There is an old joke about a brain surgeon who must call a plumber to fix a broken pipe that is flooding his basement in the middle of the night. The plumber arrives and quickly fixes the problem then hands the brain surgeon a bill for his services. The brain surgeon's eyes open wide and he says, "I'm a brain surgeon and I don't get paid this much money for only a few minutes work!" To which the plumber replies, "Neither did I when I was a brain surgeon". The joke unveils a common truth: that even the most sophisticated and educated person can find themselves helpless and dependent upon an everyday person who has more useful skills in terms of day-to-day living. This is the message that forms the basis of "The Admirable Crichton", a 1957 British film adapted from the 1902 stage production by "Peter Pan" author J.M. Barrie. Given that the story is a barbed poke at England's snooty days of old obsession with social status, Barrie's play, which opened when such societal prejudices were in full force, must have raised some eyebrows among the Reform Club set.
Kenneth More stars as the titular character, a devoted butler in the household of widower Lord Henry Loam (Cecil Parker), who presides over his country manor like a reigning monarch. However, Lord Loam has some progressive ideas and feels guilty that he doesn't even know the names of some of his lower-rung household staff. He orders that his three daughters Catherine (Mercy Haystead), Agatha (Miranda Connell) and Mary (Sally Ann Howes) join him in participating in a radical idea: they will devote an afternoon tea to getting to know the entire household staff, address them by name and wait on them. The girls are appalled at the concept and so is Crichton, who, as head butler, has the most esteemed position among the staff, as he also serves as Loam's personal valet. Crichton is a bit of a snob himself, as he doesn't want his status at the top of the pecking order to being jeopardized by the introduction of democracy to the household. The event is a miserable failure and ends prematurely due to everyone involved feeling awkward. Adding to Loam's woes is the arrest of Catherine, who had bypassed the social gathering to visit London, where she was charged with participating in a riot caused by a protest march by suffragettes. Wracked by the shame of the incident, Loam heeds Crichton's advice to set sail on the family yacht to the South Pacific until the scandal dies down. The group is joined on the holiday by two potential suitors, Lord Ernest Woolley (Ernest Harper) and a clergyman, John Treherne (Jack Watling.)
The cruise is going pleasantly enough when a brutal storm erupts, forcing everyone into two lifeboats. The boat carrying the girls, their suitors, Lord Loam and Critchton ends up beaching on an uninhabited small island. They have one addition to their group: a lowly housemaid named Tweeny (Diane Cilento), a sweet young woman from the other side of the tracks who is unsophisticated in the ways of the world. Despite the dire circumstances, Critchton is expected to carry on with his duties as though he is back in England, serving up meager rations while dressed in formal attire. It soon becomes apparent, however, that the group will need fire, shelter, food and water and everyone is helpless when it comes to finding these necessities. That is, except Crichton, who steps to the fore and through personal knowledge and common sense, manages to keep everyone warm and well-fed by adapting to the elements. The story then jumps ahead two years and we find the castaways still stranded but living in relative luxury, thanks to Crichton's ingenuity. In a scenario that mirrors other far-fetched castaway tales from Disney's "Swiss Family Robinson" to "Gilligan's Island", the stranded group have erected fabulous living quarters that are furnished with luxuries that were salvaged from the sinking yacht that had washed up near the beach. We find Crichton has, by acclamation, been voted to serve as "Governor" of the island. Everyone is merry and the old social prejudices have broken down with the castaways engaging each other on a first name basis. In fact, the combination of sun, sand and a democratic society has everyone giddy and content. With Critchton as the group's leader and savior, the sisters vie for his attentions, with Mary especially smitten by him. However, Tweeny and Crichton have also formed a special bond, with Tweeny having improved her knowledge and vocabulary thanks to tutoring by Crichton. She and Mary are the main contenders to be Crichton's bride. When he finally chooses who he will marry, the ceremony is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a rescue ship. Once back in London, the social order returns to its former status with all the inherent prejudices. Crichton must bear the humiliation of watching Lord Loam and the other male castaways brag to their friends that they were the key players in keeping the group alive and well. Ever the loyal butler, Crichton keeps the truth to himself, but he does have a strategy to free himself from the humiliating circumstances and finally find happiness.
Esquire has reprinted Gay Talese's legendary 1966 profile of Frank Sinatra. Esquire refers to it as "one of the most celebrated magazine articles ever published". Titled "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold", the piece covers some very intimate aspects of Sinatra's life both professionally and personally. Talese never got to interview Old Blue Eyes but was granted extraordinary access to his daily activities. Talese presents a masterfully written portrait of a controversial legend. The article isn't a hit piece on Sinatra, but it doesn't shy away from portraying him as occasionally ill-tempered, selfish and impulsive. On the other hand, while the article doesn't beatify Sinatra, it points out he was capable of acts of extraordinary kindness and a dedication to human rights. He was a complex man, to say the least. The article follows Sinatra around throughout the wee small hours of the mornings. He hated being alone and he was a creature of the night. Talese traces his carousing with Jilly, the famous New York restaurant owner whose name became legendary due in no small part to Sinatra's loyal patronage, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and actor Brad Dexter, who is primarily remembered for being the one cast member of "The Magnificent Seven" who no one can remember by name. It's a remarkable (and very long piece) that represents American journalism at its finest.
Heather Ripley with Sally Ann Howes, Dick Van Dyke and Adrian Hall in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".
She only made one feature film but it was a high profile one. In 1968, Heather Ripley had the plum role of little Jemima Potts, the adorable daughter of wacky inventor Caractacus Potts, played by Dick Van Dyke in the big budget musical screen adaptation of Ian Fleming's classic children's book "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". The role may have seemed like a dream-like opportunity for a child actor but for Ripley, it only added anxiety to her already complicated life. Daily Mail writer Gavin Madeley managed to locate the now 60 year-old Ripley, who resides in her van and espouses activist causes. Click here to read.
Despite being a long-time admirer of Sean Connery, it
took me until now to catch up with the legal thriller “Just Causeâ€, released in
1995. The film was directed by Arne Glimcher and is based upon the book of the
same title by John Katzenbach.Glimcher
had previously directed the well-received film “The Mambo Kings†in 1992.The screenplay was written by Jeb Stuart (“Die
Hardâ€, “The Fugitiveâ€) and Peter Stone (“Charadeâ€, “Arabesqueâ€, “The Taking of
Pelham One Two Threeâ€).Connery is
surrounded by a stellar cast, each of whom delivers a fine performance.
The primary character in the movie is Bobby Earl
Ferguson, played convincingly by Blair Underwood.Bobby Earl was convicted of abducting and murdering
a pre-teen girl in Florida, based largely upon a suspect confession we come to
learn was violently coerced by Detective Tanny Brown (in an outstanding
performance by Laurence Fishburne) and Detective J. T. Wilcox (Christopher
Murray).Sentenced to die several years
ago, time is running out for Bobby Earl as his execution date approaches.At the direction of Bobby Earl, his
grandmother Evangeline Brown (Ruby Dee) approaches Paul Armstrong (Sean
Connery), who is a Harvard law professor, at a debate in which Armstrong is arguing
against the death penalty. Evangeline
delivers a letter from Bobby Earl detailing the injustice of his conviction and
pleading for Professor Armstrong’s assistance to set aside his wrongful
conviction and save his life.After an
emotional plea by Evangeline, followed by a consultation with his
attorney-wife, Laurie Armstrong (Kate Capshaw), Armstrong agrees to take up
Bobby Earl’s cause and he heads off to Florida to investigate the case.
It is at this point the movie’s plot begins to undergo the
multiple twists and turns that are so frequent, the technique becomes a
distraction.It is almost as if there must
be an unforeseen plot twist every five minutes for the remainder of the film.First, Bobby Earl discloses that another
death row inmate on his cell block, a serial killer named Blair Sullivan (Ed
Harris), has confessed to the killing of the little girl.Professor Armstrong confronts Sullivan,
leading to the discovery of the knife used to kill the little girl.The prison warden (Daniel J. Travanti) then
lets Professor Armstrong review the letters written by Sullivan, only to
discover one to the little girl’s parents confessing to the murder.Based on this evidence, Professor Armstrong gains
Bobby Earl’s freedom.
Just when it seemed things were being neatly wrapped up,
the plot takes a hard left turn and the second storyline emerges concerning a
disturbing past personal connection between Laurie Armstrong and Bobby Earl,
who it turns out had once prosecuted him in a case of sexual assault against a
young girl. Due to a problem with the main witness, Bobby Earl was not
convicted but during his incarceration, we learn that he was subjected to a
terrible act of torture by prison guards. This plot revelation leads to another twist,
with Armstrong discovering that his wife and young daughter (Scarlett
Johansson) have been marked for death.Here the movie adopts a similar ending as in “Cape Fear†(pick either
the 1962 or the 1991 version) leading to the final deadly confrontation between
Armstrong and the real killer that had been forecast throughout the story.
The
J-Horror phenomenon (the modern Japanese horror films that erupted in the late
1990s and continue to this day) enjoyed serious success and critical acclaim in
its early period for bringing some originality to the horror genre in general. Motion
pictures of the ilk are usually derived from ghost stories, Japanese folklore,
and revenge tales, mixed with a modern sensibility, a dash of gruesomeness, and
often a creepy dripping-wet ghost-girl (a yūrei)with long black hair covering her face coming to
get you in your dreams or out of, say, a television set, in your waking hours.
In
this case, the yūrei is Mimiko (played by
Karen Oshima), a young girl who is probably between the age of ten and fifteen
(it’s hard to tell). She is a spirit with the ability to manipulate your cell
phone service and kill you with a voice message. She’s the ultimate robocaller,
guaranteed to spam your very life. Tellingly, the original picture, One
Missed Call, was released back in 2003, when the robocall problem was not yet
a thing; so, in a way, director Takashi Miike’s film (and the novel Chakushin
Ari by Yasushi Akimoto, upon which the film is based) was a canny prophesy.
The entire film franchise plays on the then-growing problem of people addicted
to their phones. The “horror†in all three movies is a metaphor for our
dependence on a once elite technology that had finally become available to the
masses.
The
conceit is this—your phone rings with an eerie, nursery-rhyme-like melody that
isn’t the regular ringtone. By the time you answer the phone, the call has gone
to voice mail. The display reads: “One Missed Call.†Oddly, the caller ID
indicates that the call has come from your own phone number (today that’s a sure
sign of a robocaller or hacker, but back in 2003 this would have been a
sinister mystery). When you listen to the voice mail, you hear yourself say
something, which turns out to be the very last words you will ever speak,
followed by a scream. The time stamp of the call is always not far in the
future—usually the next day. Then, sure enough, at the appointed time,
something happens that causes you to unwittingly say those last words, and then
you die a horrible, violent death. Afterwards, the curse infects all the
contacts in your phone, and soon all your friends and family start receiving
the calls. So, yes, it acts like a computer virus, but it’s controlled by a
ghost who can appear, grab you, and hide in creepy-crawly spaces in your room.
Sounds
far-fetched, to be sure. In fact, this trope could only work within the often-audacious
milieu of J-Horror. An American remake released in 2008 was a stupendous
failure because the concept was so ridiculous by that time. Okay, the original
trilogy is pretty silly, too. However, the Japanese cultural sensibility, the
context of the time period involved, and the acceptance of a paranormal force
that can do anything, combine to work well enough to be entertaining.
One
Missed Call sets
up the franchise with a story about a college girl, Yumi (Ko Shibasaki), whose
friends get the calls and die, so she sets about attempting to solve the
mystery herself. She teams up with a detective, Yamashita (Shinichi Tsutsumi), but
Mimiko is much more powerful than they can imagine. Needless to say, things
don’t go well for the intrepid couple.
One
Missed Call 2
continues the tale, but the supernatural “rules†of this universe change—in
fact, the rules never seem to be consistent—by bringing in yet another ghostly
entity, Li Li, another young girl who, when she was alive, had psychic powers.
The people in her village were afraid of her, so they sewed her lips together
to prevent her from cursing them, and they buried her in a mine. Now she’s also
manipulating the phones as well as Mimiko, who still holds a grudge. While the
storyline here is extremely muddled and all over the place, director Tsukamoto
manages to deliver it all with flair. In this reviewer’s opinion, this middle
feature of the trilogy is the scariest.
One
Missed Call: Final jumps
to a different set of characters, this time a group of high school kids on a
field trip to South Korea. Bullying is a theme here, and the girl who is a
victim plays host to Mimiko (again, the rules on how the preternatural elements
work have altered again). This one has some striking moments, but it’s
decidedly the weakest of the three pictures.
Interestingly,
a Japanese television series based on the first film was launched in 2005,
in-between the second and third pictures. It lasted one season and utilized
characters from the first film (but played by different actors).
Arrow
Video continues to produce high quality Blu-ray packages with this product. A
two-disk set, the trilogy contains all three films in high definition 1080p
presentations with lossless DTS-HG Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 soundtracks.
There are optional English subtitles. Supplements abound with lengthy
behind-the-scenes “making of†documentaries for all three films, a couple of
tie-in shorts for 2 and Final, deleted scenes, separate cast and
director interviews, trailers, and other interesting content. An audio
commentary by Miike biographer Tom Mes accompanies the first picture, as well
as an alternate ending. The enclosed booklet is thick with production stills.
And, as with many of Arrow’s releases, the sleeve on the jewel case is
reversible, with original poster art on one side and newly commissioned artwork
by Matt Griffin on the other.
The
One Missed Call Trilogy may provide the viewer with some eye-rolls,
chuckles, and head-scratching, but it’s also got enough stylish scares in it to
satisfy ardent J-Horror fans and horror fans in general.
Kino
Lorber’s new double-bill Blu-ray release of comedy classics starring the
legendary Alec Guinness features the nautical-themed The Captain’s Paradise (1953,
a London Films production), and Barnacle Bill (1957, the last Ealing
Studios production in which Guinness appeared). The former is often thought of
as one of the Ealing comedies, but it is not so.
Paradise
was
nominated for the “Story†Academy Award (a category that no longer exists), and
it was written by Alec Coppel (best known, perhaps as co-writer of the script
for Vertigo). It is indeed a well-written and clever vehicle for Guinness,
who delivers his usual above-it-all confident demeanor when his character is
faced with domestic and professional disaster. He plays Captain Henry St.
James, whom his chief officer Ricco (Charles Goldner) constantly calls a “geniusâ€
because Henry has found the perfect path to “paradiseâ€â€”a double life with two
women—one in the Spanish town of Kalique (actually Ceuta) in North Africa, next
to Morocco, and one in Gibraltar. His ship, The Golden Fleece, makes
regular trips between the two ports. He is married to Maud (Celia Johnson) in
Gibraltar, and lives a quiet, early-to-bed, and happy but rather dull existence
when he’s “home.†He also has a mistress (or a second wife?), Nita (Yvonne De
Carlo), in Kalique, where he lives a more passionate and fiery life of dancing,
drinking, and lovemaking. Henry manages to keep the two lives separate, until,
well, he can’t.
In
1953, one can imagine that The Captain’s Paradise presented itself as
something exotic and, in turn, quite hilarious. Humor especially abounds in the
sequences in which Maud visits Kalique and accidentally meets Nita. Henry, in a
panic, must exhibit his “genius†to remedy the situation.
Today,
though, Paradise might be considered by some as problematic in that the
story glorifies this man’s unfaithfulness to his wife. Apparently, he was
supposed to have been married to both women in the original version of the
script. It’s not particularly clear, though, whether Henry is married to Nita
or simply shacking up with her. At one point he calls her “Madame†St. James,
but that could be just an endearment. Frankly, the man is a cad, and he is
celebrated for it. For the picture’s U.S. release, this aspect
had to be changed to comply with the Production Code operating at the time, and
other bits were censored. But film historian Stephen Vagg, author of an
academia.edu paper on Coppel, opines, “The women have
agency... both get sick of Guinness, rebel against their station in life and go
off to have affairs with other men, and aren't punished for it (indeed De Carlo
kills someone and gets away with it). The film is also fascinating from a
sociological point of view because it’s about that generation of men who went
off to war and wanted to come back to a world of quiet domesticity and cups of
tea… but also longed at times for excitement and adventure... and it’s about
women who are expected to be in one of two boxes (good girl/bad girl), but
rebel against it.â€
That said, it is difficult to determine
if the version presented here on the Kino Lorber disk (it is true that the
picture is the StudioCanal restoration) is the entire original UK theatrical
release. Certain changes known to have been made to the film are indeed not
present,
and yet it runs only 89 minutes. Online sources indicate that the original
theatrical release was 93 minutes. Vagg suspects that this is only a press
release error supplied to online sites, for all home video releases of the film
have been 89 minutes.
Despite
all of this, all three leading performances are top-notch. Typical for the
time, however, Caucasian British actors, wearing dark makeup, play Arabs (such
as Sebastian Cabot as a black market vendor!). Quaint.
The
1957 feature, Barnacle Bill, fares better for its time, but it’s not on
the same par as other Ealing comedies such The Lavender Hill Mob or The
Ladykillers. In this one, William Ambrose (Guinness) comes from a long line
of seamen (dating back to prehistoric man) and Guinness appears as each one in
brief comedic scenes set through the ages. In the present, Ambrose, who suffers
from seasickness and therefore can’t be on a sailing ship, buys a decrepit
entertainment pier in England, restores it, and commandeers it as if it were
a ship. When the town bigwigs try to shut him down, he and his loyal
employees, including bathing houses manager, Mrs. Barrington (Irene Browne),
work to foil the corrupt officials’ plans. Watch for brief appearances by
future British stalwart actors such as a young Donald Pleasence, Lionel
Jeffries, and Allan Cuthbertson.
Both
films are presented in new 4K 1920x1080p restorations that look good enough.
They come with optional English subtitles. The disc also contains the trailer for Captain's Paradise as well as three other Guinness releases. Kudos
to Kino Lorber for making these Alec Guinness titles available in high
definition for fans of classic British comedy.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Mediumrare Entertainment is proud to announce Police
Squad! The Complete Series available for the first time on Blu-ray from 20th
April 2020
Starring Leslie Nielson, Alan North & Ed Williams
There are 8 million stories in the Naked City. Here are
six. Join Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) and Capt. Ed Hocken (Alan
North) as they solve the toughest cases - full of all the sight-gags, puns, and
non sequiturs that made the series famous! Created by
David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, who gave us other classics such as
Flying High! and The Naked Gun series.
Be an eye-witness to all the comedic action for the first
time in stunning High Definition
Marginally a "straight" police drama in the
Jack Webb/Quinn Martin school, Police Squad occurs in a strange universe where
everything is taken literally (when a name "rings a bell" we hear
bells go off every time someone mentions it), non sequiturs occur (a mime tries
to spell out a ransom note, and Officer Nordberg guesses "Theme From a
Summer Place") and sight gags abound (while looking for a corpse, someone
wants to know the time and the dead man's hand drops out of a tree).
Police Squad Blu-ray Special Features & Product
Details
· Audio
Commentary by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Robert K Weiss
“Cover Up†(1949) is a very strange little movie. An
insurance investigator Sam Donovan (Dennis O’Keefe) arrives in a small
Midwestern town by train to investigate the death of one of his company’s
policy holders, a man named Phillips. He meets pretty girl Anita Weatherby
(Barbara Britton) on the train and helps her carry the Christmas packages she’s
brought home for her family. He meets her father, Stu Weatherby (Art Baker) who
came to pick her up and invites Donovan to come out to the house for a visit
when he has the time. Friendly town. Donovan next visits the local sheriff
Larry Best (William Bendix) to get the death report. And that’s where
complications start. The sheriff tells him although the death was a suicide by
gunshot, there’s no gun, no bullet and no coroner’s report and the body is
already buried in the cemetery.
Sounds like a decent set up for a good hard-boiled
who-dunnit, doesn’t it? Except it’s anything but. Despite Kino Lorber’s
packaging, with Bendix and O’Keefe wielding a couple of Lugers on the Blu-Ray
cover, “Cover-Up†falters mid-way through, deciding it wants to be a nice, friendly
holiday movie. Despite a set-up that sounds like the beginning of “Bad Day at
Black Rock,†unlike the characters in that film, everybody in this town must
have migrated from Mayberry. There all so nice and kind and wouldn’t want to
ruin anyone’s Christmas with a nasty thing like murder, which Phillips’ death
turns out to be.
This may be the only mystery story in which the
murdered man and his murderer never appear on screen. In fact, although the
mystery gets solved, there’s no punishment that can be meted out to the
perpetrator because he conveniently dies of a heart attack before Donovan get
put the cuffs on him. And besides Phillips was a no good rat that nobody in
town liked and doesn’t miss. So why make a big fuss about it?
It’s all pretty weird and at the same time kind of tame
and dull. The emphasis is more on the romance between Anita and Sam than the
crime. Oh, there are red herrings sprinkled throughout the script co-written by
O’Keefe and Jerome Odlum that keep the mystery plot going but director Alfred
E. Green provides little tension or suspense.
One wonders why Kino Lorber chose to put this title out
in a nice Blu-ray format when there are so many other more worthy noirs out
there waiting for that kind of presentation. The picture and sound quality are
first rate but the disc has no extras at all.
Bottom line, if you’re looking for an unusual, off-beat
Christmas movie, pick it up. You could run a double bill along with Jean
Shepherd’s “A Christmas Story†to liven things up. Tough guy noir lovers should avoid.
"Are Snakes Necessary"", the first novel by famed film director Brian
De Palma (Carrie, Scarface, Dressed to Kill among others), co-written by Susan
Lehman (an attorney by training, former NY Times editor and magazine
contributor) is a doozy. It's latest release of a Hard Case Crime series through Titan Books. The review could end right here but you deserve more
information, read: teasers.
At the risk of sounding much like the
introductory theme song to The Jetsons:
Meet
Barton Brock, campaign manager for Senatorial candidate Jason Crump who's
getting creamed in the primaries by incumbent Senator, Lee Rogers.
"Political
campaigns are brutal. The stakes are high. Not for the electorate - Barton
Brock does not particularly care for the electorate. But for the team that
boosts the candidate into office, the stakes matter, a lot. The guys on the
team get big payoffs, good appointments, cushy jobs, bigger campaigns.
It's a lot like fishing. You start small, then
throw away the little guys, the ones self-respecting cats wouldn't call dinner
- and then you cast out for the big mothers."
You
like similes and metaphors? Lehman and De Palma are masters of the craft. Wait.
Meet
Elizabeth DeCarlo,
a 19 year old "drop-dead gorgeous blonde" working the counter of a
McDonalds. Brock enlists her onto his staff to "conduct push polls"
but he has an ulterior motive.
Meet
Senator Rogers,
incumbent Senator. He has an ailing wife and an historically out of control
libido. He meets Elizabeth. In a hotel bar. After a successful primary victory.
Just what Brock planned. But things don't turn out quite how he planned.
Meet
Jenny Cours,
Jenny is 47 and has been for many years, a flight attendant for Loft Air. She
is a long-time ahem, friend of the Senator's and his aforementioned
libido.
"Why
do we never forget the ones that got away? Rogers quickens his pace. And, eyes
trained on her ass, he catches up with Jenny Cours."
Meet
Fanny Cours,
Jenny's 18 year old daughter who is "in the full flush of carnality. Neither
her vitality and ripeness nor the irrepressible sense of readiness that
surrounds her elude the impatient senator." The college student is
also a political junkie and a videographer who goes to work on Rogers' campaign
much to her mother's distress.
Meet
Nick Sculley,
a one-time famous news photographer who's down on his luck and during a
stopover in Vegas on his way to LA, he bumps into Elizabeth Diamond, nee
DeCarlo, coming out of the
Admiral's Club Lounge. He's as good looking as our old friend, Elizabeth.
Coincidentally, they're taking the same flight to L.A.. They bond over Graham
Greene's The End of the Affair, sit together and...
"Giggle.
Smile. Kiss the boy. Watch him light up. Knowing how to speak to the animal in
the man is half the game. The rest, Elizabeth finds, is really a matter of
will."
Meet
Bruce Diamond,
Elizabeth's rich, casino-owning husband. Seven casinos rich.
"Diamond
loves expensive cars, priceless paintings, beautiful women. Heloves to throw money around. He's so full of
himself and all of his big hungry qualities, he is near to bursting."
There
we have the major dramatis personae. De Palma and Lehman have crafted a
well-woven tale that could be closer to the truth than evident at first.
Politics does make strange... well, you know. The
perfunctory "names, character, places, etc." disclaimer appears on
the copyright page. I bet it must have been written with a tongue in cheek. As
you may guess, due to the authors involved, the novel is very cinematic. The
characters come alive in your mind and you can see settings and scenes as if
you were viewing this, not just reading it.
"A
little conversation, with an old woman. Beats going through the motions of
seduction with some guy out of Vegas who is genuinely confused as to whether
the conversation is going to end up in bed or not. (Yes, mister, it is, why
else do you think I'm listening to you prattle on about your golf game, the
jazz that means more to you than anything in the world, the novel that will
bring you fame and fortune and change the way the world thinks? Darling. This
is the noise we make to fill up the time between here and the not so distant
moment when we'll be naked animals grunting and moaning in a world far from
conversation.)"
These
are Elizabeth's thoughts as she rides on a bus, towards the next stage of her
life as she sits
and
speaks with:
Meet
Lucy Wideman,
an elderly woman who has anonymously, for years, been the Boston Globe's advice
columnist, Dear Dottie.
With
this inventive, fast-paced page turner in your hands you will also be meeting
your next fun and exciting read.
As
a bonus, for those of you in the NY metro area, the authors will be at the
famous Strand Bookstore on Broadway at 12th Street, Monday March 16 beginning
at 7:00 PM. More information can be found at: www.
strandbooks.com/event/palma-lehman-snakes
(The book will be available on Kindle and in hardback on March 17. Click here to pre-order from Amazon.)
Andrew V. McLaglen was almost predestined to be a movie director. The
son of the legendary character actor Victor McLaglen, Andrew came of age
on movie sets. His father often appeared in John Ford Westerns and
Andrew developed a passion for the genre. He ultimately gained a
foothold in the television industry during the late 1950s and early
1960s when TV Westerns were all the rage. He proved himself to be a
capable and reliable director and eventually moved on to feature films.
McLaglen scored a major hit with the rollicking Western comedy
"McLintock!" starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in 1963. Two years
later, he teamed with James Stewart for the poignant Civil War drama
"Shenandoah". The film was a big success with both critics and at the
boxoffice. Thus, Universal, the studio that released "Shenandoah", hoped
to capitalize on the film's success and re-teamed McLaglen and Stewart
for a Western, "The Rare Breed".
Adding to the reunion aspect of the
production, it co-starred Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith. O'Hara had
co-starred with Stewart in the 1962 comedy "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation"
and Keith was O'Hara's leading man in the Disney classic "The Parent
Trap". Got all that? The script by Ric Hardman takes an unusual aspect
of the Old West for its central plot line. Martha Price (O'Hara) and her
daughter Hilary (Juliet Mills) have arrived in Texas from their home in
England. They are bringing with them their prized Hereford bull, a
breed not known in America. Their hope is to sell the animal at auction
so that cross breeding American cows will eventually result in superior
stock. The prim and proper upper-crust British ladies have endured a
tragedy that isn't depicted on screen: the death of Martha's husband on
the ship en route to America, although they seem fairly unperturbed, as
they only fleetingly reference the dearly departed in the course of what
follows. The Hereford is mocked by the cattle barons because it lacks
the signature horns of traditional Texas steers. In a convoluted plot
device, a smarmy rich man (David Brian) with an obsession for seducing
Martha, bids on the Hereford to impress her. When his awkward attempts
to bed her fail, somehow another unseen buyer steps forward and the
beast must be transported to him via the efforts of a wrangler named
Burnett (James Stewart). At this point, the story becomes difficult to
follow. Suffice it to say that Burnett agrees to escort Martha, Hilary
and their prized bull to the far-off destination to conclude the deal.
Along the way, they are ambushed by Simons (Jack Elam), a greedy crook
who causes a stampede of another cattle herd being escorted by Burnett's
friend Jamie (Don Galloway.) In the resulting chaos, Simons intends to
steal the Hereford as well as the money Martha has been paid to deliver
the bull. If all of this sounds confusing, watching it unfurl on screen
makes the plot even more fragmented when Martha accuses Burnett of also
trying to swindle her. Ultimately, they all wind up at the outpost of
the new owner, Bowen (Brian Keith), a Scottish eccentric who runs his
own cattle empire and sees the possibility of crossbreeding the Hereford
with his own herd.
In
Sergio Corbucci’s 1967 Italian Western, “The Hellbenders†(1967), now available
on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, embittered Colonel Jonas (Joseph Cotten) devises a
plan to avenge the outcome of the Civil War.Where today’s cultural conservatives mostly express their nostalgia for
the Old South by gathering to protest the removal of Confederate monuments,
Jonas takes more extreme measures.He
and his three sons -- the remnant of his old command, known as the Hellbenders
-- ambush a military convoy transporting $1.5 million in greenbacks.Slaughtering the convoy’s cavalry escort,
they transfer the stolen money to a makeshift coffin supposedly containing the
remains of Jonas‘ “son-in-law†Ambrose Allen, another Confederate officer
killed in action at the Battle of Nashville.In truth, an officer named Ambrose Allen died at Nashville, but he
wasn’t Jonas’ son-in-law, and his corpse isn’t in the coffin.Jonas picked his name off a list of the war
dead.Using a forged travel permit and
abetted by a hired floozy who poses as the bereaved widow, they set off for
Jonas‘ Texas ranch.There, the
grief-stricken family will lay the gallant “Ambrose Allen†to rest, as Jonas
sorrowfully and convincingly tells the Army patrols and sheriffs’ posses whom
they encounter on the way.In reality,
once they arrive, the colonel will disburse the stolen money to finance and arm
an invasion of the North.
Since
Corbucci, Cotten, and the script clearly establish Jonas as a callous fanatic
wedded to a dubious cause, the movie builds suspense not by cheering him on,
but instead by presenting one obstacle after another that he and his sons must
surmount on their journey.We may not
hope that he’ll succeed in fomenting another Civil War, but regardless, we
wonder how he’ll outwit all the soldiers, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, and
Indians who continually cross the Hellbenders’ path.And what will happen after circumstances
force him to replace one “widow†with another, a saloon girl, Claire, who
unexpectedly reveals a conscience as she realizes what she signed on for?Her innate honesty troubles one of the sons,
Ben (Julian Mateos), who has already begun to have his own qualms about Jonas’
brutality.
Given
Joseph Cotten’s illustrious film career, even the most dedicated genre
enthusiast would be challenged to argue that “The Hellbenders†(released in
Italy as “I crudeli†or “The Cruel Onesâ€) poses any threat for displacing the
likes of “Citizen Kane†or “The Third Man†from a list of Cotten’s most
memorable movies.Nevertheless, on its
own terms, Corbucci’s Western gives the distinguished actor a respectable showcase
with a decent, downbeat plot and strong support by the other actors, notably
Norma Bengell as Claire.Bengell uses
herarresting, expressive features to
good advantage in an exceptionally pivotal role for an actress in a Spaghetti
Western. Corbucci’s Westerns often featured a woman of easy virtue who turns
out to be the moral fulcrum of the story, and in “The Hellbenders,†Claire
serves that function.Corbucci delivers
the chair-busting saloon brawls and bloody shootouts expected by Italian Western
fans, laced together with an unusually intricate storyline for the genre.Two subplots involving an attack by a Mexican
bandit (Spaghetti stalwart Aldo Sambrell) and a chance encounter with a
pathetic but sinister beggar (the magnificently grungy Al Mulock) seem
initially to disrupt the forward momentum of the story for no other purpose
than to add more gunfights.While they
fulfill that expectation, they also set up a surprise reversal for the
characters at the end, and a finale that -- in Corbucci fashion -- leaves few
survivors standing.
The
Kino Lorber Blu-ray presents “The Hellbenders†in a beautiful 4K restoration
with a droll, informative audio commentary by Alex Cox.Cox notes that “Leo Nichols,†who composed
the score for the movie, was actually Ennio Morricone under a name that he also
used for two other Italian Westerns around the same period.The score is atypical for Morricone, sounding
more like Jerry Fielding or Jerry Goldsmith than what we’re used to hearing
from the soundtracks for Sergio Leone’s epics.Perhaps that was why Morricone decided to use the pseudonym.“The Hellbenders†is complemented by a
separate Kino Lorber release of Corbucci’s “The Specialists†in a comparably
fine 4K restoration, also with an Alex Cox commentary.There’s little else to add to what I’ve already
said about “The Specialists†(also known as “The Specialistâ€) in an earlier
blog entry HERE, except to note that the two films represent Corbucci’s
versatility within the conventions of the Spaghetti Western.“The Hellbenders†is an American-style Western
epic, albeit more viscerally violent than a typical Hollywood production from
the same period.At the other end of
the form, “The Specialists†capsizes Western conventions in the
impressionistic, caustic Corbucci style of “Django†and “The Great Silence.â€
The April Chinese premiere of the new James Bond film "No Time to Die" has been cancelled by the studio and Eon Productions due to the severity of the coronavirus, which has taken its most devastating toll in China. The nation is scrambling to contain and control the outbreak, which has infected tens of thousands of people worldwide, though most of the affected patients are in China. To date, over 1600 deaths have been attributed to the virus. With no way of knowing when the virus will be under control, China has taken draconian measures to minimize the number of infections. As of this date, virtually all of China's movie theaters and many other places for public gatherings have been closed. The economic impact is starting to be felt worldwide. With millions of Chinese workers restricted to their homes, manufacturing has been severely reduced, thus affecting the distribution of goods internationally. The entertainment industry is also starting to feel the pain. Bond films are very popular in China and the cancelling of the premiere, along with the postponement of a high profile, all-star promotional tour by the cast, director and producers, will have an impact even if theaters reopen in April. For more, click here.
Ernest B. Schoedsack’s
Dr. Cyclops (1940) was certainly not the first - nor is it the most famous
- horror/sci-fi film to exploit the cinematic possibilities of shrunken humans
as ghoulish entertainment.Audiences of
the 1930s were first introduced to Ernest Thesiger’s deliciously devilish Dr.
Pretorius as he dabbled with his experimentations-in-miniature in James Whale’s
The Bride of Frankenstein.The miniaturization of human specimens were central
to the plot of Tod Browning’s The Devil
Doll (1936).In that film, an embittered
Lionel Barrymore misuses a scientist-friend’s discovery to convert people to
doll size in order to extract revenge on those who had earlier sent him to
prison.In the Silver Age of Sci-Fi,
this device was most famously captured in Jack Arnold’s The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) and again, rather exploitatively
a year later, in Bert I. Gordon’s less-celebrated but still amusing knock-off Attack of the Puppet People (1958).
In some manner of speaking, the size-reduced victims terrorized
by Dr. Cyclops is frightening to them only as a matter only of ratio.The combat between the unusually very large
versus the very small was already a well-established trope, straight out of the
playbook of such giant-ape films as King
Kong (1933), Son of Kong (1933),
and Mighty Joe Young (1949).Interestingly, Schoedsack and Dr. Cyclops producer Merian C. Cooper
worked together on all three of these epics, though their involvements were not
always credited on-screen.
Brooklyn’s own Albert Dekker portrays the titular Dr. Cyclops, otherwise known as Dr.
Alexander Thorkel.In his steamy
scientific-research laboratory nestled deep within the green and leafy Amazon
jungles of Peru, the secretive doctor has managed to tap into what’s described
as a “deposit of the richest radium ore known to man.â€Though he would have preferred otherwise,
Thorkel’s poor eyesight requires him to request the assistance of a scientific
colleague, Dr. Bulfinch (Charles Halton).Bulfinch travels the thousand or so miles to Thorkel’s remote Amazon
base – if only to look through a few microscopic slides and confirm his colleague’s
findings.
With his task accomplished, Dr. Bulfinch – who has visited
with a small expedition party – is surprised when he’s summarily dismissed:
Thorkel has – somewhat ungraciously - told Bulfinch and Co. to pack up their
things and head home.Though his time at
the jungle laboratory was short, Bulfinch recognizes that Thorkel’s “drawing
the cosmic force from the bosom of the earth†is an inherently dangerous
practice.Especially when one considers
that, by almost all measure and standard, the “abnormally secretive†and
obsessive Dr. Thorkel is clearly a bona fide paranoiac.Bulfinch deems him as a “delusional†who is recklessly
“tampering with powers reserved for God.â€
The “cosmic force†that Bulfinch has referenced is
radium.Dr. Cyclops has been collecting
radium ore through a sophisticated ringed and phallic two-bulb-shaped instrument
of his own invention.Having extracted
the subterranean radium from an open-pit mine, this unrelentingly malevolent madman
then transmits the alkaline and highly radioactive metal through a condenser unit
housed inside his home laboratory.It
there’s that he tricks his overstayed-their-welcome but curious visitors into
taking a closer look at his technical handiwork.Their apparent trusting willingness to do so
will prove to be unfortunate for them as Thorkel reduces them to 12â€-13†in
size.He does this gleefully and without
a hint of remorse, assured that his scientific secrets will remain… well,
secret.
Paramount’s Dr.
Cyclops – one of only a handful of horror films commissioned by the studio
during the genre’s Golden Age – isn’t a masterpiece by any stretch of the
imagination, but it’s never dull.It
must be said that the photographic effects of Dr. Cyclops are very well done for the period.The work of Visual Effects team of Farciot
Edouart and Gordon Jennings’ would earn both a “Special Effects†nomination at
the 1941 Academy Award celebration.Though they would lose out that year to the flying carpets featured in The Thief of Bagdad, both men would go
on two win Oscars for later special projects.
Director Robert Altman was widely admired for choosing his film projects based on personal passion for the subject matter, regardless of whether the production had any apparent boxoffice appeal. That artistic side of Altman is to the fore with his 1987 screen adaptation of the stage farce "Beyond Therapy", a title that might well have been applied to the people who financed this misguided production. The decision to bring the play to the screen was bizarre to begin with, as it had flopped both off-Broadway and on the Great White Way itself. When a stage-produced turkey dies, the burial is witnessed by only the relatively few people who had the misfortune of attending the performances. (The infamous "Moose Murders" only affected the opening night audience, as it closed the minute the curtain dropped.) With Altman's screen adaptation of "Beyond Therapy", the flaws in the original work became magnified through a theatrical and video release that saw the pain inflicted on an exponentially larger audience, despite the fact that the movie was itself a bomb.
"Beyond Therapy" is set in New York City but was filmed in Paris, where Altman had taken up residence for a time. The film opens in a French restaurant where Bruce (Jeff Goldblum) and Prudence (Julie Hagerty) have a disastrous first date, with Prudence having responded to Bruce's ad in a personals section of a magazine. Turns out he's a psychological basket case who brings Prudence a rose but never gets around to ordering food or drinks. He speaks frankly about her physical attributes and then tells her that he is a bisexual who ls living with his jealous lover Bob (Christopher Guest). Prudence is no prize, either. She's erratic, over-stimulated and, like Bruce, is undergoing psychiatric therapy. Perhaps if the story stuck to this eccentric couple, a reasonably funny plot line might have emerged but an abundance of other oddball characters are introduced. Tom Conti plays Prudence's sex-crazed psychiatrist who prides himself on seducing his patients. Glenda Jackson is another shrink who is having anonymous sexual encounters with him while at the same time is suffering from mental problems herself that result in her taking the couch in the presence of the patients she is supposed to be analyzing. Christopher Guest's Bob is flamboyantly gay and more than a little perturbed by Bruce's dalliance with Prudence, and he's also in a troubled relationship with his Lady MacBeth-like mother, played by Genevieve Page. All of these characters have intertwining relationships that are played out in the style of a French bedroom farce. The problem is that French bedroom farces must be as light as air in terms of pacing, while Altman's film goes down like a three-week old baguette. Eccentric big city urbane types are generally the domain of Woody Allen, whose romantic comedies tend to be very good because the characters and dialogue are believable. Not so here. Altman encourages his cast to chew the scenery at every turn and it can be said that this is one of those rare films in which very talented people come across very badly at every turn.
Robert Altman, like any director, had his share of flops. He was said to disdain "Beyond Therapy" but if he wanted to assign blame, he needed to only look in the mirror, as he co-wrote the screenplay with the play's author Christopher Durang. Happily, the film's was largely ignored, grossing less than $800,000 worldwide. Altman rebounded occasionally and enjoyed two highly acclaimed films before his death in 2006: "The Player" (1992) and "Gosford Park" (2001). His legacy is assured as a great American filmmaker, "Beyond Therapy" not withstanding.
The Blu-ray from Scorpion is perfectly fine with a crisp, nice transfer. The only extras are the original trailer and a gallery of "B" sex comedies also available from the company.
In 1934, the American film industry initiated a system of self-censorship known as the Hays Code. Eager to avoid an office of government film censorship from being established, the movie studios put in place their own draconian rules when it came to presenting adult content such as sex and violence on the big screen. Ironically, these restrictions were generally every bit as suppressive as any government agency might have applied. Over the course of the code's thirty year run, its impact was lessened as society became more liberalized. However, many great literary works that were brought to the screen were watered-down in an attempt to protect adult viewers from such shocking realities as premarital sex and the existence of homosexuality. The straw that broke the camel's back occurred when Jack Warner refused to make substantial cuts to the 1966 release of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", telling the code enforcers to, in essence, stuff it. Grateful movie-goers made what essentially an art house film in to a monster boxoffice hit. The code was doomed and would soon be replaced by the ratings system.
It may come as a surprise to readers to learn that despite the dreaded restrictions compelled by the code, industrious exploitation film producers found ways to bring nudity to the big screen in the 1930s through a number of cheaply produced movies. These basically fell into two categories: movies with narrative plots and fictitious characters and documentaries that purported to extol the health benefits of a nudist lifestyle. In fact, nudism was becoming quite the rage during this era, with over 300 nudist camps opening in America, attracting an estimated 300,000 members. The fad was, in part, influenced by European interest in the health benefits of nudity. German cinema of the era was far more liberal about presenting nudity on screen, and it was often integrated into the German penchant for movies that centered on love stories that often involved physical fitness as a main ingredient. In order to get around the Hays Code, the U.S. nudist films had to scrupulously avoid any hint of sexual contact. Only good, wholesome activities could be depicted and the hottest the action might get would be a quick kiss or hug between a couple.
Kino Lorber, in association with Something Weird, has released a fascinating Blu-ray featuring two of the more prominent nudist films of the era. First up is "Unashamed: A Romance", released in 1938. This is a drama starring people with little or no experience in the film industry. Rae Kidd (her only screen credit) plays Rae Lane, a secretary who is not so secretly carrying a torch for her boss Robert Lawton (Robert Stanley). Rae's unrequited love for Robert causes her to seek medical attention. Her doctor explains that because she is of mixed race (never defined exactly), she will never be regarded as a "catch" by most men. (Yes, folks, this was mainstream thinking back in 1938). Nonetheless, she convinces Robert, who is a hypochondriac, to join her at a nudist camp where she is a member, on the basis of the belief at the time that nudism was not only good for the psyche but also for a person's physical health. The ploy seems to work and before long she and Robert are romantically involved and engaging in hiking and sporting activities including volley ball, a requisite for any film set in a nudist colony. However, when a runaway aristocrat, Barbara Pound (Lucille Shearer) arrives at the camp to seek solitude from the public, Robert is immediately smitten and cruelly ignores Rae's heartbreak. The final scenes of the film trace Rae's efforts to adjust to having been dumped by her lover and we can't help but feel it was caused in part by his desire to be with a woman who wasn't "tainted" by mixed race heritage.
The film is interesting on several levels but for a fuller understanding, listen to the excellent commentary track by film historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, who provides informative insights into the birth of the nudist film movement as well as this movie's shocking, downbeat ending and a tragic twist that is presented in such a subtle manner that you might otherwise have overlooked it. I should also point out that the film is very creatively photographed by George Sergeant, though this movie appears to be his only cinematic credit.
"Hudson
River Massacre†is a 1965 Italian Western originally titled “I tre del
Coloradoâ€and also released as “Rebels
in Canada,†“Revolt in Canada,†and “Canadian Wilderness.â€In the film, the Hudson’s Bay Company, an
English corporation, is tightening its monopoly on the lucrative fur-trading
business in western Canada in the late 1800s by driving independent French-Canadian
trappers out of business.The
French-Canadians counter with an uprising led by Leo Limoux, played by Franco
Fantasia, a Spaghetti Western regular with a familiar face if not a familiar
name.Trapper Victor DeFrois (George
Martin) resists joining the rebels until his brother is executed for robbery
and murder on charges fabricated by the ruthless Hudson’s Bay trading-post
manager, Sullivan.When that happens,
Victor throws in with the resistance.At
Limoux’s direction, the young trapper kidnaps Sullivan’s sister Anne and holds
her at a remote cabin for ransom.From
there, veteran fans of old-fashioned Westerns can pretty much write the rest of
the script themselves.What usually
happens in these movies when a handsome, stalwart outdoorsman is cooped up with
a genteel, gorgeous woman, and the two begin to rethink their animosity toward
each other?
The
director of “Hudson River Massacre,†Armando de Ossorio, is better known to
Euro-movie fans for his four horror films in the “Blind Dead†series about
undead medieval knights who rise from their tombs as zombies.As director and co-writer, he keeps the
B-Western fistfights and shootouts moving at a fast clip in “Hudson River
Massacre,â€including the relatively
large-scale “massacre†of the title in which the outnumbered rebels clash with
a troop of Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the shadow of snow-capped Spanish
peaks standing in for the Canadian Rockies.The role of the Mounties as Sullivan’s malleable dupes will surprise
older fans who fondly remember Sergeant Preston of the Yukon.The Spanish actor George Martin had a busy
career in Italian Westerns, sometimes playing against type as a bad guy but
more often cast like here, as the hero.He appears to be performing most of his own stunts in “Hudson River
Massacre†without the help of a stand-in, except for the more dangerous moments
of a fight with a bad guy in a rugged stretch of rapids.He’s ably supported by an attractive trio of
European actresses, Giulia Rubini as Anne, Pamela Tudor as a feisty
action-heroine named Swa, a common fixture in today’s movies but unusual for a
1960s Western, Italian or otherwise, and Diana Lorys as Nina, a French-Canadian
saloon girl whose unrequited devotion to Victor has unfortunate consequences.
A new Blu-ray edition
of “Hudson River Massacre†from MVD Classics presents this obscure movie in a
serviceable hi-def transfer.The only
extra is a trailer, but the Blu-ray includes SDH subtitles that will be
welcomed by those who saw unpretentious fare like “Hudson River Massacre†at
the local drive-in as kids, back in the day.Italian Western enthusiasts will be equally happy to see another
hard-to-find title now available on the commercial market.
A long-neglected gem, the 1959 apocalyptic thriller The World, the Flesh and the Devil has finally been released on Blu-ray through the Warner Archive. The movie, which was once routinely shown on TV, has all but vanished from sight in recent years. One of the first serious attempts to examine the implications of Armageddon in the nuclear age, the film was largely over-shadowed by Stanley Kramer's similarly-themed, all-star production of On the Beach. Harry Belafonte stars as Ralph Burton, a construction worker who is investigating a long-dormant underground tunnel when catastrophe strikes. He is trapped by a cave-in and when he manages to emerge from the death trap situation, he discovers the entire population of his town has fled in mass hysteria due to the outbreak of a world war. His research shows that biological weapons were used to kill seemingly everyone on earth. For the sake of dramatic license, the lethal aspects of the weapons are neutralized within a few days, thus making Burton immune from any lingering effects.
Burton makes his way to New York City where he finds the entire
population has vanished and is presumably dead. Driving to New Jersey,
he witnesses an eerie sight: thousands of deserted automobiles stranded
at the Lincoln Tunnel and atop the George Washington Bridge. The impact
is somewhat diluted because Burton never encounters a single dead body.
Like Kramer's On the Beach, this production seems a bit timid
when it comes to showing the actual carnage of a world war. In horror
and suspense films, what you don't see is often scarier than what you do
see, but in this scenario, it becomes rather implausible that there
isn't a trace of a single soul in evidence. Nevertheless, the sequences
remain powerful and haunting. Burton, who conveniently is a handy man
who can tackle even the most daunting tasks, manages to generate
electricity in the luxury apartment he stakes out in Manhattan. While he
enjoys a reasonably lavish lifestyle, he is desperately lonely- until
he encounters Sarah (Inger Stevens), a gorgeous blonde who has also
miraculously survived the devastating event that seemingly has ended all
other human life on earth. The film crosses into the realm of sexual
tension and racial bigotry- bold topics during this era of moviemaking.
The two would logically become lovers in any other scenario, but Burton
balks because of the (then) American taboo on inter-racial
relationships. Sarah is willing but becomes frustrated by Burton's
avoidance of her sexual advances.
The situation becomes even
more complicated when a third survivor emerges: Ben Thacker (Mel
Ferrer). Burton saves his life, but the inevitable comes to pass. When
Ben turns his attentions to Sarah, Burton becomes jealous and the two
men engage in a duel to the death, stalking each other through the
deserted canyons of Wall Street. The World, the Flesh and the Devil is
a poignant film about the human pysche. As absurd as it might seem, the male ego being what it is, one
can well imagine that sexual dominance would result in the last two men
on earth trying to reduce the male population by 50% through murder.
The film is extremely well acted by the three leads, and Belafonte, who
was then riding at the top of the pop charts, even gets to sing a couple
of Caribbean songs. The most memorable aspect of the production,
however, is the impressive camera shots in an around New York City.
While many of the scenes of deserted landmark areas are achieved through
special effects and matte paintings, there are nonetheless some fairly
incredible shots of main thoroughfares completely devoid of any traffic
or pedestrians. (A similar feat would be achieved in Los Angeles for The Omega Man.)
">The World, the Flesh and the Devil is very capably directed by Randall MacDougall, who was primarily known as the screenwriter for such diverse films as Cleopatra and Dark of the Sun. It's a
thinking person's vision of the apocalypse. Some of it is a bit corny and
dated, but time has not diminished the power of the storyline. The Blu-ray offers a superb transfer and includes the original trailer. The disc is region-free.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM THE CINEMA RETRO MOVIE STORE.
On the 31st January, Silva Screen released two
excellent BBC vinyl albums from the 1970s. Firstly, Paddy Kingsland was the
first Radiophonic composer to see a solo release of his compositions, even though
he’s not name-checked on the front of the sleeve.“Fourth Dimensionâ€, first released in 1973,
showcased Kingsland’s theme tunes for television and radio while at the BBC
Radiophonic Workshop.The recordings
feature a rock-style backing band and synthesisers including the VCS 3 and
“Delaware†Synthi 100, and the track “Reg†from the album was also released as
the B side to the 1973 single release of the iconic Doctor Who theme tune.
Kingsland remained at the workshop for 21 years, leaving in 1981, during which
time he composed music for much loved TV shows The Changes, Doctor Who and The
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy among others.Paddy Kingsland is now part of the newly-revived independent
“Radiophonic Workshop†which has been playing festivals including Glastonbury
and Womad and composing new music including the score for the recent feature
film by Matthew Holness, “Possumâ€. The reissue of the LP has been pressed on
White Vinyl and comes in a limited edition number of just 500 copies. Audio
quality over its 12 tracks still sounds remarkably good, with excellent
packaging and printed inner sleeve. Catalogue Number: SILLP1543
On the same date, Silva Screen also released
Through a Glass Darkly. Peter Howell
joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1974, coming from a career in various
psychedelic folk bands, which saw him record five albums with fellow musician
John Ferdinando. He composed his first Doctor Who output in ’75 in the form of
additional incidental music and electronic overdubs for “Revenge of the
Cybermenâ€, and Special Sound for “Planet of Evilâ€. In 1980, he was asked by the
programme’s then new producer, John Nathan-Turner, to update the iconic Doctor
Who theme.The new arrangement appeared
on that year’s “The Leisure Hiveâ€, continuing to be used through Tom Baker’s
remaining series as the Doctor and throughout the Peter Davison period.“Through A Glass Darkly†was originally
released in 1978 as a standalone studio album by Howell in collaboration with
the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.The six
original instrumental compositions (one of which is 19 minutes long) flaunt a
progressive rock influence as well as the distinctive electronic sound of the
RWS. “The Astronauts†(track 5, side 2) appeared again as a B side to the 1980
single release of his version of the Doctor Who theme. The reissue of the LP
has been pressed on Transparent Vinyl and again is strictly limited to just 500
copies. Audio quality throughout its 6 tracks is superb. At just 38 minutes,
it’s a pity Silva Screen couldn’t dig out a few additional bonus tracks as I’m
sure plenty of the same still exits. Like “Fourth Dimensionâ€, the album’s packaging
and printed inner sleeve are of the highest quality. Catalogue Number:
SILLP1544
If anyone still needs to be persuaded to believe that the 1960s was the greatest era for popular music, the documentary "Echo in the Canyon" will provide further evidence. It was a time of such diversity that groups like the Doors and the Rolling Stones could share the top of the charts with Frank Sinatra. Writer/director Andrew Slater traces the emergence of the electronic folk/rock scene that came to life in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon area during the years 1965-1967 when many aspiring young singers and songwriters emigrated to there and inspired each other to create a new sound that transfixed America. Much has been written about Elvis Presley defining rock 'n roll in the 1950s and how the Beatles and other British Invasion bands took the nation by storm in the 1960s. But the highly influential folk/rock scene has rarely been analyzed with the same intensity, despite the influence of the talents that emerged from it. Slater's film finally does justice to this incredible explosion of talent. The film is a patchwork of various interviews that somehow blend together to make a coherent central point: that the artists involved in the folk/rock scene knew they were creating something special. In the film, they discuss how they drew from each other's strengths beginning with the Byrds electronic hit version of Pete Seeger's "Turn! Turn! Turn!". They were competitors on one level, but colleagues on another. When one group or singer came up with a hit, it inspired their friends to redouble their own efforts, occasionally subliminally stealing some aspects of others' songs for themselves.
Contemporary folk rocker Jakob Dylan, son of you-know-who, conducts the interviews as we follow him driving around various Laurel Canyon locations that were central to the movement in the 1960s. Dylan, like his legendary father, wears a somber expression throughout but he does a fine job of eliciting interesting observations from such icons as David Crosby, Michelle Phillips, Ringo Starr, Graham Nash, John Sebastian, Stephen Stills, Roger McGuinn, Jackson Brown, Tom Petty (his last filmed interview), Eric Clapton and legendary music producer Lou Adler. Michelle Phillips discusses her sexually liberated lifestyle while in the Mamas and the Papas and recalls how her husband John, founder of the group, discovered she was having an affair with fellow band member Denny Doherty. Out of frustration, he wrote their hit song "Go Where You Wanna Go" to reflect his wife's aversion to monogamy. (Not mentioned was the revelation in later years that John had been alleged to have carried on an incestuous relationship with his daughter.) Ringo Starr recalls how the Beatles were so impressed with the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" album that it inspired them to make "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and David Crosby admits the real reason his friends and colleagues kicked him out of the Byrds was "because I was an asshole." Dylan even coaxes the often reclusive Brian Wilson out of hibernation for some brief, upbeat comments about the glory days of the Beach Boys.
The film shows Jakob Dylan and and his contemporaries (including Fiona Apple, Beck and Nora Jones) performing spirited and reverent cover versions of some of these artist's greatest hits, intermingled with priceless vintage film footage of the original groups playing them. There are also extensive clips from director Jacques Demy's 1969 feature film "Model Shop" that shows star Gary Lockwood in footage in which he is seen in many of the locales where the great folk/rock music was created.
The Blu-ray from Greenwich Entertainment looks great but unfortunately is bare-bones in terms of bonus extras. However, the film is a priceless time capsule of a wonderful era in popular music that we're not likely to experience again any time soon.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON (The film is also currently streaming on Netflix.)
(Robert Conrad (R) with Ross Martin in "The Wild, Wild West".
BY LEE PFEIFFER
Actor Robert Conrad has died at age 84. Conrad's got his first big break with a key role in the 1950s hit TV series "Hawaiian Eye". But it was in the 1960s that he soared to fame in "The Wild, Wild West", one of the more enduring TV series inspired by the James Bond phenomenon. Set in the late 1800s, Conrad and co-star Ross Martin played government agents James West and Artemus Gordon, who employed Victorian-age super gadgets to thwart nefarious megalomaniacs. The show's tongue-in-cheek approach to plots relied heavily on the comedic byplay between Conrad and Martin. The series lasted four seasons and the actors returned in TV movies based on the show many years later. In 1999, the series inspired the poorly-received big screen adaptation starring Will Smith and Kevin Kline. Conrad excelled at stunt work and one of the show's trademarks was his ability to do many of the more dangerous action scenes without a stuntman. He was ultimately afforded the honor of being inducted into the Stuntmen's Hall of Fame. After the series left the air, Conrad remained a regular presence on television, often guest-starring on popular series. In 1976, he scored another hit by starring in the WWII series "Black Sheep Squadron". In 1978, he won praise for his performance in the epic TV mini-series "Centennial". Although Conrad was primarily associated with television, he occasionally appeared in feature films such as "Young Dillinger", "Palm Springs Weekend", "Murf the Surf", "Jingle All the Way" and "Wrong is Right".
After finding
chart-topping success in the late 60s, Sonny and Cher found themselves
performing in nightclubs in 1970 when they were “discovered†by CBS
entertainment chief Fred Silverman, who decided they had great potential for a
weekly variety series. The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour premiered on August 1,
1971 as a summer replacement, but quickly reached the top 20, becoming a Wednesday night draw for the
Network and cementing Sonny and Cher as one of Hollywood’s most beloved
couples.
Containing 10
hilarious, never-before-released episodes of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (1971-74),
which feature the musical duo performing their hit songs and side-splitting
sketches with must-see guest stars, I GOT YOU BABE brings home audiences back
to the beginning with the pilot episode, firsts of many classic sketches -- just
naughty enough for nighttime! – Cher’s incredible Bob Mackie-designed costumes and
the chemistry that started it all.Also,
tune in for an incredible line-up of guest stars including Dick Clark, Jerry
Lewis, Jim Nabors, Joe Namath, The Righteous Brothers, Dinah Shore, Carroll
O’Connor, Art Carney, Chuck Berry, The Supremes and many more!
I GOT YOU BABE: THE
BEST OF SONNY & CHER also features exclusive extras including:
Sonny & Cher’s
pilot, an appearance on The Barbara McNair Show (Original Air Date: February
15, 1970)
Jerry Blavat’s 1970
interview of the duo on “Jerry’s Place†featuring an impromptu performance of
“I Got You Babeâ€
Interviews with Frankie
Avalon, producers Allan Blye and Chris Bearde, and Cher herself!
Day
and date, Time Life will also bring The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour to leading
digital platforms for the very first time!Available for download on Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play will be 10
hand-picked episodes of the fan-favorite TV Variety show, assuring that the
fondly-remembered series lives on for a new generation of classic TV lovers.
In 1967, prominent lawyer F. Lee Bailey had a short-lived 30-minute interview program, "Good Company", on ABC-TV in America in which he would interview prominent people. In this episode, he went to the London home of Sean Connery and got the 36 year-old actor to discuss the James Bond films in-depth. In fact, it's probably the most extensive interview about 007 Connery ever gave. By this point, he was eager to move on and informed Bailey that the recently-released "You Only Live Twice" would be his last Bond film. (As we all know, he did return for two more films between 1971 and 1983.) The interview takes place in Connery's billiard room but, amusingly, he obviously had purchased the billiard table from a local establishment and it requires inserting coins to play for a twenty-minute session. Connery speaks candidly about the pluses and minuses of the films, his satisfaction with making "The Hill" and "A Fine Madness" and his frustration with film producers in general. It must be pointed out that Connery and Bond producer Cubby Broccoli would later reconcile shortly before Broccoli's death in 1996, when the two engaged in a sentimental phone conversation. Broccoli had always said that the only thing he had "done" to Sean Connery was make him a very wealthy man. Nevertheless, it's clear from the interview that in 1967, Connery was not pleased with the contract he had for the Bond films.
It should be noted that the footage seen here, presented the Historic Films web site, is from a raw cut of the interview. It involves two sessions with Connery responding to essentially the same questions twice, though his answers vary quite a bit in some instances.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Israeli producers Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan took Hollywood by storm by unleashing a tidal wave of low-budget exploitation films that were superbly marketed and which made their Cannon Films company the toast of the town. The fare was generally for undiscriminating viewers who were willing to plunk down their money to see movies about breakdancing, sexual slapstick and over-the-top action movies. They made a feature film star out of the charisma-free Chuck Norris and revived Charles Bronson's career after the major studios had pronounced him to be past his sell date. The glory days of Cannon were relatively short-lived as movie fans sought more sophisticated fare. Still, it must be said that occasionally, Cannon did try to move out its comfort zone by producing respectable, mainstream films, one of which was "Runaway Train" in 1985. The movie starred Jon Voight as Oscar "Manny" Manheim, a convicted bank robber and incorrigible inmate imprisoned at a remote penitentiary in Alaska. He's become an idol to his fellow inmates because of his obstinate refusal to conform the draconian rules set in place by the sadistic warden Rankin (John P. Ryan), who tries to break Manny's will be having him chained up within his cell for a period of months. Manny has used legal appeals to force this practice to be stopped and when he prevails in court, the prisoners rejoice, much to Rankin's disgust. Manny isn't content with his temporary victory, however, and soon plots an audacious plan to escape. He ends up allowing a younger inmate, Buck (Eric Roberts), to join him only because he has suffered a severe hand injury and might need Buck's assistance. That doesn't preclude him from constantly insulting and harassing the younger man.
The film follows the convicts' successful escape only to find them facing the harsh winter weather with only a modicum of supplies and clothing. They end up boarding an express freight train with a plan to hitch a ride to wherever the final stop is. Things go awry quickly, however, when the train careens into another locomotive and suffers significant damage. Worse, Manny and Buck are stranded in a freight car and unable to access the engine where they suspect the engineer must have been disabled or died. Their fears are warranted, as the engineer has died from a heart attack. The train is out of control and is blazing along at an unsafe speed. Much of the action concentrates on the men's desperate attempts to access the front of the train and slow it down. They later discover there is one other person on board, a railroad worker named Sara (Rebecca De Mornay), who makes her way to their car and informs them of the dire situation they are all in. If they can't stop the train, it will inevitably crash, killing them all.
Director Andrey Konchalovsky ratchets up the suspense and thankfully the script avoids any cliched sexual interaction between Manny, Buck and Sara, probably because even the horniest guy would find it hard to conjure up erotic thoughts while spiraling toward his doom. Sara proves to be invaluable in assisting the men in making death-defying attempts to access the engine by crawling about outside the train. However, the sheer speed of the vehicle, along with the piercing cold, precludes them from being successful. The action is inter-cut with sequences set in a control room as railroad technicians frantically attempt to utilize "fool proof" safety measures to stop the train, only to find they are uniformly failing. Meanwhile, Rankin is determined to take charge himself. Humiliated by the convicts' escape, he has a helicopter fly him over the train and lower him down so he can confront Manny and settle the score.
"Runaway Train" is a superior prison escape drama, though there are elements that are a bit over-the-top. When the prisoners initially escape, they are submerged in water and, despite the viewer being told earlier that the temperature outside is 30 below zero, they persevere, when, in reality, they would be dead within minutes. It is also distracting that Buck's hair remains carefully coiffed through all this and he looks like he just stepped out of Beverly Hills salon. Additionally, the mano a mano scenario of Rankin make a death-defying landing atop the train is an element that would be more appropriate for Rambo or James Bond film. Nevertheless, when the two antagonists do come face-to-face, the cliches vanish and lead to a poignant and memorable final scene that is refreshingly free of violence.
There's plenty of reasons to recommend the film, not the least of which are the incredible stunt work brilliantly filmed by cinematographer Alan Hume. The performances are all first-rate but the movie belongs to Jon Voight, who is terrific as the very flawed protagonist. The film received very positive reviews but bombed at the boxoffice perhaps because discriminating moviegoers might have been wary of the Cannon connection, whereas Cannon's prime audience might have considered it too lacking in schlock. Disappointingly, the movie's failure seemed to result in Voight losing future opportunities as an "above-the-title" leading man, though he has continued to work constantly in supporting roles in feature films and in television, always providing fine performances.
The Kino Lorber DVD provides a fine transfer but we hope the movie is slated for a much-deserved Blu-ray upgrade from the company. (UK-based Arrow Films did release a Region 2 Blu-ray edition and reader Matt Bowes advises that a limited edition U.S. Blu-ray from Twilight Time has sold out.). The DVD contains the original trailer and trailers for other similarly-themed KL releases.
RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES
Paramount has issued a 10-DVD collection of Jerry Lewis films, all but one of which pertain to his solo career. ("The Stooge" co-stars Dean Martin). The set is packed with 90 minutes of bonus materials including trailers, commentaries by Lewis and rare archival films and materials. Here is the official press release:
Paramount Home Entertainment has issued a repackaged DVD set containing ten Jerry Lewis feature films. Here is the official press release:
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Relive some of the greatest
film moments from comedy legend and Hollywood icon Jerry Lewis with the
new JERRY LEWIS 10 FILM COLLECTION, arriving on DVD June 12, 2018 from
Paramount Home Media Distribution. Celebrated for his remarkable range of
characters, outlandish antics, and uninhibited physicality, Jerry Lewis’ work
continues to delight audiences around the world and inspire new generations of
comedians.
Featuring 10 of Lewis’ most beloved comedies, the JERRY
LEWIS 10 FILM COLLECTION is headlined by 1963’s enduring classic The
Nutty Professor, which celebrates its 55th anniversary this year.
Considered by many to be Lewis’ finest and most memorable film, The Nutty
Professor was included on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100
funniest American films of all time and was selected for preservation in the
U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2004.
The 10-DVD set includes the following:
The
Stooge (1951)—Features one of Lewis’ earliest pairings
with Dean Martin as a musical-comedy duo
The
Delicate Delinquent (1956)—A “teenage terror†is recruited
for the Police Academy
The
Bellboy (1960)—Lewis plays a friendly but clumsy bellboy in
this slapstick classic
Cinderfella (1960)—Lewis’
take on the classic Cinderella story
The
Errand Boy (1961)—Paramount enlists a bumbling Lewis to spy on
their productions in this hilarious film studio comedy
The
Ladies Man (1961)—A girl-shy man finds work in a women-only
hotel with uproarious results
The
Nutty Professor (1963)—A socially awkward professor
invents a serum that turns him into the handsome but obnoxious Buddy Love
The
Disorderly Orderly (1964)—Lewis wreaks havoc in a private
rest home
The
Patsy (1964)—Lewis directs and stars as a novice
recruited to replace a big-time comedian
The
Family Jewels (1965)—Lewis directs and plays seven
distinct roles in this family inheritance farce
The great Kirk Douglas has died at age 103. Not only did
Douglas have a stellar Hollywood career as an actor, receiving three Oscar
nominations, he also produced some important films. During a period in
Hollywood when studios were still afraid to use blacklisted writers,
Douglas defied the ban and put Dalton Trumbo's name at the top of the credits
for Spartacus, along with his own and director Stanley Kubrick.
That took guts.
Douglas and Stanley Kubrick also made the very
fine anti-war film Paths of Glory (1957. Here is a clip from that
film: Douglas's character, Colonel Dax, commanding officer, 701st Infantry
Regiment (WW1), an attorney by profession, is desperately trying to save
the lives of three of his men who have been unjustly accused of
cowardice and will face a firing squad if convicted.
Kirk Douglas was much more than just a tough guy; he was
a fine actor, a talented producer, and a man of principle. We'll not see
his likes again.
The transgressive effect of Crash
is immediate since the film opens with three sex scenes in succession.
Cronenberg observed the effect first hand at test screenings:
There are moments when audiences burst out laughing, either in
disbelief or exasperation. They can't believe that they're going to have to
look at another sex scene . . . In one of my little test screenings
someone said, "A series of sex scenes is not a plot." And I said,
"Why not? Who says?" . . . And the answer is that it can be,
but not when the sex scenes are the normal kind of sex scenes . . . Those can
be cut out and not change the plot or characters one iota. In Crash,
very often the sex scenes are absolutely the plot and character
development.[i]
The aberrant sex depicted in those many
scenes that drive the narrative, adultery, cuckoldry and other such instances
of polymorphous perversity, is inherently transgressive. To achieve the
transgressive kinetics of those scenes Cronenberg relied on an exceptional troupe
of intellectually engaged actors, among them Deborah Kara Unger, who admitted to
her own transgressive experience with the film in her role as Catherine
Ballard, “When David Cronenberg sent me his script . . . I was shocked, taken
aback, absolutely altered by it – and unprepared for that alteration . . .undeniably
the script impacted me and changed me.â€[ii]
Perhaps the best way to conceptualize Cronenberg's cinematic coups de main
is as a cult rite of passage the viewer must pass through to earn one's
"ticket to ride" in the vehicle known as Crash.
Crash is set in what appears to be the late
20th century North American urban center of magnificent high-rise
enclaves and overstimulated existence. Catherine and James Ballard (James
Spader) are the upper-middle class thirty-something couple of the not too
distant future who delight in sharing the intimate details of their
extramarital exploits. However even this arrangement does not fully satisfy
them since neither Catherine nor James climax during their encounters; "Maybe
the next one . . . " is their household refrain. On one late night commute
down a rain-swept road James loses control of his car and collides head-on with
a vehicle driven by Dr. Helen Remington (Holly Hunter). Their crash effects an
intellectual awakening in both of them to the potential of enhanced erotic
experience. She puts him in contact with Vaughan (Elias Koteas), former
specialist in international computerized traffic systems, now the creative
intelligence behind a car crash cult. Other cult members include Colin Seagrave
(Peter MacNeill) active in the staging of celebrity car crash reenactments and Gabrielle
(Rosanna Arquette) a permanently debilitated car crash survivor in
steel-reinforced leg and hip braces. Crash becomes the journey of James
down the road of discovery in search of a new form of ecstasy that may provide
some vitality to his otherwise disconnected and passionless existence.
The British Film Institute (BFI) deserves praise for continuing to invest in restorations of worthy, but largely forgotten, British films from bygone eras. Case in point: the 1953 crime drama "Cosh Boy" (absurdly re-titled "The Slasher" for American release in order to make it appear to be a "B" horror movie.) Incidentally, a "cosh" is old British slang for a blackjack used by thugs to strike victims over the head. The low-budget B&W production is typical of the film output in post-WWII Britain. Britain was on the winning side but after initial jubilation the reality of living in an almost bankrupt nation set in. Rationing was strict, much of the country was in ruins and crime and juvenile delinquency began to rise. "The Slasher", co-written and directed by Lewis Gilbert, touches on these problems by examining how the delinquency problem was exacerbated in part by the loss of so many fathers during the war. This left suddenly single mothers having to cope with raising families on their own and facing severe financial hardships. The screenplay centers on these challenges through a micro-view of how it affects one family and one neighborhood. Roy (James Kenny) is a bad apple. He looks like Leslie Howard but has the personality of James Cagney's "The Public Enemy". The 16 year-old is the ringleader of a local group of delinquents who prey on the elderly and commit petty crimes to keep their wallets full. Roy is ostensibly being raised by his widowed mother Elsie (Betty Ann Davies) and her live-in mother (Hermione Baddely) but it's really Roy who is running the show. He is cruel and dismissive to his mother and grandmother but can turn on the charm when he needs to because he senses that his mom is actually an enabler who wills herself to believe every ridiculous explanation he gives for his run-ins with the law.
Roy's best mate is Alfie (Ian Whittaker), a dim-witted, wimpy character who seems to have a good heart but who is nonetheless unable to resist following Roy's demands that he join him in committing crimes. Roy makes sure that, to the extent possible, his gang members assume disproportionate risks compared to himself. He is a true sociopath: ruthless, selfish but at able to appear to be likable and sympathetic when it suits his needs. When Roy sets eyes on Alfie's 16 year-old sister, Rene (Joan Collins), he has his gang beat and hospitalize her boyfriend, leaving him free to seduce her, an act that will come back to haunt him later. When Roy is arrested for a crime, the judge goes lenient on him and sentences him to probation and tells him he should frequent the neighborhood youth center to ensure he stays out of trouble. Roy follows the advice, but uses the center as a meeting place to plan future crimes with his fellow thugs. It is there that he is intrigued by the possibility to pull off a big score by planning to rob the boxoffice receipts from a local major wrestling event. (The script takes a decidedly conservative "spare the rod and spoil the child" viewpoint in terms of dispensing justice to juvenile offenders.)
The movie caused some controversy in the UK and is said to be the first film released with an "X" certificate. It certainly is bitingly realistic compared to many other films from the era. The main character has no redeeming qualities and there are frank depictions of vicious crimes and the consequences of unplanned pregnancies in an era in which that would make for devastating personal and social consequences. As director, Lewis Gilbert's work is quite admirable, with nary a wasted frame of film. The seeds of his future success as a major director are sown here and he derives an outstanding performance from James Kenny in the lead role. Kenny is quite remarkable, his disarming angelic looks alternating with his character's vicious and unpredictable tendencies. In viewing the film, I couldn't help but wonder why fortune didn't smile on his career in the way that it did for Richard Attenborough, who vaulted to stardom during the same era also playing a teenage thug in "Brighton Rock". Everyone else in the film is also impressive, with Betty Ann Davies and Hermione Beddedly especially good as the women who have the misfortune of trying to raise young Roy. Baddely's character is not the enabler her daughter is and is wise to Roy's true nature. Joan Collins is very effective as the vulnerable teenage girl who Roy uses and abuses. Robert Ayres appears late in the film as Elsie's new beau, which causes Roy to rebel even further, as he is understandably threatened by having a streetwise older man in the house who could exact some discipline on him.
"Cosh Boy" is a depressing film, to be sure, but a very worthy one. Kino Lorber has imported the BFI restoration for their Blu-ray release the transfer is literally stunning, making the stark B&W cinematography Jack Asher look very impressive indeed. The only extras are trailers of other KL releases (though not for the main feature) and an alternate title sequence from the American release of "The Slasher". (The film has no slashing at all other than a brief scene in which Roy threatens someone with a razor.) This is British "B" filmmaking at its best. Highly recommended.
Cinema Retro's Mark Mawston takes you on the red carpet for the
2020 BAFTA Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London with some up close
and personal photos of the celebs. (All photos copyright Mark Mawston.
All rights reserved).
Originally released in Germany in 2018, “Intrigo: Death of An Author†recently made
its way to U.S. screens. A twisty,
psychological thriller with multiple story lines, deftly directed by Daniel
Alfredson (of “The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the
Hornet's Nestâ€) has almost as many turns as Lombard Street and is just as fun
to navigate.
The film opens with a small motorboat
puttering in the sea at night. From under the waterline we see a heavy object is
dropped with a rope attached. The sky above fades darker then brightens with
the morning sun and the scene cuts to a lone man walking along a rocky shore.
The narrator says:
The
people of the world are more or less the same. Though we may come in different
shapes
and colors we all share the same inheritance and we all have our back stories
and
our secrets. Like this man, let's call him Henry, trying to find his way on a
remote
Greek
island. Even though Evolution might seem to adjure us, there are still parts of
our
brain that belong to our reptile ancestors. Although we have convinced
ourselves
that
Hate, Revenge and Nemesis belong to the past, our ancient ancestor's blood
still
runs
in our veins. Whether we like it; or not.
Henry Martins (played with a magician's
misdirection by Benno Fürmann) has come, with much difficulty, to this remote
island to meet with the famous, reclusive author, Alex Henderson (a
delightfully wily Ben Kingsley) who appears to be the island's sole inhabitant.
MARTINS:
A lighthouse. That's quite something.
HENDERSON:I like to guide people. If they get too close
I turn the light off.
Martins' mission is to get Henderson's advice
on a story he is writing. Is it 'good or interesting enough?' as there are
parallels to one of Henderson's previous novels. He begins to read a bit to
Henderson.
The story is about a couple, David and Eva
Schwartz, who have been married almost eight years. They are on a trip to the
Austrian Alps to ostensibly work on their relationship. It's obvious that there
are problems. At the scenic lodge where they are staying we are illuminated to
the problems and learn that Eva has been having an affair and plans to leave
David. We also learn that her lover is staying in the next valley to her and
David. So does David. He hatches a plan. He tests the road to the next valley
himself and finds that brakes are unnecessary until there's a twisty, steep
downhill road to take. As you're probably guessing, he disconnects the brakes
and on Eva's next trip to Infidelityville...Well, she never returns to the lodge.David is a suspect in Eva's (a perfectly aloof Tuva Novotny)
disappearance but without a trace of the car, a body or even a witness...
HENDERSON:So. This is the end of your story. You must
be joking.
MARTINS:It's actually the beginning.
Henry Martins continues his story. Three and
a half years pass. At home in Paris on a cold March evening, David listens to a
Haydn concerto on the radio. As it ends he hears someone in the audience cough.
He freezes. To him, without a doubt, it is the distinctive cough of Eva. He
believes Eva, from six months ago when the concerto was recorded, is still
alive.
Henderson has gotten very involved in the
tale and trips Martins up when he realizes that Martins is actually David
Schwartz, the man who has been translating Henderson's novels for years and the
David of the story. He also knows David attempted his wife's murder. He also
intends "to hear the rest of your story. Do I make myself clear?"
An assignment comes in from David's
publisher. A mysterious manuscript has been received from the recently deceased
(suicide) Germund Rein. It has very specific instructions to be followed as to
its translation and publication. David see this as an opportunity to also
investigate his wife's reappearance. He'll take the assignment IF he can go to
the city where the Haydn concerto was recorded. This is where the story really
moves ahead.
“Intrigo: Death of An Author†is a
marvelously crafted film. A story within a story within another story. More of
a 'how-done-it' than a 'who-done-it.' Fans of sophomoric comedies or
gratuitously violent action films should probably stay away. But if you enjoy
brain twisting and films that make you match wits with the author you will
enjoy this one.
The widescreen "roadshow" films of the 1950s were so profitable that studios kept grinding out prestigious productions in hopes of making the next "Ben-Hur" or "The Ten Commandments". However, the sad truth is that more of these mega-budget spectacles tended to lose money than fill the studio coffers with profits. Indeed, some films that might have made money if they were shot as standard budget productions ended up being elongated to fill the running time of a roadshow presentation. One such film was director John Sturges' "The Hallelujah Trail", a visually sweeping production released in the Ultra 70 Panavision process and marketed under the banner of a Cinerama movie. (By then, the traditional 3-panel, multi-projector presentation process had been simplified, making such films easier to shoot and screen to audiences.) The story was based on a comedic novel by William Gulick. In addition to the prestige Sturges brought to production, an impressive cast was signed up by United Artists with Burt Lancaster getting top billing. However, Lancaster was dragooned into doing the film as part of financial commitments he owed the studio stemming from losses incurred by his own production company. Consequently, he had to make multiple films for United Artists at the bargain rate of $150,000 per picture. Lancaster was said to be in a rather foul mood during production and the mood was only dampened by the death of a stuntman during a wagon chase, a tragedy that cast a pall over the production.
The story is set in 1867 when the boom town of Denver is going through a crisis. It seems the local miners are rapidly depleting the local supply of whiskey. If they can't get a new shipment, they will have to suffer through the approaching winter months in a dry town until deliveries can resume in the spring. It's decided to make a bold gesture by hiring whiskey magnate Frank Wallingham (Brian Keith) to form a wagon train to deliver the booze to Denver. However, this requires traveling through landscapes controlled by hostile Indians. Thus, Wallingham uses his political connections to ensure that a U.S. Cavalry detachment is sent to meet the wagon train and escort them to Denver. That job falls to Col. Thaddeus Gearhart (Lancaster), who is non too pleased about having his men act as personal bodyguards for a profit-making enterprise. Adding to his woes is the arrival of Cora Templeton Massingale (Lee Remick), a noted feminist and leader of an all-female temperance movement. Cora and her followers insist on accompanying the cavalry unit so they can attempt to dissuade Wallingham from delivering the whiskey. Gearhart is a widower who is trying to raise a sexually precocious teenager daughter, Louise (Pamela Tiffin), who is romantically involved with Capt. Paul Slater (Jim Hutton), a key member of her father's unit. The situation worsens when Louise becomes a convert to Cora's cause. The reed-thin plot line involves all sorts of chaos and slapstick that occurs when the cavalry, temperance protestors and attacking Indians all converge with the wagon train in a big shoot-out in the desert.
"The Hallelujah Trail" is a perfect example of a movie that would make for a suitably entertaining 90-minute comedy. In fact, Sturges did just that with the 1962 Rat Pack western "Sergeants 3". However, it is packed with padding in order to justify its length as a Cinerama production. Consequently, scenes and repetitive comedic situations drag on endlessly. (The filmmakers are were so desperate that a joke involving Cora surprising Gearhart in his bathtub is reversed when he surprises her in her bathtub.) By the time the intermission comes, the battle in the desert (in which thousands of shots are fired without anyone being injured) is the cinematic equivalent of a sleep aid.
"The Hallelujah Trail" isn't an awful film, just overblown. The actors perform gamely throughout and there is a marvelous supporting cast, among which Donald Pleasence shines as a phony oracle who reads fortunes in return for booze and Brian Keith is marvelous grumpy as the whiskey magnate. The usually reliable Martin Landau, however, is saddled with the role of a comically drunken Indian that is literally cringe-inducing to watch. There is a wonderful score and title theme by Elmer Bernstein and cinematographer Robert Surtees impressively captures the magnificent landscapes.
Ordinarily, Olive Films produces very admirable Blu-ray product but they missed the boat on this one. The most charitable description of the transfer is "disappointing", though the average viewer might find it acceptable. Those with more discriminating standards will find it awful. The aspect ratio is wrong and the quality is little better than the old DVD releases. If you're watching it on a large screen, it's even more painful, with washed-out colors and a soft focus look that is quite truly below Olive's generally high standards. The film is no classic so Olive probably went with the best available elements but if this was the case, they should have considered deferring the release of the movie on Blu-ray. Despite the interesting back story, there is no commentary track. In fact, there are no bonus extras except the overture, intermission and a trailer that is so unspeakably bad that one suspects it was transferred from VHS. We rarely say this, but let the buyer beware. Our advice: skip the Blu-ray and make due with the DVD until a more promising release comes along.
Once again, Heineken is among the sponsors of a James Bond movie, in this case the forthcoming "No Time to Die". The company has released a very clever extended promotional ad in which a frustrated Daniel Craig has to cope with fans who can't distinguish between his real life persona and his reel life persona.