachelor who lets off steam with the occasional hook-up with a local woman. One day a new person arrives on Cannery Row, a young woman named Suzy DeSoto (Debra Winger). Like everyone else, she's endured a hardscrabble life and is looking for stability. Failing to find a "real" job, she reluctantly visits the local madame, Fauna (Audra Lindley) and agrees to become one of her "girls", only to fail in her single encounter with a client. Doc is immediately attracted to Suzy and they play a cat-and-mouse game of flirting with each other before starting to date. Suzy fits into the community well and is embraced by a group of eccentric homeless men who contentedly reside in makeshift houses on the street constructed from disused massive pipe cylinders from the old canning plant. Most prominent among the homeless men are Mack (M. Emmett Walsh), the de facto leader of the bunch and Hazel (Frank McRae), a mentally-challenged African-American who is near and dear to all.  The street guys are supposed to be a lovable bunch but director Ward makes them cartoonish. At one point I came to the conclusion that they would be better suited in a Disney animated film..then- presto!- they appear at a costume surprise party for Doc in which they are dressed like characters from Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". One of the other prominent residences of Cannery Row is a character who is so adorable that you suspect he was written into the script simply to bring out the handkerchiefs when he inevitably dies.

Director/screenwriter Ward has his heart in the right place, but not his instincts. The problem with the film is that there is no dramatic "hook", thus no suspense. It's a bit like spending a few days in Mayberry without Andy, Barney and the other funny characters to liven things up. All you get is politeness and boredom. The core of the story is the on-again, off-again romance between Doc and Suzy, but neither one of them is very interesting as a character. Ward tries to inject some intrigue into the story by revealing why Doc abruptly resigned from being a promising pitcher in major league baseball. I don't need to issue a spoiler alert here before telling you what you've probably already suspected: seems he threw a pitch that conked a batter in the head, thus causing him brain damage. This old plot device about the guilt-ridden former athlete who blames himself for a disastrous mishap had moss on it when it was used in "The Quiet Man", "From Here to Eternity" and a couple of Elvis Presley movies. Not helping matters is the fact that Nick Nolte and Debra Winger don't display any fireworks when they are together on screen. Their best scene shows them dancing and allowing Winger to show off some impressive acrobatics.

"Cannery Row" isn't a bad movie, but it isn't a very good one, either. The most impressive aspect is the production design by Richard MacDonald, who constructed a rather imposing street set where most of the action takes place. However, the way the film is lit and photographed makes it always apparent that we are watching actors on well-designed set, complete with large matte paintings. Consequently, the movie begins to resemble a filmed stage production.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray looks very good indeed but the company generally doesn't provide commentary tracks unless they can be ported over from a previous DVD edition. It's a pity because "Cannery Row" has a compelling behind-the-scenes story that is more interesting than what takes place on screen. The only bonus extra is the trailer.

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Plummer in "Battle of Britain" (1969).

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Christopher Plummer, the world-acclaimed star of stage, screen and television, has passed away at age 91. Complications from a fall in his Connecticut home were cited as the cause of death. Plummer never had to make his way up the ranks on the big screen. He received prominent billing in his movie debut in Sidney Lumet's 1958 production of  "Stage Struck"- and henceforth he would generally enjoy starring roles. Plummer moved with ease between films, stage and TV, earning critical plaudits along the way, as well as winning two Tony Awards and a late career Oscar for the film "Beginnings" in 2010. He was especially acclaimed for his work in Shakespearean productions in the U.S., England and Canada. Plummer, a native Canadian, became a legend by playing the male lead, Captain von Trapp, in the 1965 Oscar-winning film production of "The Sound of Music". Plummer was initially adamant that he wanted to sing the songs himself but ultimately conceded to having singer Bill Lee dub him in the final cut. Plummer professed to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the movie's success and over the years made disparaging remarks about its sugary content. However, in later years, he seemed to warm to the film and participated in a reunion with the cast.

Plummer's many high profile film roles include "The Man Who Would Be King", "The Insider", "The Fall of the Roman Empire", "Night of the Generals", "Battle of Britain", "Waterloo", "Return of the Pink Panther", "The Silent Partner", "Somewhere in Time", "Murder by Decree", "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", "A Beautiful Mind", "The Last Station", "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and the 2018 film "All the Money in the World", in which he was called in at the last minute to replace Kevin Spacey, whose footage had been excised. Plummer received an Oscar nomination for his performance. His last major film role was as an autocratic murder victim in the smash hit 2019 movie "Knives Out".

For more about his life and career, click here.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

There were so many great British war movies produced in the 1940s and 1950s that it becomes almost an inevitability to pronounce each one you newly discover as a classic. "Malta Story", released in 1953 is, alas, not a classic. However, it is a good, solidly made and generally engrossing tale that is unique in that it covers the incredible story of the island of Malta, then a British colony, and its unlikely strategic importance to the Allies during the campaign to prevent Rommel and his forces from dominating the African continent. Malta is a tiny nation that found itself sandwiched between Sicily to the North and North Africa to the south. Both the Allies and the Axis powers deemed it to be essential to the conquest of Africa, as it could provide a valuable port and landing strips for bombers. For over two years, the undermanned British defense units on the island, bolstered by the courageous local population, endured daily bombing raids that devastated the nation. Malta was dependent on receiving essential supplies from Allied convoys, most of which proved to be sitting ducks for German U-Boats. Countless tons of precious food, medicine and ammunition went to the bottom of the ocean along with a large loss of crew members. Still, with plucky stiff-upper-lip resolve, the British and Maltese fought on, even with the RAF fighter planes having been reduced to only 15 aircraft. Ultimately, the British managed to reinforce the air defenses and some American convoy ships managed to survive the U-Boats. Malta managed to prevail and thwarted an inevitable full-scale invasion by German and Italian forces. King George VI was so impressed that he collectively awarded the nation as a whole the prestigious George Cross to commemorate the courage of the military and civilian forces.

"Malta Story" opens with its protagonist, a military photographer, Flight Lt. Peter Ross (Alec Guinness) on a flight to Africa to photograph German military installations. Flight troubles force the plane to unexpectedly land in Malta, where Ross meets the beleaguered commander of military forces, Air Commodore Frank (Jack Hawkins), who instantly arranges for Ross to join his command. Ross has his hands full with a starving local population and a shortage of planes and anti-aircraft ammunition. He sends Ross on an assignment to photograph German military movements, but Ross diverts his course and manages to photograph suspicious German train movements that he suspects are transporting supplies to build gliders- a sure indication of an impending commando invasion. Frank chews him out for disobeying orders, but it turns out Ross's instincts seem to be correct. When "Malta Story" sticks to the military plot it soars along very well indeed. However, the somewhat muddled screenplay bogs down the action by introducing a romantic subplot that finds Ross smitten by a courageous Maltese woman, Maria (Muriel Pavlow) and much screen time is devoted to one of the screen's most boring love stories. Guinness was a genius as an actor but he excelled in playing characters that were either very eccentric or larger than life. Ross is neither. He's an every day schlub with no particularly interesting traits. Guinness seems out of his element and perhaps for this reason he was rarely cast as a romantic leading man.  In fact, the love scenes between Ross and Maria are about as erotic as giving your sister a peck on the cheek. Indeed, things bog down to the point where Ross disappears from the middle section of the film only to pop up again at the end, when he volunteers to take on a one-man mission to locate and photograph a German convoy- a seemingly suicidal task that curiously would be replicated by Kirk Douglas in Otto Preminger's far superior "In Harm's Way" twelve years later.

With Guinness a bore, it falls to Jack Hawkins to carry the acting chores and he saves the film with his steadfast performance. Much of the combat footage was recycled from actual newsreels but because the film is in B&W the gimmick works rather well. "Malta Story", competently directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, is primarily valuable as a history lesson. The trials and courage of the Maltese people have largely been overlooked in studies of WWII history and for this reason, the movie can be recommended viewing.

"Malta Story" is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. It can also be ordered from Amazon on DVD by clicking here.

Actress Cicely Tyson has died at age 96. Ms. Tyson was a groundbreaking influence in both feature films and television, rising to fame and acclaim with her signature performance in "The Diary of Miss Jane Pittman", the 1974 television production that brought her two Emmy awards (Actress of the Year and
Best Actress in a Drama). Ms. Tyson was also nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for the 1972 film "Sounder". Click here for more about her remarkable life and career.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

In the 1960s, enterprising producers James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff were riding high through their production company American International Pictures. They specialized in making low-budget crowd pleasers that ranged from "B" horror and science fiction films to zany "beach" comedies. They had established a stable of stars who they could depend on to top-line these movies, none of which were blockbusters, but most of which turned a decent profit in an era in which a decent profit was sufficient to please studio bosses. There was no greater star for American International than Vincent Price, who had often teamed with producer Roger Corman for a number of highly successful film adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's literary works. When Corman and Price had exhausted most of the more promising Poe works, Corman moved on to other projects, establishing himself as a legend in the movie industry. Price, however, remained at the disposal of American-International. He was never overly-selective about the films he agreed to star in, though even the worst of them benefited from his presence.  Nicholson and Arkoff kept mining the Poe pot of gold by the weakest of links, as evidenced by "War-Gods of the Deep", of which it has been said that Price didn't even read the script until a week before filming had commenced. Nicholson and Arkoff had authorized a film inspired by Poe's poem "City in the Sea", with Dan Haller and George Willoughby producing. The movie was directed by Jacques Tourneur, who had brought to the screen at least two films that are now regarded as classics: "Cat People" and "Out of the Past". However, throughout most of his career, Tourneur did not enjoy the appreciation retro movie fans now show for his work. Instead, his talents were considered workmanlike and he was largely relegated to directing mediocre and forgettable films. ("War-Gods" would prove to be his final movie.)

"War-Gods of the Deep" (released in some countries as "City Under the Sea" and "City in the Sea") was a production fraught with problems from the very beginning. Charles Bennett, who wrote the first draft of the screenplay, was disheartened when Louis M. Heyward was hired to significantly rewrite his concepts to add some humor to the movie. Heyward's contributions included introducing a major comedic character, Harold Tufnell-Jones, played by David Tomlinson and the inclusion of a pet hen which he absurdly carries with him throughout the film. This was enough to make Bennett disown the final version of the movie. Similarly, there was also a falling-out between producers Haller and Willoughby. The production also lost some luster when plans to cast Boris Karloff in a key role fell through and he was replaced by John Le Mesurier. Filming took place at Pinewood Studios outside of London, with the movie's few exterior shots filmed on the Cornwall Coast. The film seemed to capitalize on audience fascination during this era with science fiction stories that were set in underground lairs or cities (i.e. "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "The Time Machine", "First Men in the Moon", "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Mysterious Island.") However, "War-Gods" pales in comparison to those similarly-themed films.

The movie, which is set at the beginning of the 20th century, opens in a British coastal town where strange occurrences have the inhabitants in distress. People are mysteriously disappearing and in one case, a missing man turns up dead in the surf. Ben Harris (Tab Hunter) is an American mining engineer working in the area. He makes the acquaintance of Jill Tregillis (Susan Hart), the American daughter of a local hotelier. When Jill vanishes, Ben and quirky local artist, Harold Tuffnell-Jones (David Tomlinson) launch a search only to accidentally be sucked into a whirlpool that deposits them in a secret underground city beneath the sea. It is ruled over by an aristocrat known as The Captain (Vincent Price), who overseas a civilization that has existed here for over a hundred years. The Captain informs them that, due to atmospheric conditions, the inhabitants never age and will enjoy eternal life. The city is guarded by the Gill Men, who are half-human, half-fish, who are the remaining survivors of a once thriving neighboring city that has that been all but obliterated. The Captain and his followers have installed an elaborate system of pumping air into their water-tight bubble that prevents them from drowning. They exist in apartments and rooms that have been carved into undersea caverns. He rules with an iron fist and sends the amphibious Gill Men to procure needed equipment from the local village and to occasionally kidnap people for various reasons. It becomes clear that he thinks Jill is the reincarnation of his beloved late wife. The Captain explains that an once-dormant undersea volcano is now activated, which is all-too-apparent to his captives. The seabed rocks with explosions and the Captain is desperate to find someone who can stem the inevitable destruction of his city. Ben buys time by pretending to be a scientist but with the clock ticking down, he knows he and his friends must escape before the ruse is discovered and they are sentenced to death. 

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES

BY DOUG OSWALD

I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s rarely been a bad submarine movie. The typical film in this peculiar genre has a little something for every movie fan: action, adventure, suspense, drama, claustrophobia, torpedoes, mine fields, depth charges and silent running. The plot structure is similar to that of aircraft disaster movies except submarines have to navigate the aforementioned mine fields and depth charges and get to fire torpedoes.

“Torpedo Run” is no exception to my rule. The movie features Glenn Ford as skipper of the Greyfish, Lt. Cmdr. Barney Doyle, and Ernest Borgnine as his executive officer and best friend, Lt. Archer “Archie” Sloan. Like most submarine movies, the action takes place within the narrow passageways of the sub and we get to see a few underwater model shots of the Greyfish diving, navigating a mine field and surviving depth charges.

We do get a change of scenery throughout the movie, primarily in flashbacks of the two friends during happier times just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. They’re stationed in the Philippines when Ford receives orders to set sail. Ford’s wife and daughter are captured by the Japanese a short time later and sent to Japan on a POW transport ship.

The transport ship travels along side the aircraft carrier Shinaru, a fictional stand-in for one of the Japanese carriers that launched the air attack on Pearl Harbor. Ford receives word of the Shinaru’s location as well as word that his wife and daughter are being used as human shields along with 1,400 other allied prisoners onboard the transport ship. Sinking the Shinaru will be a huge propaganda boon and moral booster, but launching torpedoes is tricky business and one may hit the transport ship.

Ford fires on the carrier, but hits the transport ship, killing everyone on board including his wife and daughter. Ridden with guilt and filled with vengeance, he’s obsessed with the single minded purpose of destroying the Shinaru. The rest of the movie takes a Melvillian turn with Ford as Ahab seeking out his white whale, the Shinaru.

Ford is terrific as the Greyfish skipper. He’s earnest and believable as Barney Doyle and calls upon his trademark ability to play tough, yet compassionate good guys, as he had in scores of westerns, dramas and light comedies as well as grittier fare such as “Blackboard Jungle,” “Gilda” and “The Big Heat.”

Speaking of earnest, Ernest Borgnine is equally good as Archie Sloan. Borgnine and Ford play off each other rather well in what would be an otherwise routine action movie. Borgnine is one of the great Hollywood character actors known primarily for playing heavies, tough guys and nut-burgers in scores of movies on the big screen. However, he was versatile enough to play the occasional lead and the rare nice guy such as in his Oscar winning turn in “Marty” from 1955.

Retro TV fans will undoubtedly be slightly distracted- as I was- seeing Borgnine in naval uniform. It’s a minor and unintentionally humorous issue because Borgnine is so closely identified as Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale, a role he would make his own a few years after the release of this movie in the popular TV comedy series, “McHales’s Navy,” from 1962 to 1966 and in one spin-off movie. I’m almost expecting Borgnine to say, “Okay you guys, knock it off!” and, “Stall ‘em! I don't care how you do it but stall ‘em!” Fortunately, Capt. Binghamton does not turn up shouting, “What is it McHale, what do you want? What, what, what?”

Diane Brewster appears in the only major female role as Ford’s wife Jane Doyle in the flashback scenes. Dean Jones appears as a young officer, Lt. Jake “Fuzzy” Foley. LQ Jones and Don Keefer play crew members and Robert Hardy is on hand as a Royal Navy liaison officer observing the use of the sub’s new sonar equipment.

According to IMDb, there are a couple of uncredited “blink and you’ll miss them” appearances in the movie by retro TV stalwarts Frank Gorshin and Robert Reed who appear as sub crewmen. Virginia Gregg, Maj. Edna Heywood RN in “Operation Petticoat,” provides the voice of Tokyo Rose.

While “Torpedo Run” is not of the same caliber as genuinely classic submarine movies such as “Das Boot,” “Destination Tokyo,” “The Enemy Below,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “On the Beach,” “Operation Pacific,” “Run Silent, Run Deep” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” However, it is very watchable and features all the typical submarine movie clichés in addition to great effects and fine performances by Ford and Borgnine.

The movie was produced and released by MGM in CinemaScope making good use of the widescreen, with nice model sequences and well integrated stock footage. The movie is based on stories by Richard Sale who co-wrote the screenplay. A prolific writer and sometimes director, Sale is best known as the author of “The Oscar” and “White Buffalo,” both of which were adapted as movies.

Released in October 1958, “Torpedo Run” also oddly played on a double bill with “Fiend Without a Face” in November of that year. March 1958 saw the release of the similarly themed submarine movie, “Run Silent, Run Deep,” with Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster. While “Torpedo Run” is a good WWII drama, Ford and Borgnine can’t quite compete with the performances of Gable and Lancaster and Robert Wise’s gritty direction.

“Torpedo Run” is a burn to order region-free DVD released as part of the WB Archive Collection. The movie looks terrific and sounds good. The only extra on the disc is the theatrical trailer. This is a movie that rarely made the rotation on local TV in my area when I was a kid, so it was very refreshing to watch it again after so many years. The film is a welcome addition for any fan of military adventure movies.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Founded by producers James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff, American International Pictures (A.I.P.) hit upon a formula of financing and releasing low-budget exploitation films for non-discriminating audiences (translation: the youth market). Specializing in horror films and goofy comedies, A.I.P. occasionally strayed into other genres. In 1963, the company capitalized on the always-popular WWII genre with the release of "Operation Bikini". Ostensibly, the movie's title referred to the obscure atoll in the Pacific where atomic bomb tests were conducted during the Cold War era. However, in true A.I.P. style, the advertising campaign was designed to imply that the title might also refer to the fact that the bikini bathing suit was popularized here by a French designer who conducted a photo shoot on the atoll just days after an atomic blast. (Ignorant of the risks from radiation poison, he merrily pronounced that "Like the bomb, the bikini is small and devastating!") Still, the sexploitation angle in "Operation Bikini" was saved for late in the film. What precedes its appearance is a fairly routine combat flick made somewhat more interesting by the obvious attempts of the filmmakers to disguise the movie's very limited budget.  

Tab Hunter, one of the top heart throbs of the era, had by this point seen his popularity in decline. He nonetheless received top billing over charismatic crooner Frankie Avalon, whose career was ascending and who would find great popularity as the star of several A.I.P. beach movies over the next few years. Hunter plays Lt. Morgan Hayes, the leader of a secret commando team that has been ordered to rendezvous with a U.S. submarine that has been ordered to transport them on a secret mission. The team is supposed to locate and destroy the wreckage of an American sub that was recently sunk off the coast of Bikini by the Japanese. Seems the wreckage contains a prototype of a top secret sonar device that the Allies can't afford to fall into enemy hands. From minute one, Hayes' small group of rough house land-lubbers rubs the Captain of the submarine, Emmett Carey (Scott Brady) and his crew the wrong way. Hayes's men resent being cooped up in a floating "tin can" and the naval crew resents the presence of these brash soldiers who seem to be perpetually eager to provoke a fight. Carey gives Hayes a dressing down about keeping the tension levels low and the two men ultimately gain mutual respect for one another. Upon arriving at Bikini, Hayes and his men must sneak ashore and traverse the dense jungle in search of the area where the sunken submarine is located. They are guided by local partisans who conveniently include a stunning beauty named Reiko, played by Eva Six, a recent winner of the "Miss Golden Globes" honor. (I will refrain from making any tasteless jokes.) Reiko takes a shine to Hayes and gets his mind temporarily off his troubles by seducing him. When Hayes and his men finally arrive at their destination, they are dismayed to see a virtual fleet of Japanese vessels guarding the coast line where the sub is already being salvaged by the enemy. Hayes realizes that they are now probably on a suicide mission. Nevertheless, they persevere courageously, dodging and sometimes engaging Japanese patrols before sending in Hayes and some fellow scuba divers to attach time bombs to the hull of the sunken sub. (The sequence is rather absurd because the team accomplishes this in the dead of night despite not being able to employ any lighting equipment whatsoever.) Detected by the Japanese, Hayes and his heroes take some casualties in their desperate attempt to make it back to Capt. Carey's submarine. 

BY LEE PFEIFFER

"Sweet November", released in 1968, came and went without generating much enthusiasm from critics or the public. Produced the estimable team of Jerry Gershwin and Elliott Kastner, who would go on to make "Where Eagles Dare", the film is a romantic comedy set in Brooklyn Heights, just across the river from Manhattan decades before the area was deemed to be hip. Anthony Newley is Charlie Blake, a stuffy British import to Gotham who is the workaholic president of a company that manufactures cardboard boxes. You know the type: no time for love or laughs and just perfect to be taught a life lesson by the right girl, who, in this case, happens to be Sara Deever (Sandy Dennis), a 23 year-old independent young woman who meets cute with Charlie while they both are taking a test to renew their driver's licenses. As in all such scenarios, the small talk is awkward and Charlie finds Sara to be wacky and annoying- before discovering that her bizarre conversations are somewhat intoxicating. Before long, they are pals and Sara brings him to her apartment. She explains she's an artist who has found a way to act as a de facto repair woman for other apartment dwellers, thus supplementing her income. She also has unusual living arrangements. Every month, she "adopts" a new man with emotional needs who gets to live with her for a full month, during which time she serves as an amateur psychiatrist who documents the progress (or lack there of) in bringing the temporary man of the house to a better status than she found him in. At the end of every month, the male tenant must leave to make room for his replacement. Sara can discern that Charlie is an uptight nerd who is also frustrated poet at heart. She convinces him to be her tenant for November. Since Charlie owns his company, he's able to take the time off, which serves as a reminder of nice things were before E mails and text messages came to rule the lives of executives.

Sara's modest flat provides some amusing sight gags: her bed is located on a shaky platform accessible only by a even shakier ladder. However, the perks of being her "Tenant of the Month" are that you don't have to pay rent and you get to sleep with her, though the sexual aspect of the relationship is only hinted at. Charlie finds Sara to be a handful in terms of personality quirks. She has an opinion on everything and likes to play "Mother Hen", advising her tenants about how to improve their lives. Gradually, Charlie becomes intoxicated by her innocence and good nature. She's Holly Golightly on steroids, as she inspires him to explore his creative impulses, shed his business attire and dress in the currently mod styles. Sara introduces Charlie to her best friend, Alonzo (nicely played by Theodore Bikel), an artist and local activist who serves as a father figure to her. Before long, Charlie is madly in love with Sara and dreads the day when his eventual departure will have to occur in order to accommodate her next tenant. Until this point, "Sweet November" plays out like a sitcom of the era, albeit with some nice footage of Brooklyn. Director Robert Ellis Miller often encourages his stars to overplay the "cutesy" elements of their characters. Sara is almost pretentiously quirky and Charlie displays a fey personality and habits that were mostly associated with stereotypical gay characters of the era. However, Herman Raucher's script takes a somber turn in the last third of the film as Charlie desperately convinces himself that Sara loves him as much as he loves her. A dramatic twist is introduced that leads to a genuinely touching, if unexpected finale. As the script grows darker, the two leads have more to work with. Dennis brings a sensitivity to her performance as the ultimate liberated woman and Newley (who generally displays more ham than your local supermarket) eventually reigns in his comedic mannerisms and redeems himself by making Charlie a more sympathetic figure.

"Sweet November" has all the trappings of a stage play that was adapted to a film. In fact, it is not, although one can easily see it translated into a theater production, as most of the scenes take place in an apartment. The script was considered to be a hot property back in the day and Audrey Hepburn was said to have been interested in starring in the film. It enjoyed a prestigious opening at Radio City Music Hall but critics were dismissive of the movie, though the influential New York Times almost begrudgingly acknowledged a positive recommendation. The film quickly disappeared until 2001 when it was remade starring Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron, though that film failed at the boxoffice as well. Despite its unenviable legacy, "Sweet November" is a touching film that will probably please most retro movie lovers. It is currently available on DVD through the Warner Archive. 

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BY FRED BLOSSER

Philip Borsos’ “The Grey Fox” (1982) has been released on Blu-ray in a 4K restoration by Kino Lorber Studio Classics. The film opens with good news and bad news for its protagonist, Bill Miner (Richard Farnsworth). Good news first: Bill emerges a free man from San Quentin in 1901 after serving twenty years for armed robbery. The bad news? Nearing sixty, Bill has one expertise- holding up stagecoaches. Illegality aside, it’s now a useless specialty because stagecoaches have become obsolete. Then, watching “The Great Train Robbery” at a nickelodeon, he has an epiphany. Although stagecoaches may be a thing of the past, holding up trains that carry express shipments can’t be that much different, he reasons. His first robbery goes sour, but he experiences better success after he crosses the border into British Columbia to prey on the railroads there with his junior associate Shorty (Wayne Robson). Needing a base of operations, he finds a new name and cover identity in the remote town of Kamloops as “George Edwards,” a mining engineer, thanks to local businessman Jack Budd (Ken Pogue), a former associate in crime. Budd doesn’t do the favor out of the kindness of his heart. He has his eye on a herd of horses that he wants Bill and Shorty to rustle for him. But the arrangement proceeds smoothly enough that Bill begins to feel at home in Kamloops. He even finds romance with Kate Flynn (Jackie Burroughs), a self-employed photographer in her forties. She is as fiercely independent as he is. She has to be, she argues: “In this country, you’re not taken seriously unless you’re Caucasian, Protestant, and most of all, male.” He admires her spirit and she is charmed by his modest, respectful demeanor. Like everybody else in Kamloops, including the friendly resident lawman Fernie (Timothy Webber), she’s unaware that “George Edwards” is actually the notorious Bill Miner, “The Gentleman Bandit.” Unaware that is, until a tenacious Pinkerton detective (Gary Reineke) shows up in town on Bill’s trail from the botched robbery in Washington.

“The Grey Fox,” a Canadian production, was Philip Borsos’ first feature film. The production is distinguished by the striking compositions, assured pace, and keen sense of time and place that you’d expect to see from an older, more seasoned filmmaker. In fact, Borsos was only 29. The director’s promising career encompassed only four more movies, including an ambitious but troubled Canadian-Chinese co-production, “Bethune” (1990), before leukemia claimed him at age 41. After “The Grey Fox” became a hit in Canada, it was distributed by Zoetrope in the U.S. on the art-house circuit, a wise strategy for Borsos’ low-key, character-driven Northwestern. Richard Farnsworth, in his first starring credit, was the only U.S. actor on the marquee. A veteran Hollywood stunt man and bit player, Farnsworth had won acclaim and an Academy Award nomination for a supporting role in “Comes a Horseman” (1978). While a star like Henry Fonda, Burt Lancaster, or Lee Marvin would have given the production a higher profile at neighborhood theaters, it’s difficult to imagine that any of them could have bettered Farnsworth’s quietly sly, believably weathered presence. Farnsworth was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe and a Best Performance by a Foreign Actor Canadian Genie Award. He also received the London Critics Circle Film Award for Actor of the Year. The rest of the cast is comparably good.

The Kino Lorber special edition of “The Grey Fox” is packed with special features, including audio commentary by Alex Cox, interviews with producer Peter O’Brian and composer Michael Conway Baker, a featurette about the 4K restoration, and a theatrical re-release trailer. Fans of Westerns and flavorful period dramas will welcome the opportunity to revisit the movie they may have seen long ago on home video in the VHS era, or to encounter it here for the first time.

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

“WAR GAMES”

By Raymond Benson

Frank Perry was a notable director and screenwriter who in the early part of his career made some acclaimed motion pictures—David and Lisa (1962), The Swimmer (1968), Last Summer (1969), and Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970). Unfortunately, his later career was marked by problems (he directed the much-maligned Mommie Dearest in 1981, for example). The earlier films were written by or co-written with his then-wife and talented scribe, Eleanor Perry.

Ladybug Ladybug (1963) was the follow-up to his beloved David and Lisa, for which Perry was nominated for the Oscar Best Director. It is a treatise on the prospect of nuclear war, made at a time when such a thing was on everyone’s mind. Released just a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a year prior to Stanely Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and Sidney Lumet’s Fail Safe, Ladybug examines the confusion and miscommunication that could occur in a small American town if, by chance, the early warning system either fails or misfunctions. Eleanor Perry wrote the script, based on a short story by Lois Dickert (which allegedly is based on true events).

The film is notable mostly by the appearance of actors who would go on to bigger and better things—Nancy Marchand, William Daniels, Estelle Parsons, and others you might recognize as reliable supporting players. It’s a low-budget, black and white affair that immediately recalls the style and sensibility of Perry’s previous David and Lisa.

One morning at the local school (is it a middle-school?—the kids all seem to be in grades ranging from, say, third to eighth), the early warning system beeps Yellow and won’t stop. This indicates that a nuclear strike is imminently within an hour. The principal, Mr. Calkins (Daniels), isn’t sure what to do. He can’t reach anyone to confirm whether the alarm is a mistake, a drill, or what… Finally, he makes the decision to send all the students’ home, accompanied by the teachers, who each walk an assigned group of kids to their nearby rural dwellings. The story focuses on Mrs. Andrews (Marchand) and her charges. As the children break off at their various domiciles along the way, one final group of kids go to the home of Harriet (Alice Playten). Harriet’s parents aren’t there, so the girl leads her classmates into a bomb shelter, where she takes charge, evokes “rules,” and refuses to let anyone in or out of the shelter. The situation is left ambiguous—is there an imminent strike or not?

What we are left with is a sober meditation on the absurdity of how we all planned—or not—for these events back in those “duck and cover” days of the early 1960s. The message is clearly anti-nuke, and the drama comes from the Lord of the Flies ambiance that swells among the kids in the shelter. I’m sure that in 1963, this was potent stuff. Today, it’s a relic of a time and place that resides in Baby Boomers’ collective memories.

Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray release looks sharp and crisp in its glorious black and white. There is an audio commentary by film historian Richard Harland Smith, as well as subtitles for the hearing impaired. The theatrical teaser for this and other Kino Lorber releases are also included.

For fans of Hollywood “message” pictures of the 1960s, Ladybug Ladybug showcases a young director at the beginning of a checkered career and an ensemble of talented actors.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

The Warner Archive has released the 1964 comedy "Honeymoon Hotel". The film, made just a few years before the liberalization of sex in the American cinema, is a labored affair with a sterling cast that is largely wasted due to a ludicrous script and leaden direction. This is somewhat surprising because the screenwriters- R.S. Allen and Harvey Bullock- were hot properties at the time, having written some truly classic sitcoms and memorable feature films. Here, they drop the ball with a script that resembles a horny 15 year-old boy's viewpoint of romance and sex. The film opens by introducing us to two best friends, Ross Kingsley (Robert Goulet) and Jay Menlow (Robert Morse), who revel in the fact that they share a Manhattan bachelor pad where they entertain a steady stream of female conquests. The handsome and devilish Ross is clearly the main magnet for the willing women, but even nerdy Jay is doing alright for himself. Thus, it puzzles Ross as to why Jay is about to marry traditional good girl Cynthia (Anne Helm). The story shifts to the scene of the opulent wedding. Just before the rituals can be carried out, however, Cynthia observes Jay and Ross ogling her friend Lynn Hope (Nancy Kwan). She has a public hissy fit and calls off the wedding. The ever-resourceful Ross realizes that Jay is now stuck with a honeymoon package to a tropical island for two that appears to be useless. Not wanting to let the opportunity pass by, he convinces Jay to go on the trip and take him along on Cynthia's ticket. The plan is to get Jay over his grief by getting back into the world of womanizing. Where better to do so than a tropical isle? The two men check into Honeymoon Hotel without realizing that it adheres to a strict policy of catering to newlyweds only.

Through a string of coincidences the strict desk clerk  misses the fact that two men are checking into the same room. This leads to any number of double entrendres and opportunities to overact as the maids come to realize that two guys appear to be on a honeymoon together. (Keep in mind this was 1964).  Ross and Jay ponder why they are striking out with the female guests until they finally learn of their dilemma. Just when their libidos seem destined for disaster, they conveniently discover that there is one single woman on the property: Lynn Hope, who is the social director of the resort. This sets in motion a string of coincidences that are so unbelievable they would be more appropriate in a science fiction film. Predictably, Ross woos Lynn but on the verge of getting her into bed, she runs into Jay and learns of Ross's reputation as a serial seducer. She then plays Jay and Ross against each other in a pedantic series of scenarios in which each man thinks he will be the one to score with her. Finally, Ross legitimately falls for Lynn and in true storybook tradition, makes plans to finally settle down with the right girl. Then everything goes to hell in the film's wacky but dreadful  conclusion in which one of his former conquests, Sherry (Jill St. John in typical air-headed floozy mode) arrives as the resort as the mistress to Ross's crusty boss (Keenan Wynn). In the increasingly ridiculous scenario, the boss's wife turns up because she suspects he is dallying with other women. Then Cynthia appears out of nowhere to see if she can reconcile with Jay. The situations that follow find Sherry being passed around by the males like an appetizer on a platter as each man finds he has to hide her presence from his significant other. Bedroom farces can be quite funny if carried out competently but Levin proves he isn't up to the task. The cast gamely goes through the manic pacing but there isn't a genuine laugh to be found. 

The biggest disappointment with "Honeymoon Hotel" is the squandering of the admirable talent on screen. Goulet always had a fine screen presence in addition to being an impressive crooner. With his model-like good looks he should have been a much bigger star in films, but he seemed to primarily be relegated to mid-range fare like this. Morse made it big by being cast repeatedly as a "Jerry Lewis Lite". His aping of the comedy legend is so apparent that it was wonder he wasn't sued for identity theft. Morse has talent but he's reduced to enacting ridiculous scenarios that are completely out of place in what is supposed to be an adult romantic comedy. Other victims include fine supporting actors like Elsa Lanchester , who is consigned to a tiny role as a maid and the great British character actor Bernard Fox who plays the rigid desk clerk. Nancy Kwan is especially wasted, a fact the producers seemed to have realized because they shoehorn in a pretentious dance routine designed to show off her talents in that area despite the fact that it comes completely out of left field and doesn't even fit in the context of the sequence. Everything about "Honeymoon Hotel" is second rate. The film's bare bones budget is reflected by the fact that the closest the cast got to a tropical isle was a few hours shooting at a local beach a few miles from MGM's back lot. The opulent resort depicted in the film is stuffed with claustrophobic sets and an abundance of plastic palm trees. I've seen more convincing recreations of island life in department store summer patio displays. Even the "bachelor pad" is the recycled set from the "bachelor pad" seen in the previous year's MGM comedy, the far superior "Sunday in New York".  Although the movie attempts to be risque with its sexual themes, the producers didn't have the courage to go beyond some smarmy one-liners. The honeymoon resort is populated by couples who appear to never stop copulating but the biggest laugh in the film is an unintentional one: the bedrooms in the suites all have separate beds, which makes the film as sexually daring as an episode of "I Love Lucy". "Honeymoon Hotel" might have been construed as a sex comedy but it's as flaccid as....well, a wet noodle. 

The bare bones DVD release has no extras.

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BY DOUG OSWALD

A French soldier and spy is sent on a mission to discover the location of a secret German U-Boat base in “Assignment in Brittany,” released on DVD as part of the Warner Archive Collection. Jean-Pierre Aumont plays Captain Pierre Metard, a member of the Free French army serving in Great Britain. He has an uncanny resemblance to a French farmer and soldier, Corporal Bertrand Corlay, a man with Nazi ties who ends up in a British hospital. The British devise a scheme where Pierre impersonates Bertrand and returns home to search out the U-Boat base. He spends weeks studying and memorizing everything known about Bertrand before being flown to and dropped by parachute in to Brittany and makes his way on foot to Bertrand’s family farm.

He runs in to two British soldiers who escaped from a prison camp and are making their way back to England. Pierre/Bertrand sends them to his intended rendezvous point where, when his mission is over, a French Underground member will transport them across the English Channel to safety. Pierre makes it to the farm where everyone is surprised to see him. Not only was he a traitor, but a bit of a cad and not too kind to his mother either.

Bertrand’s mother (Margaret Wycherly) figures out Pierre is not her son because he is more thoughtful and kind than her cold hearted and self-centered offspring. Pierre also meets his/Bertrand’s fiancé, the beautiful Anne Pinot (Susan Peters). It turns out, like Bertrand’s mother, she’s not happy to see him either. Bertrand’s mistress and fellow Nazi collaborator Elise (Signe Hasso) is happy to see him return and is the reason for Anne’s rejection.

Pierre is betrayed by Elise and another collaborator. He’s captured and tortured until he escapes with the help of people in the village while under the cover of a local festival. He quickly recovers and reconciles with Anne, who knows his true identity. With the help of a local villager, he discovers the location of the U-Boat pens and radios the location to the British who soon arrive with torpedo boats and a commando force. The movie comes to a satisfying conclusion with all on the escape boat singing the French national anthem

The film was directed by Jack Conway with a screenplay by Anthony Veiller, William H. Wright and Howard Emmett Rogers, based on a popular espionage thriller by Helen MacInnes. Known as The Queen of International Espionage Fiction, she wrote 21 suspense novels including three others which were adapted into movies; “Above Suspicion” (1943), “The Venetian Affair” (1966) and “The Salzburg Connection” (1972).

Jean-Pierre Aumont gives a very good performance as soldier and spy Pierre/Bertrand. The movie also features George Coulouris as Nazi Captain Hans Holtz and John Emery as Nazi Captain Deichgraber. Both give terrific performances as evil Nazis. Signe Hasso is equally sinister as the Nazi collaborator Elise. A few familiar character actors make appearances in the movie. Reginald Owen is British Colonel Trane, who sends Pierre on his mission. Alan Napier as Sam Wells, is probably most known for his role as Alfred the butler in the 1960s television series “Batman.” Richard Whorf is a villager suspicious of Bertrand’s return, Jean Kerenor. William Edmunds (Mr. Martini from “It’s a Wonderful Life”) is the local French Resistance radio operator Plehec.

Leading lady Susan Peters had a short-lived Hollywood career which came to a sad and tragic end. She was under contract to MGM when, out duck hunting with friends and her husband, actor Richard Quinn, on New Years Day 1945, arifle she picked up accidently discharged and the shot hit her spine, paralyzing her from the waste down. She and Quinn adopted a son in 1946, but they divorced in 1948. Peters continued to work in radio and helped develop a television series which featured her in the lead as a disabled woman in a wheelchair titled “Miss Susan” which broadcast for a single season in1951. The series was ahead of its time in depicting a disabled main character played by a disabled actor. Peters died in 1952 of chronic kidney failure and starvation. It is believed she suffered from anorexia nervosa. Her funeral was attended by many well known actors who were also under contract while she was at MGM.

The film was released by MGM in March 1943 at a time when WWII was still waging in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific. The outcome of WWII was still uncertain and the D-Day invasion of Normandy France was very much a Top Secret and over a year away. The movie is clearly designed to show France and the French people as allies in the war to free Europe from Nazi German tyranny. Filmed in Hollywood, good use is made of light and shadows, which works effectively in this espionage thriller.

This 2019 region-free DVD fromthe Warner Archive Collectionlooks okay, but has plenty of  artifacts. Nevertheless, it's probably as good as we’ll ever see it. The disc contains no extras other than the trailer. The movie is a fun action thriller and well worth a viewing.

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Four Newly Remastered Eddie Murphy Favorites Coming to Disc & Digital

Coming To America, Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places and The Golden Child Arrive December 1, 2020, Before the Highly Anticipated Debut of Coming 2 America

Relive some of Eddie Murphy’s most hilarious films at home before Coming 2 America debuts! 
Own the following from Paramount Home Entertainment on December 1, 2020:

COMING TO AMERICA

Newly remastered in 4K with HDR from a supervised restoration by director John Landis, COMING TO AMERICA is an essential comedy-classic for your collection.  Available for the first time on 4K Ultra HD with Digital copy, in a limited-edition 4K Ultra HD Steelbook with Digital copy and themed mini poster, or on 4K Ultra HD Digital.

Join Eddie Murphy on an unforgettable comic quest to the New World.  As an African prince, it’s time for him to find a princess... and the mission leads him and his most loyal friend (Arsenio Hall) to Queens, New York.  In disguise as an impoverished immigrant, the pampered prince quickly finds himself a new job, new friends, new digs, new enemies and lots of trouble. Keep an eye out for both Murphy and Hall in some unforgettable cameo roles!

The 4K Disc presentations include the following previously released special features in HD:

·         Prince-ipal Photography: The Coming Together of America

·         Fit For Akeem: The Costumes of Coming to America

·         Character Building: The Many Faces of Rick Baker

·         Composing America: The Musical Talents of Nile Rodgers

·         A Vintage Sit-Down with Eddie & Arsenio

·         Theatrical Trailer

·         Photo Gallery

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BEVERLY HILLS COP

This action-comedy classic has been remastered in 4K with HDR and will be available in a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo with Digital copy and is available now on 4K Ultra HD Digital.

BEVERLY HILLS COP follows the one-and-only Axel Foley, a street-smart cop from Detroit.  Tracking down his best friend's killer in Beverly Hills, Axel smashes through the local barriers in a hilarious, high-speed pursuit of justice. 

The 4K Combo includes the following previously released special features:

·         Commentary by director Martin Brest

·         Beverly Hills Cop—The Phenomenon Begins (SD)

·         A Glimpse Inside the Casting Process (SD)

·         The Music of Beverly Hills Cop (SD)

·         Deleted scenes (HD)

·         Behind-the-scenes featurettes incorporating vintage 1984 interviews (HD)

·         An isolated audio track of the original score by Harold Faltermeyer

·        “BHC Mixtape ‘84”, which allows viewers to go directly to the scenes featuring the hit songs “The Heat Is On,” “Neutron Dance,” “New Attitude,” “Stir It Up,” “Do You Really,” and “Nasty Girl.”

·         Location Map

·         Theatrical Trailer (HD)

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TRADING PLACES

One of the funniest, most outrageous comedies of the 80s arrives on Blu-ray as part of the Paramount Presents line.  Newly remastered from a 4K film transfer supervised by director John Landis, TRADING PLACES cemented Eddie Murphy’s star status.  The limited-edition Paramount Presents Blu-ray Discâ„¢ is presented in collectible packaging that includes a foldout image of the film’s theatrical poster and an interior spread with key movie moments.  The film will also be available on 4K Ultra HD Digital.

The very rich and extremely greedy Duke Brothers (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy) wager over whether “born-loser” Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) could become as successful as the priggish Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Akroyd) if circumstances were reversed.  Alongside the street-smarts of Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis), Winthorpe and Valentine are a trio ready for a riotous revenge that culminates on the commodities trading floor in New York City.

The Paramount Presents Blu-ray includes a new Filmmaker Focus with John Landis, access to a Digital copy of the film, as well as the following previously released bonus content:

·         Deleted Scenes

·         Insider Trading: The Making of Trading Places

·         Dressing the Part

·         The Trade in Trading Places

·         Trading Stories

·         Industry Promotional Piece

·         Theatrical Trailer

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THE GOLDEN CHILD

Newly remastered from a 4K film transfer under the supervision of director Michael Ritchie, this hit action-comedy comes to Blu-ray for the first time as part of the Paramount Presents line. The limited-edition Paramount Presents Blu-ray Disc is presented in collectible packaging that includes a foldout image of the film’s theatrical poster and an interior spread with key movie moments. The film will also be available on 4K Ultra HD Digital.

Eddie Murphy is “the Chosen One,” a social worker on a madcap mission to find “the Golden Child,” a young boy possessing mystical powers. Joined by Kee Nang (Charlotte Lewis), they’ll battle the countless henchmen of Sardo Numspa (Charles Dance), the mysterious and evil cult leader holding the boy captive. It’s a dangerous quest, complete with obstacle courses and a mythical amulet, sharply combining Murphy’s wit with eye-popping special effects for an unforgettable adventure.

The Paramount Presents Blu-ray includes a new featurette on the Making of The Golden Child, as well as access to a Digital copy of the film and the theatrical trailer.

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BY TIM MCGLYNN

Kino-Lorber has released a Blu-Ray edition of the 1959 musical comedy, Never Steal Anything Small starring James Cagney, Shirley Jones, Roger Smith and Cara Williams. If it doesn’t sound all that familiar it’s because this movie is a very odd duck. A musical without songs and dances, and a Damon Runyon type plot with characters that get a little nasty at times.

James Cagney, in his final musical performance, plays Jake MacIllaney, a crooked dockworker and steward for the local stevedore’s union in New York City. He cheats, he schemes and he occasionally embezzles funds, but he is somehow still a lovable chap who is well liked by the rank and file. He dreams of becoming the union president and hires a straight-laced lawyer, Dan Cabot (Roger Smith), to help him keep one step ahead of the law. Dan is married to the lovely Linda Cabot (Shirley Jones) whom Jake covets badly enough to enlist the aid of his sometimes girlfriend, Winnipeg Simmons, a gorgeous redhead played by Cara Williams. Why Jake isn’t satisfied with Winnipeg is a mystery, but he manages to convince her to seduce Roger away from his wife so Jake can move in.

Meanwhile, Jake is also plotting with his fellow longshoremen to remove the current union boss, Pinelli (Nehemiah Persoff), and his stooge Sleep-Out Charlie Barnes (Jack Albertson). Jake wheels and deals his way through the union election and always manages to stay out of harm’s way from the cops, Pinelli’s thugs, his lawyer and the two women in his life. He borrows freely from the chapter’s treasury and manipulates both friend and foe to achieve his dream position with the union.

Jake is likeable simply because James Cagney is so charming at playing the small-time crook with a heart of gold. He prances and hoofs his way through scenes even though there is no dance music. In current movies this type of character would be considered a total cad. Cagney, however, cons and bamboozles his underlings and has everyone convinced that he is their best friend. He demonstrates his musical prowess in the wonderful number I’m Sorry, I Want a Ferrari sung with Winnepeg. In this tune, composed by Allie Wrubel and playwright Maxwell Anderson, he convinces Winnipeg to put the make on Dan in return for a new car.

Shirley Jones, looking terrific as a blonde bombshell, gives a spirited performance despite not having much to work with in this script. Jones had established her place in Hollywood with leading roles in the film versions of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma and Carousel. Elmer Gantry and The Music Man were yet to come for this multi-talented actress. She is allowed only one chance to showcase her wonderful voice in this film with the cute number I Haven’t Got a Thing to Wear.

Roger Smith, as lawyer Cabot, was actually a protégé of James Cagney and appeared in the Lon Chaney biopic Man of a Thousand Faces. Later on, television viewers knew him as Jeff Spencer in the popular series 77 Sunset Strip. During the mid 60s Smith suffered a blood clot in his brain and was eventually diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, which cut short a promising acting career. He then went to work behind the scenes as a manager and producer for several actors including his second wife, Ann-Margret.

Cara Williams began her career at age 16 at 20^th Century Fox and eventually worked her way into feisty leading roles in films such as Born Yesterday, The Girl Next Door and The Defiant Ones. Her beautiful red hair is a delight in the restored Technicolor print used for this Blu-Ray release. Also look for the great character actors Nehemiah Persoff, Royal Dano and Jack Albertson in small, but memorable roles as union stewards and enemies of Jake.

Based upon a play by Maxwell Anderson, the direction by Charles Lederer of his own script is crisp and funny with more than a passing nod to the stories and characters of Damon Runyon. There is, however, a bit of ugliness included when, for example, Jake and Linda have acid thrown at them by two of Pinelli’s hoodlums. Also, the whole idea of Jake pimping out his girlfriend to help him steal the wife of his young attorney is a plot line that will not go down well with modern audiences.

At some point director Lederer must have planned for this to be a Guys and Dolls type musical. Why hire noted choreographer Hermes Pan if there wasn’t going to be some spectacular dancing sequences? The finished product, however, is instead a comic drama with two songs and a bit of a male chorus number to bookend the story. There doesn’t seem to be any clues in the script where other songs and dances may have been featured.

The Cinemascope photography by Harold Lipstein and William H. Daniels is gorgeous, and the color is heavily saturated with skin tones just a bit on the orange side. The colorful costumes and set designs fill the wide screen image beautifully. Since this film has only been seen during infrequent television broadcasts and a 1980s pan and scan VHS release, this is probably the first chance we have to see the full 2.35 aspect ratio since the original theatrical screenings. Movies should never be judged unless they are viewed in the proper screen width.

Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray boasts a clean, unscratched film source with the usual Technicolor softness. The mono sound is cold and crisp, and voices are presented at the proper volume. Extras on the disc include a theatrical trailer and audio commentary from film historian Daniel Kremer and author Lee Gambin. Both are knowledgeable and amiable while providing extensive backgrounds on both performers and crew.

If you are expecting a song and dance film like The Seven Little Foys or Yankee Doodle Dandy you will be most disappointed. But an opportunity to see a charming James Cagney film that might be unfamiliar is worth the purchase price, especially when presented in such a handsome edition.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Olive Films has released the now obscure 1941 British film noir "Pimpernel Smith" starring Leslie Howard, who also directed. The movie (known as "Mister V" in  the United States) was released in 1941 at a time when England was hanging on by a thin thread as Hitler dominated most of Europe. As with all of the countries involved in WWII, the British film industry relied heavily on top stars appearing in inspiring movies that would boost public morale. This was especially true in England which saw its major ally, France, capitulate to Hitler in a matter of weeks, leaving the island nation standing alone against the Nazi menace. . At the time "Pimpernel Smith" was released in July 1941 (American would not enter the war until the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of that year),  the Brits were enjoying a spate of good news. After the disastrous experience of the British expedition force in Dunkirk, the nation had been subjected to the Blitz, the daily bombing by the Luftwaffe. London was especially hard hit in what Hitler had hoped to be a strategy that would have destroyed the RAF and led to his massive invasion of England. Instead, after a year of bitter fighting, the RAF had defeated the Luftwaffe and Hitler put his invasion plans on hold as he dealt with the consequences of his misguided incursion into the Soviet Union. With the Battle of Britain now over, the Brits could catch their breath and resume normal activities such as attending the cinema without worrying about being bombed into oblivion. Apparently "Pimpernel Smith" was an especially popular boxoffice hit in 1941, though the film's reputation as faded into oblivion in the decades since.

Howard's film production is a modern, loosely-based version of the classic "The Scarlet Pimpernel"- one of the first famous tales in which the dynamic hero hides behind a meek and mild alter ego to keep his identity secret.  The story is set in the months before England went to war with the Axis powers following Germany's invasion of Poland. Howard plays Prof. Horatio Smith, a tweedy, eccentric academic who teaches at Cambridge. He arranges to take a group of his male students on a field trip to Germany ostensibly to undertake an archaeological expedition to prove that an ancient Aryan culture had once existed there- a notion that appeals to the xenophobic Nazi establishment. In reality, Smith is the unlikely anonymous hero whose exploits are filling the newspapers with tales of adventure, much to the delight of the British and the consternation of the Germans. Through daring schemes that border on the outrageous, Smith has been able to rescue important political prisoners from jails and concentration camps. His latest foray into Germany is designed to rescue Sidmir Koslowski (Peter Gawthorne), a Polish intellectual who is of value to the Allies. He has been arrested by the Germans on suspicion of being a spy. As the field trip gets under way, Smith plays up his role as an absent-minded professor, much to the amusement of his students. However, when he receives a flesh wound during one of his nocturnal secret missions, the boys catch on and insist that they be enlisted into helping Smith free Koslowski. Smith reluctantly concedes to accept their help. On the surface, Smith is treated as an honored guest by the Germans but the local military commander, General von Graum (Francis L. Sullivan) strongly suspects he is actually the "Pimpernel" and is determined to prove it and arrest him before any more prisoners can be freed. Von Graum forcibly enlists the services of Koslowski's beautiful daughter Ludmilla (Mary Morris) and makes her serve as a spy, holding her father's well-being over her head as collateral. Her mission is to seduce Smith if necessary in order to get proof of his extracurricular activities. Predictably, the two fall in love and Smith now not only has to rescue Koslowski, but his daughter as well. 

Despite the fact that Leslie Howard was at the height of his career coming off of his role as Ashley Wilkes in "Gone with the Wind", "Pimpernel Smith" is a low-budget film that resembles a Poverty Row production. Perhaps resources and funding for films in wartime Britain were scarce even for a movie with strong propaganda value such as this. Virtually the entire film was shot on soundstages- and rather claustrophobic ones at that. City views glimpsed through windows are represented by low-grade matte paintings and there are only a few fleeting shots of actual exteriors. It's to Howard's credit as star and director as well as the screenwriters that the movie overcomes these distractions with a highly engrossing story line that builds in interest and suspense during the two-hour running time. Howard is in top form and he is more than matched by Francis  L. Sullivan who makes for a larger-than-life villain in both the figurative and literal sense of the term. Sullivan uses his considerable girth and wry delivery to channel the best characteristics of Charles Laughton and Sydney Greenstreet. The witty script allows some wonderful byplay as Smith and von Graum maintain a superficial politeness even though they both regard each other as mortal enemies engaged in a cat-and-mouse game of strategy. Mary Morris makes for a lovely leading lady though the male actors who play Smith's students are so wholesome as to come across as absurd. It doesn't help matters that the styles of the era make them appear to look older than Smith. 

It's a pity that there were no further adventures of Pimpernel Smith. However, real-life tragedy intervened when Leslie Howard was flying back to England from neutral Portugal in 1943 aboard a civilian aircraft. The plane was shot down by German fighters and all aboard were killed. Germany claimed the tragedy was an error but theories persist that his may have been targeted because of rumors that Churchill was aboard. Another theory was that the Germans wanted Howard dead in retribution for an Allied propaganda campaign he had been carrying out in Spain and Portugal. (For full analysis of the conspiracy theories behind Howard's death, read this entry on Wikipedia.) Thus, one of the film industry's most popular leading men had his life cut short due to the war even though he wasn't serving in combat."Pimpernel Smith" is a modest film but one that resonates very well today and gives us a full appreciation of Howard's talents as both actor and director. The Olive Blu-ray is sans any extras, which is a pity because of the aforementioned dramatic elements of Howard's life that would make for a good commentary track. However, the picture transfer is very impressive and does justice to the fine cinematography of Mutz Greenbaum.

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Today marks the birthday of Fred MacMurray. Writer Joe Elliott provides a fitting tribute to the late actor.

BY JOE ELLIOTT

Classic Hollywood actor Fred MacMurray is probably best remembered today as the easy-going father in the popular, long-running 1960s family sit-com “My Three Sons.” As the head of the growing Douglas clan, the pipe-smoking, sweater-clad MacMurray each week dispensed his gentle blend of wisdom and humor to the delight of American television audiences. One might have thought this was the kind of role MacMurray had always played. Not so, a fact that was first brought home to me by my mother. I recall as a kid hearing her say she didn’t much care for him. Not like Fred MacMurray??? “But why?” I asked. “Because of the jerks he played in the movies,” she told me. It wasn’t until much later that I discovered what she meant. As many CinemaRetro readers will know, MacMurray was a popular film star long before his days in TV. Many still fondly recall him from his appearances in such Disney favorites as “The Shaggy Dog” (1959) and “The Absent-Minded Professor” (1961). However, even before that, MacMurray starred in several well-known roles, notably including ones where he played, to borrow my mom’s word, a “jerk.”

MacMurray, a native Illinoian born in 1908, supported himself in his early years as a singer and jazz saxophonist (he played a trumpeter in 1937’s “Swing High, Swing Low” with Carole Lombard.) His first credited film role was in the forgettable “Grand Old Girl” (1935). While the movie didn’t go anywhere, MacMurray, on the other hand, was off and running. That same year, he appeared in no fewer than six other films, including the George Stevens’ masterpiece, “Alice Adams” with Katharine Hepburn. He quickly became one of Hollywood’s busiest young actors, portraying everything from air pilots to cowboys. In 1940, he appeared alongside rising star Barbara Stanwyck in “Remember the Night.” Soon he was being paired with many of Hollywood’s other leading ladies, including Alice Faye, Jean Arthur, Roseland Russell, Marlene Dietrich, and the beautiful British actress Madeleine Carroll.

MacMurray starred in “Dive Bomber” at the start of World War Two and made several other routine dramas during the war years. Routine, that is, all except for one. Near the end of the war, he was again cast with Stanwyck in “Double Indemnity,” considered today a bona fide noir classic. MacMurray plays insurance salesman Walter Neff in the film. Neff becomes obsessed with the sexy wife of one of his clients, played by Stanwyck, and is willing to do anything to have her. As a result, he allows himself to be lured into a plot to brutally kill her well-meaning but naïve husband in order to collect the life insurance money on him. Director and writer Billy Wilder is said to have wanted MacMurray, who by then had a well-established good guy image, for the role to surprise and shock movie audiences. It was probably this film that started my mom thinking of him as a jerk.

Like his friend and frequent co-star Barbara Stanwyck, MacMurray didn’t like to play the same role twice, and so the next year starred in the zany black-comedy “Murder, He Says.” “Murder” is, without a doubt, my favorite “Fred movie.” Peter Marshall (MacMurray) works for the Trotter Poll ("like the Gallup Poll, but not as fast"). He is sent out to find a co-worker who has mysteriously disappeared. In the process, he stumbles upon a backwoods family of homicidal maniacs, including the bullwhip-wielding matriarch of the clan (Marjorie Main) and her half-witted identical twin sons Mert and Bert (Peter Whitney), one of whom has a crick in his neck. There is some stolen money everyone is after, the location of which is hidden in the lyrics of a nonsense song. The creaky old house where Peter is held hostage is full of weird people and secret passageways. There are two girls, both claiming to be the same person. There is a hilarious climactic scene where everyone is assembled around the family dinner table. They keep turning the lights on and off while spinning around the lazy-Susan to avoid eating the poison-laced food.

MacMurray with Peter Whitney and Marjorie Main in "Murder, He Says".

Anybody who eats the food glows in the dark. “Murder, He Says” is a crazy, rambunctious movie, full of broad slapstick humor and great one-liners. A classic screwball comedy and one MacMurray is entirely at home in. Fred would go on to make more than forty more films in his career. Arguably his two best post-war roles, “The Caine Mutiny” (1954) and “The Apartment” (1960), once again featured him as first-class cads.

Fred MacMurray was one of the highest-paid film actors of his day. His shrewd investments in real estate and stocks made him one of the richest men in Hollywood. Perhaps one reason he was so rich, apart from his smart business sense, was his frugality, some might say, stinginess with a buck. Actor Robert Vaughn, who co-starred with him in “Good Day for a Hanging” (1959), told a revealing story about some boots. Vaughn arrived on the set one morning wearing a pair of expensive new leather boots he had recently purchased at a fashionable Hollywood boutique. MacMurray was much taken with them and asked Vaughn where he got them. The next day Fred appeared wearing a similar pair. When Vaughn asked him about them, he said he had spent the previous afternoon visiting one local thrift shop after another until he found just the pair he wanted! For all that, Fred MacMurray was very much a family man in real-life who enjoyed spending his off-hours playing golf, fishing, and working on his farm. "I take my movie parts as they come," he once said when asked about his career. "I don't fly into an emotional storm about them. I just do them. I guess I am an offhand comedian in a natural way."

Actress Tina Cole co-starred with Fred MacMurray on “My Three Sons.” She was the real-life daughter-in-law of Beverly Garland. Garland played Fred’s wife on the final four seasons of the show.

Here are a few memories Tina Cole recently shared with me about working with Fred MacMurray:

“I thought Fred was a gentle, very sincere man with a genuine love and respect for the family. He was quiet and rather shy off the set, but hysterical when he was on and he could say more with one lift of an eyebrow than most actors could with their entire face! 

Fred was known for his ‘frugality’ and both cast and crew were very surprised with the huge bouquet of flowers he, and his wife June, sent me on my first day of shooting. He knew about fellow cast member Don Grady's and my deep love for each other and was disappointed when we did not marry. Thereafter, every time I saw him he would ask if I had fallen in love. He wanted to see me happily married, which I thought was so sweet.

Here's a little story Fred once shared with me: He had just finished the movie ‘The Apartment’ (in-between filming ‘My Three Sons’), and he and his family were vacationing at Disneyland. A woman who saw the ‘The Apartment’ went up to him in front of his family and belted him with his purse. ‘Mr. MacMurray,’ she said indignantly, ‘I took my kids to see that awful movie and I will never see anything you’re ever in again!’  After that, Fred only did family-oriented films realizing as he did he had developed a different reputation. He stopped doing ‘heavy’ parts because of the effect that woman had on him. True story.”

BY DARREN ALLISON

In 1965, maverick British producer and writer Harry Alan Towers (The Bloody Judge) scored a hit with The Face of Fu Manchu, a thrilling revival of Sax Rohmer’s super-villain imperiously portrayed by Christopher Lee. Powerhouse/Indicator have lovingly brought together all five films in the series and in the process produced a rather spectacular collection.

Christopher Lee was of course no stranger to playing maniacal, Asian characters. He had already played Chung King, leader of the Red Dragon Tong's in Hammer’s movie The Terror of the Tongs (1961) directed by Anthony Bushell. Tall, dark and menacing in his stature, Lee was perfect casting for novelist Sax Rohmer’s notorious Chinese criminal mastermind. Produced by Harry Alan Towers and Oliver A. Unger, The Face of Fu Manchu was a British / West German co-production. Behind the camera was Australian-born British film director Don Sharp, a man who had made some fine film’s for Hammer including The Kiss of the Vampire (1961) and The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964) also starring Christopher Lee.

The film sets out in rather unusual style with the apparent beheading of Fu Manchu. Where do we go from here one might ask? Back in London, his nemesis Nayland Smith (superbly played by Nigel Green), becomes increasingly concerned that Dr. Fu Manchu is not only still alive – but also back and operating in London. The kidnapping of Professor Muller (German actor Walter Rilla) unravels a plot involving a potentially lethal solution created from the seeds of a rare Tibetan flower: the Blackhill poppy. Fu Manchu learns that the poppy seed's poison can be used as a weapon and that just a pint of this solution is powerful enough to kill every person and animal in London. And so begins the classic encounter between good and evil.

It is naturally a perfect example of pulp fiction in its purist form. Producer Towers (as writer Peter Welbeck) seems to relish in his comic book approach, and in fairness, it all works incredibly well and to great effect. One has to remember that these films were made as family-orientated adventures, although some minor cuts were made in order to retain its ‘U’ certificate which obviously made good business sense. Unlike the ‘X’ certified Terror of the Tongs which contained much darker, adult themes, Fu Manchu, in its context is more like a Bulldog Drummond mystery or perhaps a Charlie Chan adventure from the forties or fifties. It succeeds in creating a perfect balance of dramatic excitement and a sense of innocent, harmless fun – all of which is indicative of its period.

Powerhouse/Indicator has produced a wonderful presentation of the film. Restored from a 4K scan of the original negative, the Techniscope frame and Technicolor print has never looked so good, revealing sharp detail and a rich, vibrant colour palette. Blacks are deep and solid and work especially well in contrast to the silky fabrics of Lee’s costuming. The audio (its original mono) is also clear and clean without any evidence of hiss or pops. It’s clear that these films have been worked upon with a great degree of love and care. Powerhouse has also offered a choice of two versions of the film. It was revealed at the time of production, reel 3 of the original negative contained a degree of damage to the left side of frame. This was dealt with at the time by zooming in on certain shots for the cinema prints and thereby eliminating the damage from view. Subsequent prints (for TV and other media formats) have always used the same ‘fixed’ theatrical version. However, for the first time, Powerhouse has offered the option to view the original print in its uncorrected version. Whilst the damage is of course still evident, it does however provide the opportunity of viewing the film without the use of panning or the post-production corrective fix. It’s a nice little touch on the part of Powerhouse and one which is bound to please the purists.

The wealth of bonus material is also very impressive. Firstly, there’s an enjoyable, fact-filled audio commentary with genre-film experts, critics and authors Stephen Jones and Kim Newman recorded in 2020. Other bonus extras include an archival Interview with Don Sharp – Part One: From Hobart to Hammer (1993, 96 mins) made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring Sharp in conversation with Teddy Darvas and Alan Lawson; the BEHP Interview with Ernest Steward – Part One: The BIP Years (1990, 96 mins): archival audio recording of an interview with the respected cinematographer, also made as part of the British Entertainment History Project. There’s a b/w archival interview with Christopher Lee (1965, 4 mins); an extract from the Irish television programme Newsbeat, filmed during location shooting in Dublin. Vic Pratt Introduces ‘The Face of Fu Manchu’ (2020, 7 mins), an appreciation by the BFI curator. Underneath the Skin (2020, 49 mins) in which broadcaster, educationalist and author of The Yellow Peril: Dr Fu Manchu & The Rise of Chinaphobia, the wonderful Sir Christopher Frayling examines the origin, history and reputation of Sax Rohmer’s works. There are also a few alternative titles and credits sequences. For those of a certain age, there are Super 8mm versions: cut-down home cinema presentations which provide a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Original UK, German and French theatrical trailers and a generous image gallery featuring promotional posters, photos and publicity material round off this impressive world premiere on Blu-ray.

Due to the success of The Face of Fu Manchu – especially in America- producer Harry Alan Towers wasted very little time by setting the wheels in motion for a hasty sequel. Hoping to achieve the same success, Towers again pulled in West Germany’s Constantin Films along with his own Hallam Productions to co-finance the next project, The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966). Regardless of a very busy 1966, (a year that also included Hammer’s ‘back-to-back’ productions of Dracula: Prince of Darkness and Rasputin, the Mad Monk), Towers nevertheless managed to secure his leading man Christopher Lee. He was also fortunate enough to have original director Don Sharp sign again on the dotted line.

The story once again revolves around world domination, this time through the use radio waves which can carry destructive blast frequencies. In order to carry out his plan, Fu Manchu has kidnapped the daughters of prominent scientists whom he blackmails into helping him create his deadly transmitter. It was a simple enough narrative, written again in easy, comic book style by Harry Alan Towers. The great loss to this particular film is that of Nigel Green as Nayland Smith. Smith is this time played by Douglas Wilmer, an actor that had just played Sherlock Holmes in the TV series of 1965. Wilmer fits the role perfectly well and proves he can handle himself when it comes to the obligatory fist fight with the dacoits. However, he doesn’t quite possess the same regimented and commanding drive displayed by that of Nigel Green. As with his later portrayals of Dracula, Lee also has far less demanding role in The Brides of Fu Manchu. His presence is still dominating but he has far less to do. Here he seems more comfortable behind a control or instrument panel. In fact, it’s his depraved daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) who this time takes a far more active role alongside lead henchman Feng (played wonderful by Burt Kwouk) who almost steals the show. Everything here though is all sufficiently menacing and a great deal of fun.

Powerhouse has again delivered where it counts. Creating a newly restored transfer from a 4K scan of the original negative, the film looks beautiful and includes the original BBFC theatrical card. Director Don Sharp this time opted to drop the Techniscope process (probably due to Towers ever tightening of the budget) and instead chose to use a standard 1.85:1 lens – but thankfully this never distracts or lessons the overall viewing pleasure or impact. The rich greens, golds and pinks of the costuming again appear so rich. The restoration also reveals a much greater depth, particularly those cantered in the subterranean chamber; another beautifully lit set which looks far greater on screen than in probably was in reality. Every element of these scenes is greatly enhanced and benefit hugely from the new restoration. Powerhouse has also satisfied the purists by sensibly utilizing the cleaned original mono audio.

The disc’s bonus material is also impressive and contains a full audio commentary, this time provided by film historians Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby (2020). Then there is a continuation of the BEHP Interview with Don Sharp – Part Two: A Director of Substance (1993, 95 mins) and Part 2 of the BEHP Interview with Ernest Steward: From Teddington to ‘Carry On’ (1990, 93 mins). Then there’s a real treat in the shape of The Guardian interview with Christopher Lee (1994, 87 mins): a wide-ranging onstage interview with the legendary actor, conducted by the film critic David Robinson. Lee was renowned as a great talker, and this is no exception. The iconic actor delves deep and concise providing the audience with a rare insight of the business and a feast of industry stories. BFI curator Vic Pratt provides another unique and newly filmed introduction to The Brides of Fu Manchu (2020, 7 mins). Pages of Peril (2020, 21 mins): has genre-film expert, critic and author Kim Newman discuss Sax Rohmer and the Fu Manchu novels. The film’s original theatrical trailer, a b/w TV spot and an Image gallery containing production photos, promotional and publicity material round off the world premiere Blu-ray very nicely.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

"Hearts of the West" is a somewhat sentimental, generally amusing tale that displays affection for the early sound era of cinema. Written by Rob Thompson and directed by Howard Zieff, the film barely registered at the boxoffice when released in 1975, despite having received very positive reviews. The story is another familiar "fish-out-of-water" tale with young Jeff Bridges as Lewis Tater, an Iowan who is obsessed with the Western novels of Zane Gray. He's eager to get to the real West to find inspiration for his own plans to become a screenwriter for the horse operas that were all the rage in the 1930s. First, he plans to attend a university in Nevada where he hopes to hone his writing skills. Upon arriving in Nevada, however, he finds that the "university" doesn't exist beyond a post office box where gullible applicants have sent their tuition fees. While still licking his wounds, Lewis checks in to a local boarding house and coincidentally ends up confronting the two men behind the scam (Richard B. Shull and Anthony James.) A brawl ensues and Lewis escapes in their car, while also taking a box that contains a pistol. The con men chase after him to no avail, as Lewis escapes into the desert. What he doesn't know is that the box he has taken has a secret compartment containing thousands of dollars in ill-gotten gains from the tuition applicants. Lewis is saved from dying of thirst when he stumbles on to a low budget movie company that is filming a Western. He befriends veteran stuntman Howard Pike (Andy Griffith), who takes him under his wing and gets him a job as a stunt man despite the fact the Lewis has no experience. Still, his willingness to place himself in danger favorably impresses the director, Kessler (Alan Arkin). Lewis also strikes up a romantic relationship with the script girl, Miss Trout (Blythe Danner), who gets him a job as a busboy in a local diner to help him add to his skimpy wages on the film set. Lewis discovers the hidden money and uses it to try to buy an audience with eccentric film producer A.J. Nietz (a very quirky and funny Donald Pleasence), who he hopes to convince to buy his script for a Western. Things go awry, however, when the two con men track him down and threaten his life.

"Hearts of the West" provides gentle comedy, as director Zieff favors mild chuckles over belly laughs. What enriches the film is the vast assortment of interesting characters. Bridges, then 24 years old, shows star power as the likeable but gullible protagonist and Andy Griffith steals the show as the shopworn, cynical stuntman who never realized fulfillment of his dreams. All of the supporting actors give yeoman performances and there are brief appearances from beloved character actors such as Frank Cady, Dub Taylor, Alex Rocco, Herb Edelman, Marie Windsor, Thayer David and William Christopher, among others. The film is an homage to a bygone era of filmmaking. Ironically, the same can now be said about "Hearts of the West", which is available as a region-free DVD from the Warner Archive. The only bonus extra is the original trailer. 

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BY FRED BLOSSER

To say that George Roy Hill’s “The Sting” (1973) was a hit is like calling Amazon a successful little internet business. Starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, “The Sting” placed second in ticket sales for its year of release ($159.6 million), surpassed only by “The Exorcist.” In the Academy Awards ceremonies on April 2, 1974, it earned seven Oscars, notably honors for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. The Best Picture award sparked a brief controversy as to whether the stylish but relatively lightweight film about an elaborate confidence scheme deserved the accolade. The pot was further stirred during the awards broadcast, when the screenwriter, David S. Ward, flashed a gesture on stage after picking up his statuette. It was the same signal used by real-life con artists to declare victory over unwary dupes, some observers asserted. Whatever the merits of the argument, the awards gave the picture a further nudge at the box office. In Hollywood, such success traditionally demands a sequel. In 1975, “Daily Variety” first reported the news that “The Sting, Part II” was slated for production. That announcement was followed by a long gestation in which several producers, writers, scripts, and proposed stars followed one after another on the project at Universal Picture. At times, various drafts were titled “The Next Sting,” ‘Two Guys from Milwaukee,” and a real head-scratcher, “The Sting II: That’s Why the Lady is a Tramp.” Apparently at no point did anyone propose pulling the plug, even after the years went on and one iteration was scrapped for the next.

When the sequel was finally released on February 18, 1983, it was simply titled “The Sting II.” The original and the sequel shared David S. Ward as the screenwriter. Both movies were premised around two enterprising grifters who pull a Big Con on a shady character against a period backdrop of the Great Depression. Both had opening credits illustrated by title cards in 1930s Norman Rockwell style. But everything else had changed. Jennings Lang had replaced Richard Zanuck and David Brown as producer, Jeremy Kagan had moved into the director’s seat (as Jeremy Paul Kagan), and Lalo Schifrin was credited with the musical score. Like Marvin Hamlisch’s in the original, it leaned heavily and anachronistically on Scott Joplin’s jaunty, early 1900s ragtime compositions. The most conspicuous change was the absence of Newman and Redford from the starring roles. The actors had signaled early on that they had no interest in a sequel. Universal should have taken that as an omen. Ultimately, perhaps it did. February is a notorious time of the year for dumping movies in theaters after studio executives have lost interest or confidence in them. “The Sting II” opened to anaemic box office ($6.3 million) and strongly negative reviews at a level of indignation usually reserved for political attack ads.

Did “The Sting II” deserve its fate? A new release of the picture on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics offers present-day viewers the opportunity to decide for themselves. People age 30 and under are most likely to regard it as a curiosity from a time before Hollywood began to cater to kids and teens with superhero spectacles and the like. In the film, racketeer Doyle decides to get even with (as in, kill) the team of con artists who soaked him for $500,000 in the earlier film. He starts by kidnapping, torturing, and murdering Kid Colors (Bert Remsen), and diverting suspicion onto a rival hoodlum, Macilinski (Karl Malden). The ruse is plausible because Macilinski is known for his crude, ruthless methods. Gondorff and Hooker, the ringleaders of the previous sting, decide to retaliate against Macilinski by scamming him out of $400,000 in an elaborate hoax involving bets on a boxing match. As they proceed, unaware that they’ve targeted the wrong man, Lonnegan waits patiently to lower the final boom, enjoying his apparent success in fooling the two professionals at their own game. Malden’s Macilinski and a slick lady grifter played by Teri Garr were new characters, and the three leads might as well have been, too. Newman’s Henry Gondorff was renamed Fargo Gondorff and played by Jackie Gleason, and Redford’s Johnny Hooker was renamed Jake Hooker, played by Mac Davis. Oliver Reed assumed the part of Doyle Lonnegan, originally played by Robert Shaw. Why Ward and Kagan thought to rename two of the primary characters but not the third, when all three were recast but were all supposed to be the same ones played by Newman, Redford, and Shaw, is a puzzler. Maybe remnants of previous, contradictory drafts had found their way into the final shooting script.

Critics took a dim view of the recastings, as if suspecting Universal of a bait-and-switch scam of its own against fans of Newman and Redford. Mac Davis, who passed away at age 78 in September 2020, came in for particularly negative press, although he had received good notices for two previous movies, “North Dallas Forty” (1979) and “Cheaper to Keep Her” (1981), and performed capably as Hooker. Davis brought name value as an enormously successful and well-liked singer and songwriter, and more importantly for audience demographics, he had a devoted female fan base. A greater disappointment was Oliver Reed, whose Lonnegan lacked the steely menace of Shaw’s, although that may have been as much the script’s fault as Reed’s. “The Sting II” isn’t the complete wreck that you would guess from the old reviews, but it isn’t particularly distinguished either, covering as it does much the same ground as its predecessor with less energy, inspiration, polish, and surprise. Still, fans of Gleason, Davis, and caper pictures will give kudos to KL Studio Classics for granting it new visibility on Blu-ray. Films like this one risk sliding completely into limbo, now that they no longer play widely on HBO, Cinemax, and your local TV affiliate’s Afternoon Money Movie as they once did.

The KL Studio Classics Blu-ray at least looks gorgeous in hi-def, 1.85:1 color. Special features include the theatrical trailer and audio commentary by Jeremy Kagan. The director speaks fondly about various aspects of the film, including the question of whether someone can change a bet on a prizefight after the match has already started -- a key element in the plot.

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

BY TODD GARBARINI

In the history of cinema, it is a known fact that the producers and director of a film all have their own opinions about what a finished film should be titled. Movies generally use a working title which rarely ends up being used upon release. Even the film’s own writer invariably believes that it is his/her title that should be used with consideration given to no one else. One can only wonder how Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) would have fared at the box office had it been marketed under its original title, A Boy’s Life. Ridley Scott’s initially panned and now revered science fiction masterpiece Blade Runner (1982), its title taken from a 1979 novella by William S. Burroughs, would have found difficulty being displayed on movie marquees had it gone by the jaw-breaking title of the 1968 Philip K. Dick novel upon which it was based, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The Satanists was one of the original titles considered for the film that would eventually be called Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, a beautifully understated piece of filmmaking shot in October 1970 in Connecticut and released in New York on Friday, August 27, 1971 two months prior to a rollout in suburban theatres and drive-ins and its eventual ABC-TV premiere on Friday, March 11, 1977 before becoming a staple of late-night television airings. The 1970s are a by-gone era which followed the end of the studio system of contracts and obligations and gave way to films that defined originality of thought and style, permitting both novice and seasoned filmmakers the freedom to make the kinds of films that they wanted to for distribution through major studios. This maneuver was driven by two factors: the desire to make money and film studios not knowing what would bring in the crowds.

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death was coined by executives at Paramount Pictures and the title’s aggressiveness suggests far more action that the film actually delivers. Jessica is far from a cinematic triumph. However, when it succeeds it is evocative of the creepiness of Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls (1962) both in its use of elliptical narrative storytelling and mood and also benefits from a thematic touch befitting of an episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. The titular heroine is portrayed by veteran actress Zohra Lampert of Splendor in the Grass (1961) fame in a nuanced performance of a woman recently released from a sanitarium (when was the last time you heard that word?). The start of the film finds her motionless in a boat, her voiceover indicating to the audience that something awful has happened. The film proceeds in flashback with Jessica preparing for a quiet but charmed life in the country with her husband Duncan (Barton Heyman who played Dr. Klein in 1973’s The Exorcist) and their mutual friend Woody (Kevin O’Connor) in an immense old manse sporting a turret. A brief stop at a cemetery finds Jessica hearing strange whispers while garnering tombstone rubbings on tracing paper and later displaying them in the room she shares with Duncan. Emily (Mariclare Costello) is an odd house squatter coming on the heels of the Free Love Sixties, an itinerant musician who befriends the new homeowners and encourages them to perform a séance during which Jessica continues to hear voices in her head. They persuade Emily to stay and she is thrilled. Unbeknownst to them, Emily has stayed for much longer than any of them are aware, and her image and likeness is seen in an old framed photograph Jessica finds in an afternoon sojourn into the largest attic I’ve ever seen. A local antique store dealer informs them that the house used to belong to Abigail Bishop, a woman who drowned in the lake near the house 90 years earlier. Disturbed by this information, Jessica begins to experience things that make her question her sanity again. It isn’t long before we realize that Emily has made a deep impression so-to-speak on the townsfolk who all stand around with bandages around their necks, covering deep scratches.

Inspired by the 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (which itself inspired the wonderful 1961 Jack Clayton adaptation The Innocents with Deborah Kerr), Jessica thrives on moments where the audience is forced to ask themselves if what is happening is really happening, or if it’s only happening in Jessica’s mind. The film benefits from a slow and deliberate build-up of mood and atmosphere. Orville Stoeber provides a wonderfully creepy score which, like Stephen Lawrence’s brilliant music for Alfred Sole’s masterful Communion/Alice, Sweet Alice/Holy Terror (1977) is unfortunately still not available on a soundtrack album. Cinematographer Robert M. Baldwin bathes the film frame in autumn foliage and employs the use of slow camera moves to enhance the film’s overall mood. The film is far too slow for today’s audiences, but for those with a mindset for 1970s horror, Jessica fits the bill.

Jessica is one of those titles I have been wanting to see in a much-needed home video upgrade. A bare-bones DVD was released by Paramount Home Video in 2006 and now the amazing people at Scream Factory (an imprint of Shout! Factory) have released the film on Blu-ray with a considerably improved transfer. There is a welcome feature-length audio commentary with producer Bill Badalato and director John Hancock, who is arguably best known for the Robert De Niro vehicle Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). They offer many memories about the making of the film, one of which is Mr. Hancock’s recollection of lifting the voiceover device of Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) in Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963) to make the audience identity more with Jessica. The other extras include:

Art Saved My Life: Orville Stoeber on Let’s Scare Jessica to Death – this runs 16:25 and consists of an interview with the film’s music composer who describes growing up all over the world and how his family influenced his musical impressions.

Scare Tactics: Reflections on a Seventies Horror Classic – runs 23:44 and is an interview with author and critic Kim Newman who explains why Jessica is his favorite horror film.

She Walks These Hills: Let’s Scare Jessica to Death Locations Then and Now – this runs 6:48 and takes us to the First Church Cemetery in East Haddam, CT; the “Selden III” Hadlyme Ferry in Chester, CT; the Pattaconk Reservoir in Chester, CT; the Bishop House in Old Saybrook, which is beautiful but completely dilapidated, even more so than when I visited it in 2006. I really wish that someone would buy it and restore it; and Main Street and Maple Street in Chester, CT (Devoe Paints was still there in 2006, but gone now and the building is for rent).

Theatrical trailer – a very creepy promo for the film that runs three minutes

Television spot – this runs 53 seconds and, like the theatrical trailer, gives away much of the plot while trying to be creepy.

Radio spot – this is derived from the mini record that was dispatched to radio stations to play over the air and runs 60 seconds. Creepy!

Thankfully, the film’s creepy original key art has been reinstated for the cover of the Blu-ray, unlike the 2006 DVD cover.

Jessica is a film that is bathed in moments of eeriness and supernatural detachment thanks in part to screenwriter Lee Kalcheim whose former student, film director Bryan Norton, tipped his hat to the film by making the movie’s title the byline for his nifty short film Penny Dreadful (2005).

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Horror films have long been the inspiration for big screen comedies, though precious few have mined enough genuine laughs to gain status beyond the "B" movie level. For every "Young Frankenstein", there are ten "Hillbillies in a Haunted House".  Screenwriter and actor Rudy De Luca, who had written the marvelous screenplays for Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie" and "High Anxiety", was eager to take the next logical career step and try his hand at directing. The property was his own invention, a contemporary horror spoof titled "Transylvania 6-5000", a play on the classic Glenn Miller song "Pennsylvania 6-5000". He secured a very modest budget of $3 million with the unusual proviso that he had to shoot the film on location in Yugoslavia (this was apparently due to financial considerations held by backers of the production.)  De Luca secured the services of some up-and-coming young talent and was off on his quest to make a hit. De Luca's script finds Jack Harrison (Jeff Goldblum) and his colleague Gil Turner (Ed Begley, Jr.) as "journalists" for a National Enquirer-like exploitation rag. Their grumpy boss (Norman Fell in a cameo) sends the reluctant duo off to Transylvania to pursue alleged sightings of Frankenstein. It makes no difference whether there is any evidence of these sensational claims, as the boss just wants a big story that will appeal to gullible readers. Once in Transylvania, the writers immediately cross paths with a variety of eccentric and/or menacing characters that lead to increasingly incredible adventures involving a mad doctor (Joseph Bologna), a snarky hotel manager (Jeffrey Jones), a femme fatale (Geena Davis, wearing a Vampira-like costume throughout), a female accomplice (Carol Kane) and some kooky servants (Michael Richards and John Byner). The evidence leads to suggestions that Frankenstein may exist, along with the Wolfman, but getting to the explanation requires the viewer to sit through endless manic, but unfunny comedic setups. There may be an occasional guffaw along the way but, in general, the film is a total misfire.Seldom have so many formidable talents been so squandered.

Kino Lorber has released a Blu-ray edition of the movie that includes a commentary track by De Luca and Steve Haberman, who was a visual consultant on the movie. Here's where things become interesting. While the film itself is a dud, having De Luca and Haberman return to the scene of the crime, so to speak, makes for a highly enjoyable and candid commentary track. De Luca and Haberman don't regard the film as an artistic failure and point out that it made a slight profit and seems to have built a cult following over the years. But De Luca reflects on the obstacles he had to overcome as a first-time director, including having to fire his first assistant director shortly after filming began. He also says that the movie didn't benefit much from the Yugoslavian locations except for the presence of some imposing ancient buildings. (Haberman correctly points out that the village they shot most of the movie in actually looked as phony as a theme park setting.)  De Luca had to commit to completing the entire movie in only 30 days, which would be a Herculean task for even a seasoned director. He had to get many complex scenes done on the first or second take, no matter how unsatisfying the result was because the budget wouldn't support the normal number of takes.  He had no access to a studio and had to make due with existing interiors in local buildings that were often ill-suited to the action he had to film. Additionally, he had some temperamental actors, with Begley griping about his directorial choices and Carol Kane forming a dislike for Joseph Bologna because he manhandled her roughly in a key scene. He also had to contend with employing many local actors for small roles who could not speak English. As he comments on the film, he points out that some scenes that were to have been shot at night in a shroud of fog had to be filmed in broad daylight, which was obviously not very atmospheric for a monster movie. The commentary track is especially useful for aspiring young filmmakers who are given fair warning about the factors they will have to overcome when making a movie for a major studio. Happily, De Luca and Haberman survived the experience and went on to bigger and better things, including future collaborations with Mel Brooks, although De Luca has not directed another film since. Still, upon learning the background of the troubled production, you have give the man kudos for finishing the movie on time and on budget.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray looks very good indeed and also includes the two original trailers, several TV spots and a gallery of trailers for other KL releases. This is one title that is dispensable as a main feature, but worth getting due to the merits of the commentary track.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Paramount has released a superb, newly restored Blu-ray edition of William Wyler's delightful classic "Roman Holiday" starring Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn (in her star-making role) and Eddie Albert. Paramount Home Video recently held a press conference with film historian Leonard Maltin and the studio's Head of Archives Andrea Kalas, who detailed the painstaking time and effort that went into making the film look better than ever. She explained the during filming, the laboratory in Rome caused damage to the original negative. With the crude technology of the era, the final release prints were not able to eradicate all of the flaws. Today, however, the situation is far better and "Roman Holiday" has never looked so good. The movie was one of the first major Hollywood productions to be shot entirely abroad and the on-location aspect in Rome allows the film to capture the flavor and delights of "The Eternal City". Best of all are the three stars, with Peck, Hepburn and Albert all adding immeasurably to the movie's status as a classic. Don't miss this one. Kudos to Paramount for putting so much time and expense into preserving a true cinematic gem.

Here is the official press release:

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – The treasured and enduring classic ROMAN HOLIDAY debuts on Blu-ray for the first time ever as part of the Paramount Presents line on September 15, 2020 from Paramount Home Entertainment.

The exquisite Audrey Hepburn lights up the screen in her first starring role opposite the charismatic Gregory Peck in this funny, beautiful, and intoxicating romantic comedy.  Ranked as the #4 greatest love story of all time by the American Film Institute, ROMAN HOLIDAY earned 10 Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture, and won Best Actress for Hepburn, Best Costume Design for legendary designer Edith Head, and Best Writing for Dalton Trumbo. 

About the Film

Director William Wyler’s 1953 fairy tale was one of Hollywood’s first on-location motion pictures and memorably captures the bustling streets and iconic sites of Rome.  ROMAN HOLIDAY expresses the exhilaration of joyously breaking free as the lead character escapes her royal obligations against the backdrop of post-war Europe embracing long-awaited peace.

Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee and his name was not included in the film’s original credits.  In 1992 the Board of Governors of the Academy voted to finally credit Trumbo for the “Story Writing” Oscar and his widow received a statuette in 1993.  In 2011, the WGA restored Trumbo’s name to the screenwriting credits.  This is the first physical home entertainment release to correctly credit Dalton Trumbo with both the screenplay and story by credits both on packaging and the film itself.

About the Restoration

The original negative was processed at a local film lab in Rome and was unfortunately badly scratched and damaged.  The film had to be pieced back together, but the splices were so weak due to the damage that extensive amounts of tape had to be used to allow the negative to make it through a printing machine.  Because of the fragile state of the negative, a Dupe Negative was made and then blown up a few thousandths of an inch to cover all the splice tape that held the original negative together.

In anticipation of this new Blu-ray release, the film was digitally restored using the Dupe Negative and a Fine Grain element to capture the best possible image.  Every frame was reviewed, and the film received extensive clean up to remove thousands of scratches, bits of dirt, and other damage.  Because audio elements to properly up-mix to 5.1 do not exist, the original mono track was remastered, and minor anomalies were corrected.  The result is a film returned to its original vibrancy and beauty that remains true to director William Wyler’s vision. (Click on YouTube video below for excerpts from the restoration press conference.)

About the Release

The limited-edition Paramount Presents Blu-ray Discâ„¢ is presented in collectible packaging that includes a foldout image of the film’s theatrical re-release poster, and an interior spread with key movie moments.  Newly remastered from a 4K film transfer, the ROMAN HOLIDAY Blu-ray also includes a new Filmmaker Focus with film historian Leonard Maltin, access to a Digital copy of the film, as well as previously released featurettes on Academy Award®-winner Audrey Hepburn, Edith Head’s Oscar®-winning* costumes, the blacklisting of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, and much more.

Bonus Features:

-          Filmmaker Focus: Leonard Maltin on Roman Holiday

-          Behind the Gates: Costumes

-          Rome with a Princess

-          Audrey Hepburn: The Paramount Years 

-          Dalton Trumbo: From A-List to Blacklist 

-          Paramount in the '50s: Remembering Audrey

-          Theatrical Trailers

-          Four Photo Galleries:  Production, The Movie, Publicity, The Premiere

-           

About Paramount Presents

This collectible line spans celebrated classics to film-lover favorites, each from the studio’s renowned library.  Every Paramount Presents release features never-before-seen bonus content and exclusive collectible packaging.  Additional titles available in the Paramount Presents collection on Blu-ray include: Fatal Attraction, King Creole, To Catch a Thief, Flashdance, Days of Thunder, Pretty In Pink, Airplane! and Ghost.

*Winner: Best Actress (Audrey Hepburn); Best Writing (Motion Picture Story, Dalton Trumbo); Best Costume Design (Black & White, Edith Head), 1953. Additional nominations: Best Picture; Best Directing (William Wyler); Actor in a Supporting Role (Eddie Albert); Art Direction (Black & White); Cinematography (Black & White); Film Editing; and Writing (Screenplay).

“ACADEMY AWARD” and “OSCAR” are the registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Since the release of Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" in 1990, it seems that every American crime movie has emulated elements of this masterpiece in some way or another.  Who can blame the filmmakers? If you're going to crib, you might as well crib from the best. The "Goodfellas" wannabes are often undone by the pretentiousness of the homage to Scorsese's film while others successfully capture certain elements that don't overwhelm their own unique qualities. Falling squarely into the latter category is "Kill the Irishman", a 2011 production that preceded Scorsese's much-lauded 2019 film "The Irishman". 'lest you suspect that this was a case of the master cribbing from another film, think again. They are two completely different stories involving two completely different Irishmen. Had the 2011 film made any kind of cultural impact, chances are Scorese wouldn't have used the title "The Irishman" (which was chosen because the book it was based upon, Charles Brandt's "I Heard You Paint Houses" certainly didn't evoke visions of it clicking with movie audiences.) Chances are, you've never heard of "Kill the Irishman". The only reason it had any name recognition for me was because a friend of mine, actor Robert Davi, told me at the time that he had been hired to appear in the film. He mentioned it would have a good cast. The movie ultimately suffered the fate of so many other productions that were shot without major budgets or big box office names- it basically went straight to video after a brief, limited theatrical run that saw it gross less than $2 million. Recently, it's been getting some buzz from crime movie fans who streamed it on Amazon. After getting a couple of recommendations, I decided to check it out, expecting to see a "B" crime flick with a few memorable moments. In fact, "Kill the Irishman" is an exceptionally good movie on all levels and ranks among the better crime films I've seen in many years.

The film is another "ripped from the headlines" scenario based on real life events. However, because this particular crime movie isn't centered in New York, L.A., Chicago or London, the average person probably won't be aware of them unless you lived in or around Cleveland, Ohio, where most of the action takes place. (The movie was actually shot in Detroit.) It tells the tale of Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson), a proud Irish-American, who came into prominence in the 1970s. Greene was just another local blue collar longshoreman trying to feed his wife and kids by working at backbreaking menial labor under appalling conditions while his corrupt union boss lives like a Roman emperor. Fed up, Danny ignores conventional wisdom and takes on the union president, rallying the rank-and-file behind him. Danny's thuggish ways and willingness to personally dispense violence sees him win an improbable victory and become elected as the new leader of the union. For a while, things are good. He improves conditions and job opportunities for the members but soon becomes addicted to power and money and ends up being as corrupt as his predecessor. He gets into legal trouble, is banned from the union and ends up penniless and unemployed. The film chronicles Danny's Lazarus-like rise back to power, this time through brutality and corruption. Before long, he's the crime king of Cleveland and presides over a city besot by enough gang wars, bombings and shootouts to rival Chicago in the Al Capone era. He survives numerous assassination attempts, the departure of his wife and family and the betrayal of close friends. However, he makes a major error by taking out a large loan from the Gambino crime family in New York. When he can't pay it back, it leads to all-out war.

"Kill the Irishman" is directed with flair and skill by Jonathan Hensleigh, who captures the feel of the great Coppola and Scorsese crime movies, a job made easier by his own compelling script, co-written by Jeremy Walters. The centerpiece of the production is a towering performance by Ray Stevenson as Danny Greene, who brings depth and complexity to the role. Danny is a murderous thug at heart, but he also lives by a code of honor and truly cares about the ordinary working stiff. He's brash and courageous to the point of recklessness, surviving numerous attempts to kill him. (The film's remarkable and gripping opening scene depicts one such scenario.) Stevenson, best known for playing the comic book superhero The Punisher, deserved an Oscar nomination for his work here. The movie boasts an extraordinary cast of supporting actors : Christopher Walken in a small role as a Jewish crime kingpin, Linda Cardellini as Danny's long-suffering wife, Val Kilmer as an F.B.I. agent and childhood friend of Danny's, Vincent D'Onofrio as the only friend Danny can truly trust, Paul Sorvino and Tony Lo Bianco as Gambino crime family bosses and the aforementioned Robert Davi as an ultra creepy assassin. The production values are strong and the film looks far more expensive than its $12 million budget.

"Kill the Irishman" deserved a better fate. However, its availability on streaming gives yet another fine movie the opportunity to be discovered by a wider audience. Highly recommended.

(The film can be streamed for free by Amazon Prime members or can be rented or purchased for streaming by non-members.) 

(A Blu-ray special edition can be ordered from Amazon by clicking here.)

BY LEE PFEIFFER

One of the most popular and enduring sitcoms of its era, "McHale's Navy" ran from 1962-1966.  The premise centered on Lt. Commander Quinton McHale (Ernest Borgnine), a PT boat skipper stationed in the South Pacific (later transferred to Italy)  during WWII along with a motley but lovable crew of swabbies. McHale and his men are unconventional, to say the least, and routinely disregard basic military discipline. They are so unruly that they have been relegated to their own tiny island, which suits them just fine. Here they brew booze, entertain young women and run about dressed in party attire. They also manage to "adopt" a genial Japanese prisoner-of-war, Fuji  (Yoshio Yoda), who manages to stay hidden despite indulging in all the excesses of McHale and his crew. McHale's antics are to the chagrin of their superior officer, Capt. Binghamton (Joe Flynn), who is constantly devising schemes to catch McHale and his men in a major infraction and have them court martialed. Inevitably, just in the nick of time McHale and his crew distinguish themselves in some sort of military action that brings them praise from the top brass instead of ending their careers. 

The series proved to be so popular that is spawned two feature films that have now been released as a double-feature DVD by Shout! Factory. "McHale's Navy" was certainly not the first TV series to have a cross-over to the big screen. In the 1950s Walt Disney edited together several  episodes of his immensely popular "Davy Crockett" series starring Fess Parker and released them as the feature film "Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier".  During the 1960s and 1970s, the same process was used to release previously-seen TV episodes as feature films, though many were seen only in European markets. These included "Mission Impossible Vs. The Mob", "Mission: Monte Carlo" (based on "The Persuaders") and most notably, eight entire feature films derived from two-part episodes of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.". "McHale's Navy" was a more ambitious venture because, like the big screen versions of "Batman" and "The Munsters" ("Munsters Go Home!"), it at least consisted of entirely new material shot specifically for the theatrical version. The real thrill for fans of such shows was the ability to see their favorites on the big screen in color during an era in which precious few homes boasted color TVs. 

The plot of the first film is reed-thin. McHale crew member Gruber (Carl Ballantine) tries to raise funds for an orphanage by devising a massive betting scheme predicated on the outcome of a horse race in Australia that has already been completed. However, the bettors won't legitimately know the results of that race until the newspaper is delivered by mail drop a week after the race's conclusion. Thus a large number of servicemen converge on McHale's island to engage in the betting. The trouble is that almost everyone is betting on the favorite: Silver Spot. When the newspaper arrives, Gruber discovers to his horror that Silver Spot has indeed won- and now the pot isn't big enough to pay off the bettors. McHale and Gruber stall for time and buy a week during which they must come up with the money to pay off the bettors. McHale and his men sail their PT 73 to New Calendonia where McHale reunites with a former lover, Margot (Jean Willes), a local saloon owner who he hopes will lend him the funds. She agrees to do so but only for a steep price: he must consent to marry her. Meanwhile, McHale's bumbling executive officer, Ensign Parker (Tim Conway) attempts to rescue a local French beauty, Andrea (Claudine Longet) from a bothersome local wolf, a rich businessman, Le Clerc (an unrecognizable George Kennedy). He earns her respect and his wrath but he also accidentally launches a depth charge that destroys one of the docks owned by Le Clerc. Now McHale and his men must come up with money for damages or risk being imprisoned. In a plot device that is as improbable even by sitcom standards, it turns out the valuable Silver Spot has gone missing and the crew of the PT 73 just happens upon him on a remote island. They attempt to win the money they need by disguising the horse and running him in another race under another name. The "Day at the Races"-like scenario falls apart, exposing the crew's deceitful tactic- but when McHale and his men thwart a Japanese submarine attack, all is forgiven and they are rewarded with enough cash to pay off all their debts. The film provides some pleasant entertainment and manages- ever so slightly- to spice things up compared to the TV series. (It's clear that McHale and Margot enjoy a pretty steamy past.) Also, the ever-virginal Ensign Parker finds himself uncomfortably close to Andrea as she tries to change out of wet clothing. Much of the fun derives from watching the great Joe Flynn and Tim Conway interact with impeccable comedic timing. The direction by Edward J. Montagne is well-paced. Montagne, who also produced the TV series, was an underrated talent, having helmed and/or produced the terrific Don Knotts feature films of the era including the cult classic "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken".

Edward Montagne was also in the director's chair for "McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force", released in 1965 on the heels of the first film's success. This time, however, Ernest Borgnine is nowhere to be seen. Borgnine told this writer years ago that he never got a clear explanation for why the film was made without him but said that theater owners leveled criticism at him, thinking he refused to be in it. In fact, Borgnine said he was flabbergasted that he had never been asked to appear in the movie. There were probably two motives for by-passing him. The first was money. By eliminating the highest paid cast member, Universal could keep production values low. Second, the studio might have wanted to give unrestrained screen time to the antics of Joe Flynn and Tim Conway, who were becoming an enormously popular duo through the TV series. In any event, Borgnine's absence is initially glaring but the as the film gets underway it turns out this sequel is superior to the original. The plot is more ambitious and the antics of Conway and Flynn are unrestrained. This film also affords McHale's crew- which consists of some wonderful character actors like Billy Sands, Gavin MacLeod and Carl Ballantine- to appear as something more than mere window dressing. This time around the plot revolves around a case of mistaken identity. Cutting through the clutter, it boils down to Ensign Parker first being mistaken for defecting Soviet officer and being arrested by KGB agents (one of whom is played by Len Lesser, who went on to appear as Uncle Leo in the "Seinfeld" series). Parker bumbles his way out of that but then becomes mistaken for a high profile Army officer (Ted Bessell), who has a reputation for being quite the lady's man. A lot of the fun revolves around the hapless, innocent Parker becoming a chick magnet for the likes of willing young women played by Susan Silo and Jean Hale, among others. Since the Army Air Corps officer Parker is impersonating is also a master pilot, he is forced to act as navigator aboard a bomber. Through a convoluted series of events, Binghamton ends up aboard the plane with him and the two wreak havoc before tumbling out of the plane on a jeep that is suspended from the cargo hull by a parachute. Flynn and Conway are like a modern version of Laurel and Hardy and I must admit that, despite the sheer predictability of their routine, I ended up chuckling out loud at numerous points. Meanwhile, McHale's crew gets some screen time when they switch uniforms with Russian sailors in order to sneak off PT 73 and go into town to get drunk. This, of course, turns out to have disastrous unforeseen consequences. The film also benefits from some other familiar character actors of the era including Henry Beckman, Tom Tully and Willis Bouchey, all of whom are marvelous to watch. Both films also feature the deft comedic turns by series regular Bob Hastings as Binghamton's ever-present aide and boot-licker, Lt. Elroy Carpenter, whose devotion to his unappreciative boss borders on the homo erotic. (I'm convinced the Mr. Burns/ Smithers relationship in "The Simpsons" is directly based on the Binghamton/Carpenter characters in "McHale's Navy"). As with the previous film, this one is a bit more mature in terms of sexual content, though it remains firmly in the category of family entertainment. The women's sexual aggressiveness would never have made it in the TV series (Jean Hale's character in particular makes it clear she can't wait to bed the legendary Romeo that Parker is impersonating). In another scene, Parker and Binghamton uncover a shipment of brassieres and both of them are clueless as to what they are. 

Both of the Shout! Factory transfers are completely pristine and make for a highly enjoyable afternoon of "McHale" bing-watching. Unfortunately, there are no bonus extras.

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BY DOUG OSWALD

An all star cast features in the adaptation of Leon Uris’ “Battle Cry,” available on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive Collection. The granddaddy of contemporary WWII melodramas like “The Winds of War” and “Band of Brothers,” “Battle Cry” was one of the first big dramatic war stories which followed multiple characters through boot camp, romance, heartbreak, the battlefield, death and homecoming. One of my favorite movies in this genre is Otto Preminger’s “In Harms Way” from 1965 which teamed John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. “Battle Cry” was first a best selling novel released in 1953 and quickly adapted to the big screen. Some people criticize these types of military themed melodramas as being light on action and heavy on romance, but there’s certainly a place for both.

“Battle Cry” begins with the narrator setting the stage. It’s January 1942 and several young men and their families say their goodbye’s from East Coast to West Coast picking up more guys along the way to San Diego where they will start their 10 weeks of training at the Marine Corps Base in California. The narrator of the story is their senior NCO, Master Sergeant Mac, played by James Whitmore in one of my favorite of his many great performances. He portrayed a similar character a few years earlier in the gritty story of the Battle of Bastogne, “Battleground.” He also served in the Marine Corps during WWII and his portrayal in both films is convincing and natural.

We meet all the central characters on the train and we get the basic set up for their stories. They’re a mixed lot, ranging from intellectuals and the street wise to hot heads, country boys, a lumberjack and tough guys. We follow them from boot camp to radio school and then off to the war in the Pacific with stops in New Zealand and Hawaii in between landings on Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Saipan. In between they find time for romance and infidelity.

Danny Forrester (Tab Hunter) is engaged to his high school sweetheart, Kathy (Mona Freeman). While in San Diego he meets USO volunteer Elaine Yarborough (Dorothy Malone), the wife of a deployed naval officer who, as she says, has everything she needs. They have a brief affair until Danny breaks it off.

Andy Hookins (Aldo Ray) is the confirmed bachelor of the group who sees “dames” as playthings. He reminds his pals their problem is falling for one dame. While in New Zealand, he meets and falls for widow Pat Rogers (Nancy Olson). She’s not like the other women he has met and apologizes to her for his behavior. He meets her family and later, they get married. He even contemplates desertion to avoid the risk of leaving her and dying in the war.

Marion “Sister Mary” Hotchkiss (John Lupton) is a reader, a thinker and an aspiring writer who rides the Coronado Ferry while on liberty during radio school. There he meets Rae (Anne Francis), who enjoys their relationship talking on the boat. He wants more, but she likes things as they are. Later, while at a local bar with his classmates, she walks in with several other girls brought in by “Spanish Joe” Gomez (Perry Lopez) to liven things up for his fellow Marines. Naturally, Marion is devastated and leaves.

“Ski” Wronski (William Campbell) also has a girl back home, Susan (Susan Morrow) who sends him a “Dear John” letter. He’s never the same after that. The guys rescue him and his nest egg which a bar girl tries to steal while he’s drunk. He never does quite bounce back from his girl dumping him and marrying someone else.

Van Heflin is Major Sam Huxley, the commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion 6th Marine Regiment. He works his men hard in order to prepare them for fighting the enemy. He has a wife back home we never meet, but we know he cares for his men and sometimes crosses the line in identifying too closely with their personal problems.

Raymond Massey has a cameo as Major General Snipes, Huxley’s commanding officer during their island hopping in the Pacific. L.Q. Jones provides comic relief as L.Q. Jones. The actor changed his professional name from Justus E. McQueen to his screen namesake in his film debut which was probably good as there may have been room for only one McQueen in Hollywood. Perry Lopez is the afore mentioned “Spanish Joe” Gomez, the con man of the outfit and Fess Parker is the good natured, guitar playing country boy, Speedy.

The Marines finally depart San Diego and in November 1942 they arrive in New Zealand for more training and to prepare for their first island invasion. After celebrating Christmas services, the Marines ship out to Guadalcanal and then Tarawa. In both cases they are held in reserve and perform mop up duty. It isn’t until June 14th, 1944, the Marines take a lead role as part of the first wave in the invasion of Japanese held Saipan. In between they take leave back in New Zealand and Hawaii. This final third of the movie depicts the men at war. For those of us used to contemporary watching recent films which have more realistic depictions of combat, “Battle Cry” may appear unrealistic and dated. If you’re looking for a war movie filled with battlefield action, this may not be the one for you. It’s nearly 90 minutes until the first bomb is dropped and the battle action takes center stage.

Leon Uris adapted the screenplay from his own novel. He based the story on his own experiences as a radio operator in the Marine Corps and served in combat during the battles depicted in the story and fictionalized those experiences to great effect. Uris would go on to write many more best selling novels which is where his greatest success remains. He did write first drafts for adaptations of “The Angry Hills,” “Exodus,” “Topaz,” and “QB VII” as well as the original screenplay for “The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.” I think it’s safe to say Uris was not happy in Hollywood as a couple of his first draft screenplays went unused.

“Battle Cry” was directed by Raoul Walsh, whose career began in silent movies and continued into the mid 1960s. Known for his crime dramas and military themed movies, Walsh first introduced John Wayne in the 1930 release, “The Big Trail.” He helped create the tough guy personas associated with James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn in movies like “They Drive By Night,” “High Sierra,” “They Died with Their Boots On” and “White Heat.” He also directed the antithesis of “Battle Cry,” the gritty and cynical military drama, “The Naked and the Dead” which features no home front romance or melodrama of any kind.

“Battle Cry” is indeed a statement on war and the human toll during war at home and on the field of battle. If I were to pick a favorite performance, I’d have to say it’s a tie between James Whitmore and Aldo Ray. Whitmore because he’s spot on in his thoughtful portrayal as a career senior NCO who empathizes with his men and successfully turns them into Marines without being a tyrant. Aldo Ray because his portrayal is the most transformative going from essentially a cad and a womanizer who falls for the right woman and considers deserting in order to preserve the new man he has become.

Released by Warner Bros. in February 1955, the movie clocks in at a hefty 148 minutes. Filmed in CinemaScope, the “Battle Cry” benefits greatly from the widescreen aspect ratio. The Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray looks better than it ever has on home video and sounds just as good. There are no extras on the disc other than the trailer and subtitles. Highly recommended for fans of high drama military movies.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

When 23 year-old genius and enfant terrible Orson Welles broadcast his Halloween eve radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" in 1938, as we all know, it resulted in scandal and panic. There have been plenty of urban legends and misconceptions relating the broadcast including beliefs that many people committed suicide but this is just one exaggeration relating to one of the most infamous radio broadcasts in history. Welles, who was the director of the acclaimed Mercury Theatre weekly radio program that he founded with John Houseman, had eschewed the highbrow fare in favor of playfully presenting a modern spin on H.G. Wells's novel that had been written and set in the Victorian era. His reluctant script writer Howard Koch randomly chose an innocuous small town, Grover's Mill, New Jersey, to replace the London setting of the book. Welles listened to the finished recording of the program and made a last minute decision to liven it up by presenting it in the format of what today would be called a "breaking news" story. Cleverly presenting the show as a standard musical program, Welles had intermittent bulletins about large explosions on Mars taking place. Ultimately, the bulletins announced that Martians had landed in New Jersey and were decimating local military forces, using high powered ray guns as weapons. This 2013 PBS broadcast of "American Experience" looks at the unintended consequences of the broadcast, separating fact from fiction. For example, Welles did have an introduction stating that the program was a fictional radio play. However, many listeners were tuned into another program to hear the popular ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his legendary "partner", Charlie McCarthy. When Bergen's act ended, listeners started to engage in channel-surfing and came upon the sensational broadcast, having missed the introduction. Before long, many people did indeed panic. Police stations were flooded with calls from locals all across the nation. Some people packed their belongings and fled to isolated areas, while others sought ways to enlist in the battle against the Martians. (The program uses actors to verbalize actual interviews of everyday people who spoke to the press about their own personal experiences.)

What the "American Experience" episode clarifies is that not everyone was snookered. People who were aware of the joke wrote and called the network to praise Welles, but others were outraged about being made to look foolish. While the show was on the air, Welles was forced to interrupt the program with a reminder that it was all a work of fiction, but by then many people had tuned out and run for the hills. Some filed lawsuits against Welles and CBS, the network that broadcast the show. As the program points out, Welles pretended to be contrite and made a public apology, even though he privately delighted in having gained international recognition that he correctly assumed would boost his career. (Indeed, Hollywood soon beckoned.) One commentator says that Welles's apology was, in fact, the greatest performance of his career. In the end, none of the lawsuits against Welles or CBS succeeded and the government only issued a rule that prohibited any future broadcast from simulating an actual news bulletin.Welles was catapulted to international fame and even got his first sponsor for future broadcasts.The rest, as they say, is history- and Welles would continue to antagonize benefactors who employed him throughout his life.

The excellent 53-miinute "American Experience" episode provides excerpts from the broadcasts, comments from media historians and a wealth of fascinating photos consisting of Welles at work in the studio and front pages from the national newspapers that covered the scandal with predictable prominence. 

It's easy in the modern era to smirk at what influential columnist Dorothy Thompson called the "incredible stupidity" of the American people in her column that defended Welles and his artistic vision. However, the show puts in context the fact that in those dark days of the late 1930s, the radio was a virtual god in most households, dispensing reliable and accurate information. The news was often grim but it was honest. An American public had been through almost  decade of financial devastation from the Great Depression. Many millions were still out of work, life savings were lost and life for many seemed hopeless. In the midst of all this, Americans looked with great concern on alarming world events: Hitler's ever-expanding territorial ambitions and the correct suspicion that the accommodation of the Allies wouldn't satiate him for long; the rise of fascist Italy and the war-mongering gains of a militaristic Japan, all of which pointed to the seeming inevitability of second world war. Before modern day America judges the gullibility of a previous generation, consider that as you are reading this, the nation is reeling from thousands of deaths a week from the worst pandemic in a hundred years. Yet, there are substantial numbers of people who continue to insist that it's all a hoax. Now that is "incredible stupidity".

The program is available for streaming on Amazon and can be viewed for free by Amazon Prime members.

BY TIM MCGLYNN

Criterion has released a Blu-ray edition of one of the best science fiction films from the 1950s or any other decade for that matter.  George Pal’s version of War of the Worlds, directed by Byron Haskin, landed in theaters in 1953 and has become an iconic symbol of alien invasion stories.

H.G. Wells’ novel had already been made famous by Orson Welles’ landmark CBS radio drama in 1938.  The Martian invasion played out as news bulletins concerning an attack on the East Coast by enemy tripod machines armed with a terrifying heat ray and poisonous gas.  With Americans nervous about a possible war in Europe at the time, audiences listening that night were especially vulnerable hearing the fabricated reports of destruction and carnage.  One has to wonder why many of the people glued to their radios didn’t turn to another station for confirmation.

With Alfred Hitchcock and Cecil B. DeMille linked to film adaptations of Wells’ novel at different times, it was producer George Pal who finally brought the story to the screen in 1953.  Pal, an Academy Award winning animator, had already thrilled moviegoers with Destination Moon and When Worlds Collide, both of which were box office successes.  His Puppetoon short from 1942, Tulips Shall Grow, depicted the Nazi invasion of Holland and provided a template for the attack sequences in War of the Worlds.

Featuring a relatively hefty budget of $2 million, Pal funneled most of his resources into the famed special effects depicting the deadly Martian war machines destroying Los Angeles.  An in-house team at Paramount, led by Gordon Jennings and art director Albert Nozaki, designed and built the futuristic swan-like vehicles armed with ferocious heat rays and skeleton beams that lay waste to all military weapons that stood in their way.  Striking miniature work and beautiful paintings by astronomical artist Chesley Bonestell completed the look of this Technicolor masterpiece.

The cast included future Bat Masterson star Gene Barry, beautiful newcomer Ann Robinson and radio actor Les Tremayne. The script was fashioned by Barre Lyndon who transferred the story from Victorian England to modern day California. The three-strip Technicolor photography was supervised by George Barnes and the pulsating music score was composed by Leith Stevens. The unsung heroes of War of the Worlds were the sound effects teams led by Paramount regulars Gene Garvin and Harry Lindgren.  All manner of new sound cues were created for this film and many of these effects are still in use today.

Criterion’s Blu-ray features the 2018 4K restoration produced by Paramount Pictures, and the results are truly spectacular with amazing color saturation and crisp, clear sound.  Errors in registration of the Technicolor strips have been cleaned up and an alternate 5.1  soundtrack has been realized by Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt.  Purists will be happy to know that the original mono track has been included as an option.

War of the Worlds was filmed in the 1.37 aspect ratio although some theaters were exhibiting it in a matted 1.66 version.  After adjusting my monitor to view this cropped presentation, I found the picture to look cramped and noticed that important information was occasionally lost.  The original stereo tracks are now lost but, according to Ben Burtt, they only provided exaggerated sound effects to the additional speakers.

As a 9 year-old watching War of the Worlds on its’ NBC television premier in 1967, I was terrified and hooked at the same time. Much like experiencing an E-ticket ride at Disneyland, I enjoyed being

scared.  I found the narration by Sir Cedric Hardwicke to be gripping as he described the “rout of civilization" during a montage of destruction.  Through the years I continued to enjoy this film on network and local television broadcasts and at college screenings.  Eventually I owned home video copies in the VHS, CED disc, DVD and now Blu-ray formats.  To say War of the Worlds is my favorite film is an extreme understatement.

BY HANK REINEKE

Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray edition of Calvin Floyd’s documentary In Search of Dracula is the third hard copy to find its way into my collection. I no longer own a copy of that first edition, a VHS tape of dubious origin and purchased at a convention. That was jettisoned when an authorized copy on DVD was issued by Wellspring Media in 2003. Truth be told, I’m not sure a manufacture of a Blu-ray for this particular film is necessarily merited. But it’s here now and will likely displace the DVD sitting on my home video shelf. The circle of life, I suppose.

This quirky and occasionally interesting documentary would make its debut on the small screen, initially produced for exclusive broadcast on Swedish television. But it was a popular and professional enough effort to be later telecast in Great Britain on the B.B.C. The film would make the transition as a genuine cinematic property in 1975 when Samuel M. Sherman’s Independent International Pictures Corporation bought the U.S. distribution rights. The producer would pad the program’s running time to feature-length with a sprinkling of non-essential bits and pieces here and there.

The film was released theatrically in the U.S., playing the New York City metropolitan area in May 1975. This NYC-area engagement lasted little more than a week, mostly playing drive-ins and second-run cinemas throughout the city’s outer boroughs, Long Island and the wilds of New Jersey. Sherman’s ballyhoo newspaper advertising was purposefully misleading. It highlighted Christopher Lee’s participation in the production and referenced “An Open Letter to the Descendants of Count Dracula.” Subsequent ad copy coyly disguised that the film was actually an historical documentary rather than a new Dracula feature.

In any event, the film was not strong enough to stand alone as a potential draw, so it was paired with an appropriate co-feature, albeit movies of previous-release and exhibiting some mileage and history. These co-features would include the like of Hammer’s The Mummy (1959) with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and Al Adamson’s bargain-basement cheapie Blood of Ghastly Horror (1967) with John Carradine. (This second feature made some strategic sense as Sherman was co-producer of the latter film). Sherman is listed here in the revised opening credits of In Search of Dracula as “production consultant.” With all due respect to Mr. Sherman, Floyd’s original documentary was inspired by consulting Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu’s best-selling tome of the same title (New York Graphic Society, 1972). The film, to the best of its ability, attempts to touch on many of the same subjects more thoroughly detailed in that book.

Unfortunately, it does so with only mixed success as director Floyd’s somber narrative tends to meander. The film certainly starts promisingly enough, advising viewers that it was photographed not only “on location” in Transylvania itself (we’re told “Transylvania” translates to the “land beyond the forest”), but also in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. “All film locations are authentic and historically accurate” a title credit promisingly brags. Indeed, the travelogue snippets of green fields, the Carpathian Mountains, broke-down castles, and small-village folkways are amongst the film’s strongest assets. We’re also treated to somewhat tangential footage documenting a colorful performance by the Romanian Folklore Dance Company and the so-called “mysticism” of a Greek Orthodox Church ceremony.

The real masterstroke of producer/director/composer Floyd was his ability to bring in a favorite cinematic Dracula, Christopher Lee, to narrate and guide viewers through this fractured history lesson. The fact that he was able to convince Lee to do so is surprising in itself. Lee had walked away, somewhat disgruntled, from the Dracula character following his appearance in seven mostly beloved – and mostly profitable - films for Hammer Studios… and an eighth, if less celebrated Dracula movie, for Spanish director Jess Franco (1970). Lee proudly boasts here near the film’s end that his Horror of Dracula (1958) made “eight times its production costs!” for Hammer. For the record, Lee hadn’t totally abandoned his cloaked on-screen vampirism, having also appeared as an ersatz Dracula in such mostly forgotten continental productions as Italy’s Tempi duri per i vampiri (1959) and France’s Dracula Père et Fils (1976). Lee provides narration throughout but also appears on screen - surprisingly “in character” - in several brief vignettes. He’s seen here, in silent footage, as both the (Stoker-described) mustachioed Count Dracula as well as the character’s presumed historical forebear Vlad Tepes (aka “Vlad the Impaler”), the one-time Prince of Wallachia.

It’s unfair to expect an eighty-two minute film to adequately convey the contents of a 300 page book, and director Floyd (along with writer Yvonne Floyd) tries their best to condense and impart information in an educational and entertaining manner. Unfortunately, there’s just not enough running time to discuss any item to satisfaction. We are offered some teachable, if rushed along, informational tidbits along the way. We learn that Bram Stoker, who would first publish his novel Dracula in 1897, never actually visited Transylvania prior to writing. Despite this, Lee ensures, the novelist was “remarkably accurate” in his descriptions as he had studied period maps and guidebooks in careful preparation. There’s a discussion of the origin of vampire legends which, we’re told, originated in Asia before migrating westward to other far-flung places. Stories of vampires eventually traveled to Eastern Europe where they seamlessly filtered into and intertwined with local folklore beliefs. It was in Eastern Europe that tales of vampirism and “the undead” would appear most common.

The film also treats us to tangential, thumbnail case studies and psychological profiles of other infamous - and terribly real - “vampires.” These include Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Hungary (aka Countess Dracula) who, legend has it, bathed in the blood of virgins in an attempt to stay youthful. Then there was the awful Peter Kürten, the “Vampire of Düsseldorf,” a sexual deviant and serial killer who reportedly cannibalized and drank the blood of several of his victims. Another addition to this unpleasant rogue’s gallery was John Haigh, the so-called “Vampire of London.” The delightful Mister Haigh treated his victim’s to acid baths and claimed to have drunk their blood as well.

It’s almost a relief when, somewhere around the sixty-minute mark, Floyd – in a head-scratching manner - segues into an odd sidebar regarding the origins of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein. Its inclusion here is almost totally out of place in this particular documentary but, in hindsight, it did foreshadow Floyd’s next and more ambitious project. This would be the director’s attempt at a dramatic telling of the authentic and original Shelley text “as written.” This feature would subsequently be released to European cinemas in 1977 as the Terror of Frankenstein.

Though no classic, Floyd’s take on Frankenstein – unseen by many until the home video boom made the film more available – is often lauded as the first faithful attempt to follow the novels genuine and more complex storyline. This declaration wasn’t entirely true. In 1973, NBC-TV would broadcast their three and a half hour television drama Frankenstein: The True Story in two parts. So that television production had gotten their first and, quite frankly, did a better job of it. In any event, Calvin Floyd’s Terror of Frankenstein is certainly worth seeking out by film scholars, if only for its oddity.

Unfortunately, Floyd’s In Search of Dracula begins to fall apart near the end as we pass through brief mentions of the nineteenth century literary legacies of such “undead” figures as Le Fanu’s Carmilla and Polidori’s Vampyre. As we enter the age of cinema, we’re treated to an over-long, but time-chewing, excerpt of the public-domain silent classic Nosferatu. Since clips from Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr and Tod Browning’s Dracula (the latter featuring the iconic 1931 performance of Bela Lugosi), were under copyright protection, we’re treated only to a few production stills and a lengthy, and not terribly relevant, excerpt from Lugosi’s appearance in the non-protected 1925 silent drama The Midnight Girl.

In any event, I’m guessing that fans of Sir Christopher Lee and students of the Dracula legend will be compelled to add this film to their collections: as someone who has triple-dipped on this title I completely understand. Others less-obsessed might find the film an outdated celluloid relic, best forgotten. While I’m certainly glad that the film has been made available once again for those interested, I would be dishonest to deem it as an essential study.

This Kino Lorber Studio Classics Blu-ray of In Search of Dracula has been transferred from a new 2K master, in a ratio of 1.37:1 and in 1920p x 1080p with DTS monaural sound. The set also features an audio commentary track supplied by film historians Lee Gambin and John Harrison. The set includes a few bonus trailers for other Christopher Lee films available from the Kino Lorber library: The Crimson Cult, The Oblong Box, Scream and Scream Again, Arabian Adventure, and House of Long Shadows.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

The life and career of Burt Lancaster are covered in the 1996 documentary "Burt Lancaster: Daring to Reach", which originally aired on the American TV network A&E. Lancaster had died in 1994 so the show was a timely look at the man and his career while his passing was still fresh in the minds of moviegoers. The  program consists of interviews with some of the screen legend's co-stars and colleagues including actresses Rhonda Fleming, Terry Moore and Virginia Mayo, James Hill, who partnered with Lancaster and Harold Hecht in their initially successful production company, directors Sydney Pollack and Ted Post and actors Earl Holliman and Peter Riegert. There are also insights from biographer Gary Fishgall. Directed by Gene Feldman and Suzette Winter, the documentary is a no-frills affair consisting mostly of talking heads and film clips, mostly comprised of well-worn footage from public domain trailers, though some apparently licensed film snippets also appear. The show also presents occasional audio excerpts from a late-in-life interview with Lancaster, who is refreshingly humorous about his human frailties, admitting that he was headstrong and bossy to the point of directing his directors. The 50-minute running time allows ample opportunity for the participants to present the basics of Lancaster's humble New York upbringing to his early life as a performer in the circus, his lifelong friendship with boyhood pal and fellow trapeze artist Nick Cravat (discussed by Cravat's daughter Tina) and the formation of Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, the production company that allowed Lancaster to call his own shots in terms of his career. The company also produced the Oscar-winner "Marty" before going broke in 1959 after funding a number of fine films that nonetheless failed to gel with the public. While Lancaster's colleagues lavish praise on his professionalism and acting ability, as well as his willingness to appear in worthy non-commercial films, they also acknowledge his could be difficult to work with due to his stubborn personality. Earl Holliman recalls working on "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" with Lancaster and Kirk Douglas and noticed how the two old friends and frequent co-stars bickered endlessly as well as tried to instruct each other about acting techniques.

Posed publicity photo for From Here to Eternity (1953).

The documentary reinforces the fact that Lancaster had an extremely interesting career that allowed him to play a widely diverse assortment of characters. Even in his later years, he made his age an attribute, delivering marvelous performances in "Atlantic City", "Local Hero" and "Field of Dreams". His work continues to resonate today. Lancaster fans will find this documentary an interesting and rewarding experience.

(Available for streaming on Amazon Prime. Subscribers can view it for free but it is also available for streaming rental or purchase.)

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Although Great Britain had emerged as victors in WWII, the aftereffects of the war had an immediate and substantial impact on British society. In addition to massive damage to cities and infrastructure, the necessities of life were in short supply, resulting in an extended period of rationing. Although the population was eager to flock to cinemas as a distraction from the harshness of reality, the British film industry suffered as well. Consequently, the post-war years were largely characterized by low-budget movies often shot in haste with minimal production values. However, necessity proved to be the mother of invention, as some of these Poverty Row productions provided a fertile training ground for estimable talents both in front of and behind the cameras. Kino Lorber has released a much-welcomed second set of such films titled "British Noir II", containing five modestly-budgeted gems.

The films included in the set are:

"The Interrupted Journey" (1949) Directed by Daniel Birt. This micro-budget production opens with John North (Richard Todd) and his mistress Susan Wilding (Christine Nordern), who is also in a strained marriage, sneaking away to take a nighttime train in order to start a new life together. John's wife Valerie (Carol North) has been pushing him to give up his career as a failed writer and to take more conventional employment. Susan is married to Jerves Wilding (Alexander Gauge), an ogre of a man. On board the train, however, John begins to have second thoughts about deserting his loving and loyal wife. When Christine falls asleep, he pulls the train's emergency brake and jumps off near his house. Minutes after returning home, there is a terrible disaster when the train he had been aboard is hit by an oncoming locomotive on the same track. Blaming himself for the resulting carnage and many deaths, John has to keep a poker face even as he and Valerie help tend to victims of the crash. The next morning, an investigator for the railroad (Tom Walls) appears to inform John that he has been linked to Susan, who died in the crash. Shockingly, he informs John that she had been murdered by a gunshot prior to the accident and John's name was mentioned numerous times in her diary. Valerie put two and two together and confronts John about his affair. Meanwhile, he appears to be the prime suspect in Susan's murder. Despite the low production values, this intelligent mystery/thriller works well for most of its running time, thanks to the fine performances. Director Daniel Birt ratchets up the suspense but he is almost undone by a late, bizarre plot twist that is gimmicky and not very believable. When the story gets back on track, John confronts Susan's husband, who he suspects might be behind her murder. As played like a poor man's Sidney Greenstreet, Alexander Gauge overdoes the obnoxious, obese drunk to the point that you expect to reach over and put a lampshade on his head. Despite these flaws, the movie is impressive because of the more intriguing aspects of the script. 

"Time is My Enemy" (1954) Directed by Don Chaffey. Based on the play "Second Chance", the film opens with Barbara Everton (Renee Asherton) living a content life as wife and mother. She was widowed when her scheming, ne're do well husband Martin Radley (Dennis Price), was reported to be killed during the war, though his body was never found. She is now living a life of comfort with her successful husband John (Patrick Barr), as they both dote on their young son. Barbara's dream world turns into a nightmare with the shocking appearance at her house by Martin, who admits to having feigned his death and assumed a new identity. He's now the leader of a band of robbers who are wanted by the police for a bank job that has gone awry, resulting in the death of a security guard. Dennis demands that Barbara give him the sum of 4,000 pounds (ludicrous by today's standards, but a large amount in 1954) so that he can flee the country. If she refuses, he will make it known that he is still alive and that Barbara's marriage to John is invalid, thus making her a tainted woman and afflicting her young son as the product of an unmarried couple. The plot has plenty of surprising twists including another murder and Barbara's frantic attempts to raise the money without divulging the dilemma to her husband. Well-directed by Don Chaffey, who would go on to direct "Jason and the Argonauts", the movie is most compelling when Dennis Price is on screen. He's in the grand tradition of erudite villains who remain polite even as they are threatening someone's life.

"The Vicious Circle"  (aka "The Circle") (1957) Directed by Gerald Thomas. One of the best titles in this collection stars John Mills as Dr. Howard Latimer, a successful physician with an upscale lifestyle who is engaged to beautiful Laura James (Noelle Middleton). However, his life is disrupted when he becomes the key suspect in the murders of two women, both of whom he barely knew. The fine script by Francis Durbridge uses the tried-and-true Hitchcock formula of making the protagonist an innocent swept up into a fantastic and deadly plot that becomes increasingly bizarre as he tries to find out who is framing him and why. It all leads to any number of suspects, false identities and deadly situations. The budget for this film was adequate enough to allow for on location filming in London and director Gerald Thomas takes full advantage of shooting at such sites as the Thames, Cleopatra's Needle and the Embankment, thus giving the production a glossier look than many other "B" movies of the era. John Mills is in excellent form throughout and there are marvelous supporting performances by Ronald Culver as as the dapper, dry-witted police inspector who is closing in on our hero and Wilfred Hyde-White, in full lovable, tweedy character mode as a man of mystery. The film is thoroughly engaging throughout.

"Time Lock" with young Sean Connery (right) in an early role.

"Time Lock" (1957) Directed by Gerald Thomas. Another gem from director Gerald Thomas, this time collaborating with producer Peter Rogers, with whom he would go on to make the classic "Carry On" comedies. "Time Lock" is a tense, believable thriller based on a Canadian TV production written by Arthur Hailey ("Airport"). The film retains the Canadian setting, though it was shot entirely in the UK. Another microbudget production, "Timelock" is arguably the best title in this British film noir collection, even if this particular movie hardly merits being included in the noir genre.The plot is simple: a young couple and their six-year old son are inside a bank where the father works. The young boy wanders into the bank vault and is accidentally locked in. The vault cannot be opened until the timing mechanism is enacted automatically 48 hours from the time of incident. Knowing the boy will suffocate by then, the police, bank manager and a local welding company all work frantically to try to bore through the seemingly impregnable wall, with time slipping quickly away. Ultimately, only one man is deemed to be able to save the day: bank vault security expert Pete Dawson (Robert Beatty), but he is in a remote region on holiday and can't be reached. Director Thomas builds the suspense slowly until it reaches a full boil. The performances are all believable and the film's supporting cast includes young Sean Connery as a welder on the rescue team.

"Cosh Boy" (1953) Directed by Lewis Gilbert. Although virtually unknown in the United States where the film was ridiculously titled "The Slasher" (no one is slashed in the film), this early directorial effort by Lewis Gilbert has won considerable appreciation from UK film critics over the years. It's another claustrophobic production this time dealing with juvenile delinquency. In an outstanding performance, James Kenny plays Roy,  a 16 year-old punk who reigns as a gang leader in a working class neighborhood. He's being raised by a single mom, who he can manipulate at will and turn into an enabler for his abhorrent behavior. Only is grandmother is wise to the fact that behind the innocent demeanor is a sociopath. The film explores how Roy holds sway through bribes and intimidation to ensure that his mates remain his unquestioning servants. He puts on the persona of a gentleman to woo his classmate, Rene (Joan Collins) into dating him but she learns quickly enough that she will pay a terrible price for what she mistook to be a loving relationship. "Cosh Boy" is expertly made, never melodramatic and paints a picture of working class boys in the aftermath of WWII who grew up fatherless due to the war. Director Lewis Gilbert would go on to far more prestigious productions but the seeds were sown in modest films such as this- and his talent is quite evident. (Kino Lorber has released a stand along Blu-ray edition of the film under the title "The Slasher". Click here for review.)

The quality of the prints used for the transfers are all over the place. Most are satisfactory though "The Interrupted Journey" shows a good deal of wear. Of course these were films that were largely neglected over the decades and one must assume that Kino Lorber used the best elements available. The only bonus extras as some trailers. However, one would hope that a Blu-ray upgrade might be on the horizon. If so, it would be appropriate to have commentary tracks accompanying these films primarily to discuss the wealth of young talent that emerged in titles such as these.

"British Noir II" is highly recommended.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

You can't judge a book by its cover and you can't judge a movie by its poster. Case in point: "Blood on the Moon", a 1948 western that was marketed with a poster depicting star Robert Mitchum in a ten-gallon hat along with an image of Barbara Bel Geddes wielding a rifle and a tag line that read "A Woman's Bullet Kills as Quick as a Man's!" At first glance, one would be forgiven for assuming the movie was yet another of the "Poverty Row" one-day wonders that flooded theaters in the 1930s. Indeed, the image of Mitchum has him somewhat resembling good ol' Hopalong Cassidy. However, looks can be deceiving and "Blood on the Moon" is actually a superior western, thanks in part to its director, Robert Wise, who had recently transcended from being a highly-acclaimed film editor to the director's chair.

"Blood on the Moon" is an adaptation of a serialized story by Luke Short that ran in the Saturday Evening Post. Robert Mitchum is cast as Jim Garry, a mysterious drifter who is invited to meet with an old friend, Tate Riling (Robert Preston). Riling informs Tate that he needs his abilities with a gun to aid him in a scheme. He has partnered with a corrupt local federal agent, Jake Pindalest (Frank Faylen)  who oversees an Indian reservation to ensure they can get the impressive cattle herd of rancher John Lufton (Tom Tully) at cut-rate prices. This they contrive to accomplish by having Pindalest terminate the long-standing contract by which Lufton sells his beef to the U.S. government, which in turn, uses the meat to feed the Native American population on the reservation. A side-swindle is that Riling wants to intimidate farmers to vacate land that they and Lufton occupy so that he can own the enormous acreage. Garry is not your typical white-hat cowboy hero, despite the fact that he favors wearing one. At first he accepts coming in as a partner on the scam and using his skills with a gun to drive off the farmers. However, when he witnesses the brutality Riling is using to further his goals, he changes his mind and ends up siding with Lufton. He's also come to the realization that Riling has been wooing one of Lufton's daughters, Carol (Phyllis Thaxter) as a way to wear down Lufton's resistance. Garry thinks this is particularly egregious. He also has a tense introduction to Lufton's other daughter, Amy (Barbara Bel Geddes), who is a sharp-shooting tom girl who tries to intimidate him by showing off her skills with a gun. As in all films in which the leading male and female characters start off with an acrimonious relationship, they ultimately fall in love. Garry's switching to the other side causes a rift with Riling and leads to a sensational knock-down, drag-out fight between that is a highlight of the film. (Mitchum and Preston choreographed the scene themselves and performed most of their own stunts.) Ultimately, the two old friends must square off in a final shootout that finds Garry, Amy and a local farmer, Kris (Walter Brennan), trapped in a cabin and surrounded by Lufton and his goons during an extended shoot-out that allows Amy to demonstrate her courage and skills with a rifle.

"Blood on the Moon" is a conventional western in some ways but what allows it to rise above the pack is the direction of Robert Wise, who gives the production a moody, film noir-like atmosphere, which is unusual for this genre. The film benefits from the creative B&W cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca, who makes nondescript shots of Garry riding in the moonlight look like frame-by-frame works of art. Mitchum is well cast as the protagonist, a complex man who is a bit of a scoundrel. Preston makes an excellent villain and Bel Geddes and Thaxter thrive in unusual roles for women in this era of filmmaking in that they are more than window dressing and are quite capable of humiliating the male characters. Walter Brennan also delivers a fine performance, cast in a role of a tragic farmer that is devoid of his usual amusing mannerisms. 

The Warner Archive region-free Blu-ray presents an excellent transfer and the original trailer. Recommended.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Carl Reiner has passed away at age 98. The New York native who served in WWII and then went on to become a comedy icon, had a varied career and many achievements that were often behind the cameras. He gained fame as a member of Sid Caesar's ensemble on his legendary 1950s TV series "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour". Reiner was usually happy to play the straight man in skits that help revolutionize the world of comedy. With his good friend Mel Brooks, who wrote for Caesar's shows, he created the concept of the 2,000 Year-Old Man, which found Reiner interviewing the elderly Jewish guy, played by Brooks. The concept started informally when the duo would improvise acts at social gatherings, but when they finally released the 2,000 Year-Old Man as a comedy album, it sold over a million copies and institutionalized Jewish humor for a generation of American comedians. In the 1960s, Reiner turned the concept for a failed TV sitcom in which he starred into a major hit as "The Dick Van Dyke Show". The series made Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore beloved TV icons. The show ran from 1961 to 1966 and was still a top-ratings earner when Van Dyke chose to quit in order to pursue a career in feature films.

Reiner began to find success as a movie director, a career he began in 1967 with his semi-autobiographical film "Enter Laughing". His 1969 film "The Comic" about the rise and fall of an obnoxious silent screen icon starred Dick Van Dyke. The ambitious film has built a cult following but was a flop upon its release because of its downbeat premise. His 1970 comedy "Where's Poppa?" was controversial because of its cynical content but  "Oh, God!" starring George Burns was a major hit, as was "The Jerk", a concept of producer David V. Picker's that launched Steve Martin's career as a leading man.

Reiner had a rare leading man role in a feature film with the smash hit "The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!" in 1966 but, in general, he was satisfied playing supporting roles in movies and TV programs. He played key roles in the "Oceans Eleven" films starring George Clooney, which were derived from the original 1960 Rat Pack classic.

Reiner, the father of acclaimed actor and director Rob Reiner, was married for 65 years to his wife Estelle Lebost, who passed away in 2008. He remained close friends with fellow comedy icons Mel Brooks and Norman Lear.

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BY FRED BLOSSER

Nowadays, for those of us in comfortable circumstances, traveling to remote, exotic shores is no big deal. All you need are a credit card and a reservation at Sandals. If you’re especially eager to shed the daily grind, you’ll even take the chance of sitting in planes and terminals for hours among scores of strangers, any of whom may be carrying the COVID-19 virus. (Rest assured, they’ll be equally wary of you.) If you prefer to ride out the pandemic, Tahiti and Waikiki will still be waiting. In the 1930s and early ‘40s, such luxury was beyond the reach of the average wage-earner. They had to make do with a night at the local movie house, where they could vicariously spend time in Polynesia -- or at least Hollywood’s version, sometimes in Technicolor -- for the price of admission. Usually, these films were built around stories on the pulp-fiction level of beautiful Island princesses in sarongs, tribal revolts, volcanic eruptions, and seafaring heroes, but a few sneaked in more subversive, troubling themes of tropical paradises despoiled by western greed and disease. One such was Paramount Pictures‘ 1937 production, “Ebb Tide,” based on a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson, Lloyd Osborne. Never released by Paramount on home video, “Ebb Tide” used to appear occasionally on local TV stations before Late Shows were edged out by Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, and their successors, but it’s been largely missing in action in the decades since then. Most people now will identify “Ebb Tide,” if at all, with the dramatic ballad of the same name, best-remembered from the 1965 recording by the Righteous Brothers. Ironically, the song was written in 1953 and has nothing to do with the movie.

In the Paramount film, Herrick (Ray Milland), Therbecke (Oscar Homolka), and Huish (Barry Fitzgerald) are three jailbirds in 1890s Tahiti. Herrick is cultured but chronically down on his luck, Therbecke a disgraced ship’s captain, and Huish a jovial but devious alcoholic. Stevenson modeled the characters on real-life drifters and outcasts whom he encountered in the Pacific islands in the final, far-traveled years of his life. The trio’s aimless existence is disrupted when a schooner comes into port from San Francisco, bound for Australia with a cargo of champagne. The captain and the first mate have died from smallpox, leaving the ship stranded. The authorities try to recruit a captain to deliver the vessel to its ultimate destination, but fearing that the ship remains infected, the reputable skippers in town decline to sign on. As a last resort, Therbecke is offered the job and accepts, appointing Herrick as first mate and Huish as ship’s steward. Neither man has any maritime experience, but that doesn’t matter to Therbecke, who doesn’t intend to complete the assignment anyway. Given an unexpected opportunity to profit from others’ misfortune, he plans to divert the ship to Peru, sell its cargo, and pocket the money.

Once at sea, he makes two unwelcome discoveries. The first is the late captain’s daughter, Faith (Francis Farmer), who comes out of hiding and insists that Herbecke fulfill her late father’s obligation. The second discovery is that the cargo is much less valuable than it appeared to be. Most of the champagne bottles are filled with water. The late captain, as unscrupulous as Herbecke, had secretly planned to sink the schooner at sea and collect the insurance on the invoiced cases of “champagne.” After a storm blows the ship off course, the three partners come across an island controlled by an American expatriate, Attwater (Lloyd Nolan), who lives in an elegant bungalow. In short course, they discover that Attwater is a soft-spoken but trigger-happy religious zealot who used slave labor to illegally harvest pearls, which now fill his storehouse. The theme of epidemic disease reenters, one with its own resonance today. Smallpox has swept through the island and most of the native laborers have died, leaving only Attwater and three household servants. “That’s why the house is empty and the graveyard is full,” he says matter-of-factly. Herrick’s conscience reawakens, and he wants to get Faith off the island and home to safety. Herbecke and Huish meanwhile conspire to dispose of Attwater and steal his pearls. Homolka, Nolan, and especially Fitzgerald are excellent in dark roles that cast all three veteran actors against type.

The screenplay makes one concession to formula by adding a new, pivotal character to Stevenson’s original, all-male story, Francis Farmer’s Faith. Faith provides a conventional love interest (and eventually, redemption) for Ray Milland’s Herrick. Otherwise, the script follows the bleak novel almost scene for scene and line for line. This alone should encourage fans of classic fiction and literate scripts to give “Ebb Tide” a respectful look, not to mention film noir enthusiasts who will embrace the movie’s morally bankrupt characters, inescapable reversals of fortune, and pervasive deceptions and betrayals. Unfortunately, mainstream critics and prospective audiences are unlikely to check out the film since a good, officially authorized edition doesn’t exist on home video, Netflix, or Amazon. The chances of Paramount stepping up seem remote to none, given the studio’s apparent indifference to releasing or licensing the bulk of its older catalog on DVD and Blu-ray. For that matter, has the studio even preserved the needed elements from which a hi-def print could be digitized, restoring the “breath-taking Technicolor” promised in Paramount’s 1937 ads and press book? In the meantime, for the curious, copies are available on the collector’s market and You Tube.

Apparently several generations removed from the original prints, they’re watchable but less than optimal. But they’re what we have. The YouTube print is posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk6icHLkzl0.

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

BY HANK REINEKE

Without question, this brand new Blu-ray edition of director Michael Curtiz’s The Mystery of the Wax Museum will be heralded as one of the Crown Jewels of Warner Bros. Archive Collection series. This creaky but historically significant 1933 classic – once believed to be a “lost film” – has been painstakingly restored to its original two-color Technicolor glory. Such restoration was made possible through the financial resources of the George Lucas Family Foundation and the combined technical and artistic interventions of the UCLA Film & Television Archive and Warner Bros. entertainment.

The Mystery of the Wax Museum was not the studio’s first foray into what is now revered as the Golden Age of horror films. One year earlier, Warner Bros. had released Dr. X (1932), another atmospheric horror vehicle co-starring the villainous Lionel Atwill and 1930’s Scream Queen Fay Wray. Like its predecessor, The Mystery of the Wax Museum was green-lit by studio brass to syphon off at least some of the box-office energy of several contemporary blockbusters: Universal’s Dracula and Frankenstein and Paramount’s Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (all three having been released in 1931). Indeed, Glenda Farrell’s character in Wax Museum makes a no-so-oblique comparative reference to the competition when she describes the mysterious caped and scarred figure in Wax Museum as a fiend that makes “Frankenstein look like a lily.” It was, perhaps, the first popular culture reference to confuse the monster with the monster’s maker.

For several decades the original Curtiz cut of The Mystery of the Wax Museum, the first horror film to feature the revolutionary, but only briefly in vogue, two-color Technicolor treatment, was believed lost. In his authoritative tome “Classics of the Horror Film” (Citadel Press, 1974), cinema historian William K. Everson suggested that a damaged and deteriorating print of Wax Museum was still making the rounds of cinemas in war-torn London of the 1940s. In any event, with the exception of a few surviving dupey and tattered black and white television prints, the original film as envisioned by Curtiz was considered lost.

The situation may have remained that way had it not been for the success of the studio’s celebrated 3D remake of the original, House of Wax. This more familiar version, directed by Andre DeToth and famously featuring Vincent Price as the mad and scarred wax-figure artisan, would prove to be one of the biggest blockbuster scores of 1953. The film’s popularity would summarily – at least among horror aficionados and film historians – reignite interest in the 1933 version. Indeed, as in the case of many “lost” films, the reputation of the original – stoked by the hazy memories of those who had actually had the opportunity to see the film two decades earlier – was, perhaps, slightly over-praised and over-cherished.

It hardly mattered as the original Curtiz version would remain a stubbornly elusive treasure. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that a serviceable, though far from perfect, copy of a nitrate original – apparently cobbled together from several different prints – was found in the collection of studio boss Jack Warner’s personal library. It’s from this print that the reconstruction team could use as their primary source in the film’s restoration. A secondary source was an inferior and later surfacing French work print that helped fill-in the gaps where frames or lines of dialogue from the Warner print were determined to be missing or damaged beyond repair.

BY TODD GARBARINI

The films of John Cassavetes are an acquired taste. Long considered to be the father of the modern independent film movement, his unorthodox style to acting and filmmaking notoriously drove some of his performers crazy while also receiving kudos and accolades from others. Like most filmmakers of his ilk, his work was best seen in independently owned movie theaters in New York City where films generally played for weeks or even months on end to a combination of both rave reviews and decent box office, two ingredients necessary to ensure securing funding for future projects. His directorial debut, Shadows (1958), depicted a romantic relationship between a white man and an African-American woman and the tumult that their relationship brought to their families. The film was unorthodox not only in its subject matter but in its approach to filmmaking. The film possesses a unique style and an immediacy that audiences of the time were not used to seeing in polished Hollywood productions. Following Too Late Blues (1961) he made A Child is Waiting (1963), which starred Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, John Marley, and Mr. Cassavetes’s wife Gena Rowlands. The latter two would go on to appear in his financially successful and acclaimed Faces (1968) which would provide the financing for his controversial Husbands (1970), a searing portrait of middle-aged men, their relationships with women, with each other, and most of all, with themselves.

Gus (John Cassavetes), Harry (Ben Gazzara), Archie (Peter Falk) and Stuart (David Rowlands) all appear to be successful businessmen. They are in their early forties, they are married and have children, and as the movie opens to snapshots depicting them all at family picnics, family outings, and general overall goofiness, it becomes apparent to the audience that these four men are best friends and are for all intents and purposes inseparable – until Stuart suddenly dies of a heart attack and leaves his friends behind as a solemn triumvirate questioning their lives and their places in the world. We never see or meet Stuart outside of the still photos, but his presence hangs over Gus, Harry, and Archie in everything they say and do and more importantly what they do not say or do. Following Stuart’s funeral, the men all decide not to go home, instead electing to set out on a series of adventures: taking a subway ride; playfully fighting in the streets; playing basketball at a local gym; swimming; encouraging a woman to sing them a song at a local bar; getting sick in a men’s room, etc. Harry’s family is the only one we are privy to when he returns home and has a physical fight with his wife and her mother. They all make half-hearted efforts to return to their jobs until the futility of life sparks a decision to travel to London. Harry intimates that he wants no part of the middle-class life that he has built in his suburban house.

Arriving across the pond, they play craps and encounter varying degrees of difficulty picking up three women (Jenny Runacre, Jenny Lee Wright and Noelle Kao). What transpires in their hotel rooms may on the surface seem ridiculous and silly, however something remarkable occurs as the three men are forced to reckon with Stuart’s death and ultimately, their own mortality. The film is ultimately about absence: Stuart is gone from their lives, and aside from Harry’s fight with his wife, the wives are absent from Gus and Archie’s lives, except from the opening stills. Their behavior with the women they have picked up is far more complex than their dialog lets on, which anticipates the film’s unexpected yet deeply poignant denouement. It may be impossible to understand the meanings of the scenes upon one viewing of the film, but Mr. Cassavetes was a rogue filmmaker with an originality and honesty to be reckoned with. Some accused him of being self-indulgent. For the adventurous and curious cineaste who prefers a cerebral cinematic experience bereft of Marvel superheroes and the requisite explosions, the rewards in Husbands are plentiful.

Husbands opened in New York City on Wednesday, December 9, 1970, but the film was shot in the early months of 1969. It was featured on the cover of Life Magazine in May 1969 but by the time the film was released, the cover story became a distant memory for readers. The director’s unorthodox method to shooting provided challenges to those he worked with, especially Peter Falk who struggled at first with what the director wanted. Initial rough cuts favored different points-of-view: one favored Gus, then another favored Archie, and yet another favored Harry. The director shot roughly 1,300,00 feet of film, which translates to about 240 hours of raw footage. That is almost an unconscionable amount of takes to sift through to yield a finished film, the sheer volume taking months simply to view it prior to attempting to cut it all together.

The new Criterion Collection Blu-ray runs 142 minutes and the film already feels long, however Ben Gazzara preferred the 240-minute cut, which I would have loved to have seen as an additional disc. Obviously that cut was answer-printed and locked, so it must exist in some form, perhaps in either Gena Rowland’s or Nick Cassavetes’s basements? If the film’s trailer touts it as a comedy, it is due to the fact that the director took the version well-received by the audience and recut it into the version that he wanted, to the dismay of the suits at Columbia Pictures.

BY DOUG OSWALD

John Wayne is Joe January, an American living in late 19th century Timbuktu, in “Legend of the Lost,” released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. We first meet Dita (Sophia Loren) when she attempts to steal a watch from Paul Bonnard (Rosano Brazzi) who is speaking with the local magistrate, Prefect Dukas (Kurt Kaznar). She is chased and soon surrenders to Dukas’s men. Paul drops all charges and pays her fine which pleases the greedy Dukas. He also gives Dita the watch. How can one resist? This is Sophia Loren after all. Meanwhile, we meet Joe making himself at home in an open jail cell in order to pay off a fine, presumably for public drunkenness. Paul Bonnard agrees to pay his debt as well, but in return for Joe agreeing to guide him through the Sahara Desert to an as yet unknown destination. Dita asks to join them, but is turned away by Joe and he departs with Paul with six supply laden mules.

Shortly after setting off, Joe and Paul encounter a group of nomads who depart as quickly as they arrived. Except they leave someone behind. It’s Dita, who has followed them to join Paul. The three of them survive a desert sand storm followed by thirst as their water runs low. Along their journey, Joe begins to fall for Dita, who spurns him, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to offer her a drink. As their water runs even lower, Joe is ready to return to Timbuktu, but Dita empties their canteens and Paul reveals he is looking for the Holy City of Opher, which his father discovered when Paul was a boy. His father told Paul stories of riches, but his father never returned. Paul has been obsessed with finding the lost city and solving the mystery of his father’s disappearance. They find an oasis with help from one of their remaining mules and they can rest and refresh themselves.

Paul comes to them saying he found the city. It turns out to be the ruins of an ancient Roman city, but it’s actually much more than that. They make another discovery which has devastating results for Joe, Dita and Paul. Rosano Brazzi gives a credible performance as Paul, the man both obsessed with and haunted by the answer to the secret of his long lost father. Sophia Loren is beautiful and gives a stoic performance as a former prostitute and lost soul in search of a way out of her existence in Timbuktu. The Duke rounds out this trio as Joe, another lost soul, presumably a former member of the French Foreign Legion. Three lost souls in search of a lost city.

According to IMDb, director of photography Jack Cardiff states in his autobiography he thought the Duke was playing a former Foreign Legionnaire, but the Duke arrived on set wearing western gear and a cowboy hat. Cardiff asked director Henry Hathaway, who responded to Cardiff with the obvious response, “He always wears the cowboy outfit!" Cowboy or French Legionnaire? It matters very little either way. Maybe he’s a cowboy who joined the Foreign Legion.

Directed by Henry Hathaway, who directed the Duke in six movies starting with “The Shepherd of the Hils” (1941), “North to Alaska” (1960), “Circus World” (1964), “The Suns of Katie Elder” (1965) and finally “True Grit” (1969), for which the Duke won his Best Actor Oscar. He also directed three of the five segments in “How the West Was Won” (1962), but the Duke appears as General Sherman in the Civil War segment which was directed by John Ford. Hathaway is a greatly under-appreciated director, but his collaborations with the Duke alone are worthy of repeat viewing and are very entertaining. “Legend of the Lost” is no exception. The screenplay is by Robert Presnell, Jr. and Hollywood legend Ben Hecht. Hecht collaborated with Hathaway on three movies featuring the Duke.

Jack Cardff filmed on location in Libya at the Roman city Leptis Magna, Zliten (Timbuktu) and in the Libyan Desert. The scenes filmed in the Roman ruins of Leptis Magna have a dream like quality and the desert locations are beautifully photographed which up the ante on the production value.

Released by United Artists in December 1957, the Kino Lorber Blu-ray looks and sounds terrific and clocks in at 109 minutes. The only extras on the disc are the trailer for this and other Kino Lorber releases. The movie is a leisurely adventure outing for the Duke, unique in his canon of films, and he’s teamed with two titans of Italian cinema, Brazzi and Loren. The Duke is as stoic as ever and gives a fine performance.

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