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Saturday May 25, 2013
Savant's new reviews today are:
The Miracle of the Bells
Blu-ray
Starring Fred MacMurray, Alida Valli and Frank Sinatra, this 1948 production is a dizzying stew of good intentions gone fuzzy, a pro-Faith miracle movie that annoys many people but charmed another segment of the audience. A press agent tries to drum up national sentiment for an 'unknown' movie star, only to have an apparent real miracle sieze the country by storm. The movie not only doesn't connect the dots into a coherent statement, it interprets misinformed illusion as proof of an all-redeeming Faith. A real curiosity and a beautifully preserved presentation, in Blu-ray from Olive Films.
5/25/13
He Walked By Night
The expert commentary is the buying point for this edition of a superior film noir directed by not signed by Anthony Mann, the true story of a loner thief-killer who proved difficult to trace and even harder to kill. It was the breakthrough movie for Richard Basehart. Noir experts Alain Silver and Jim Ursini analyze the film's makers, its expressive style, its place in the noir canon and the true crime story that inspired it. The super-criminal's stated motivation was so bizarre that the filmmakers decided to leave it out -- nobody would believe it. A DVD-R disc from Pendragon Video.
5/25/13
and
Last Summer Won't Happen
A fascinating historical curio filmed in New York, with activists Abbie Hoffman, Alan Jacobs, Paul Krassner and Phil Ochs, in the winter of 1968, just after the first big anti-war protests but before the country ignited in assassinations, riots and the police riot at the Chicago Democratic Convention. The laid-back interviews (and one filmed speech) show the activists unsure of their next step, not convinced that The Movement is going anywhere. A terrific restored transfer accompanied by helpful explanatory extras and new interviews with the filmmakers Peter Gessner and Thomas Hurwitz. From Icarus Films.
5/25/13
Hello!
So hey, I've reviewed The Miracle of the Bells. The volume of email I received (90% "go for it") probably amounts to more discussion than this picture has inspired in the previous fifty years. The review hopefully will communicate something... I often discover what I really think about a movie only after I start writing about it.
I got to read a great book last week, a new publication by Chris D., who has spent at least twenty years studying Japanese crime and Yakuza films. I first bumped into Chris across a dinner table in 2002, after a screening by a rep from the old company Home Vision Entertainment. Chris was enthused about some obscure Japanese picture with 'scorpion' in the title. Home Vision was putting out a series of Yakuza pictures, among them the intense Battles without Honor and Humanity; I remember that one of them starred the famous Yukio Mishima. And soon thereafter some big titles (Branded to Kill, etc.) were released by Criterion. Eventually Eclipse released two or three collections of similar pictures, and I started to feel as if I were getting a handle on things.
Or so I thought. Chris D.'s Gun and Sword: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1955-1980 is a giant (822 page) reference work that must cover in detail (filmmakers and stars) more than a thousand titles. Hundreds of illustrations are included as well. As expert Stuart Galbraith IV explains, the kinds of pictures covered include "the swordfighting ninkyo sagas set in the 1890-1940 period, the modern jitsuroku ("true story") bloodbaths, the matatabi (wandering samurai gambler) pictures, plus the juvenile delinquent subgenres: sukeban (girl boss), taiyozoku ("sun tribe") and bosozoku ("violent tribe" or biker)" tales. The films are organized by studio, and Chris has included helpful mini-histories for the various companies. The book accomplishes quite a feat in that it covers a huge volume of films yet maintains a solid point of view, a sense of perspective, critical flexibility and good humor.
I like Chris D.'s style of writing in his foreward and the several longer-form essays that crop up. He relates the Japanese Yakuza style to American and British crime films and his entertaining plot synopses point out particularly good pictures. He also offers a four-page glossary of common Yakuza terms. Going forward, I know this is going to be a useful reference, as well as fun casual reading. The scope of Chris' knowledge is indeed encyclopedic. Although it's outside his defined area of inclusion, the science fiction / gangster show The H-Man is referenced as a cross-genre hybrid. If I start feeling insecure among all the Female Convict Scorpion movies, I'll just keep that familiar page bookmarked.
See also this link about a June 21 Chris D. book signing in Hollywood.
Thanks for reading, and for the response to the Bells meltdown ... Cheers, Glenn Erickson
Tuesday May 21, 2013
Savant's new reviews today are:
3:10 to Yuma
Blu-ray
Delmer Daves' best western is a nearly perfect suspense tale, as farmer and family man Van Heflin is forced to escort outlaw Glenn Ford to prison. Heflin's only hope is to outsmart the outlaw gang hot on his trail. Great drama, interesting characterizations and romantic backup from Felicia Farr and Leora Dana. And a great Frankie Laine theme song, to boot. With Henry Jones and Richard Jaeckel. Looks terrific in B&W Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
5/21/13
Leave Her to Heaven
Blu-ray
One of the few acknowledged films noir not filmed in B&W, with star Gene Tierney looking almost supernaturally gorgeous in super-saturated Technicolor. Rising author Cornel Wilde marries the wealthy and passionate Tierney unaware that his new bride is murderously jealous of anybody that comes between them. With Jeanne Crain as the sane romantic alternative and Vincent Price as an unhappy D.A.. It's also one of the best vintage Technicolor restorations yet, in Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
5/21/13
and
Forbidden Hollywood Collection
Volume 6
The four restored films cover a wide range of subjects, showing how Code enforcement robbed American films of edgy subject matter and frank political comment. The Wet Parade with Robert Young and Walter Huston is Upton Sinclair's protest against the evil of alcohol, compounded by the hypocrisy of prohibition; Downstairs shows John Gilbert playing a ruthless bedroom blackmailer and cad; Mandalay's exotic extremes see Kay Francis sold into slavery; and the angry Massacre , a dramatization of the mistreatment of Native Americans starring Richard Barthelmess and Ann Dvorak, is more educational and entertaining than later 'relevant' issue pictures. From The Warner Archive Collection.
5/21/13
Hello!
A quiet week at DVD Savant. I'm prepping a book review for the column, as well as a review of a disc designed to sell primarily for its expert commentary track. I guess I'll find a better way to explain that when I get to the review itself.
I'm also debating whether or not to review Olive Films' beautifully encoded Blu-ray of Miracle of the Bells, a late-forties' movie with Fred MacMurray and Frank Sinatra about the power of Faith and Goodness. Or at least, that's what it wants to be about. I found its values offensive, and I wonder if I shouldn't disqualify myself from writing about it just because it affects me so strongly. I alienate enough readers by leaking my political thoughts, so why press my luck with churchgoers?
I do get asked how I choose what to review. What's offered is a big part of that answer, of course. Savant isn't limited to old movies; I just avoid things I find bad or dull. I'm in with some trends but not others. I've stopped going to see most mega-budget superhero epics, because I forget what them almost as soon as I exit the theater. I try not to chase after the big titles that everyone's writing about, and that includes many of the Oscar winners in the last ten years. It's more rewarding to investigate movies slightly outside the mainstream, that readers might appreciate learning about. It's great when I hear from a viewer who thinks he may have discovered something based on a Savant recommendation.
But plenty of movies I don't like come along, that seem to beg for a review. I found it impossible to write about The Exorcist without waving my personal bias like a flag, and perhaps that's a weakness. The same goes for equally competent but hateful political pictures like My Son John. There I have to be even more careful in my criticism, for the mail response will certainly let me know if I fail to present a logical argument. Conservatives take note, as lately I think my reviews have become more wary of the evasions and illogic that crops up in some liberal social comment movies.
Perhaps it's better to steer clear of Miracle of the Bells. Or maybe I should go for it, and not worry. I admire the frankness of Leonard Maltin's movie guide, which calls it ludicrous and slams it with a low rating. But a sixty-word capsule review doesn't require him to explain anything. I find the movie really disturbing, which may be some kind of residual guilt from my Sunday School days. Any advice?
Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson
Loophole
Wow! This modest crime thriller with some smart ideas is a great film noir rediscovery. Bank teller Barry Sullivan is accused of Grand Theft, hounded from his job and persecuted by a bonding company detective (Charles McGraw) who doesn't know the meaning of Innocent Until Proven Guilty. An interesting take on "loser noir" sees Sullivan harrassed beyond the breaking point, unable to convince anybody that he's not a crook. But who took the $50,000 in cash from his bank cubicle? Co-starring Dorothy Malone, this 1954 show was thought lost, but is now found and handsomely restored. From The Warner Archive Collection.
5/18/13
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If I Were You
Writer-director Joan Carr-Wiggin's conventional but intelligent script gives the underused Marcia Gay Harden a chance to flex her acting muscles in comedy mode. She aces her starring role as a cheated-on wife who surreptitiously forms a fast friendship with her husband's mistress. What sounds old fashioned is a pleasure to watch -- Harden is really likeable, and the movie respects its characters. With Leonor Watling and Aidan Quinn. From Kino Lorber.
5/18/13
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Mister 880
Edmund Gwenn's best "cute little old codger" vehicle is this amusing tale from producer Julian Blaustein, about the concerted effort to catch the oddest counterfeiter on the Treasury Department's books -- someone who passes $1 bills so poorly forged that the word "Washington" is misspelled. Top agent Burt Lancaster must be patient to nab his quarry, while phony bill passer Dorothy McGuire takes a personal interest in the crafty old fool. Instead of dimwit whimsey, we're treated to a semi-docu realism that befits what is actually a true story. From 20th Fox Cinema Archives.
5/18/13
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Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics
Warners boosts its top classic gangster titles to HD, with terrific remastered presentations of Little Caesar, The Public Enemy, The Petrified Forest and White Heat. I'll see your Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson and raise you two James Cagneys! These still-breathtaking crime thrillers come complete with trailers, featurettes, "Night at the Movies" bundles of short subjects, commentaries and an extra DVD disc with a feature length docu and a stack of gangster-themed WB cartoons. In Blu-ray from Warner Home Video.
5/14/13
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Gate of Hell
Prepare to have your retinas dazzled by Teinosuke Kinugasa's vintage tale of fierce love in the Emperor's court, as a great warrior demands the wife of another loyal retainer, breaking all the rules. Thanks to a recent restoration, the breathtaking original colors of this amazingly designed movie look better than ever. An Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film, the movie's designs drew rave U.S. reviews back in 1954. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
5/14/13
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Kid Millions
Savant's favorite among producer Sam Goldwyn's Eddie Cantor musicals, this tale of a shipboard cruise to Egypt to claim a $77 million dollar reward sees Eddie assailed by a number of fortune hunters, including impossibly youthful and impressively talented singer Ethel Merman, the attractive Ann Sothern & George Murphy, and the famed Nicholas Brothers when they both looked like 6th graders. Lucille Ball can be spotted in the huge musical numbers as a Goldwyn Girl. The finale is a full-on experimental 3-strip Technicolor romp in a fantastic ice cream factory. Good songs and great entertainment, from The Warner Archive Collection.
5/14/13
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Screening review: Portrait of Jason
Theatrical screenings are underway for a new restoration of Shirley Clarke's game-changing experimental documentary from New York of the 1960s. Flamboyant gay hustler Jason Holiday addresses the camera non-stop, revealing his unusual lifestyle, his pragmatic-hipster approach to life and his ambitions to do a one-man stage show. In one twelve-hour marathon session, Clarke's camera makes this man reveal his inner self -- or does the clever fellow pace his performance to optimal dramatic effect? The film's L.A. run begins next week at the New Beverly theater. From Milestone Films.
5/11/13
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Cloak and Dagger
(1946)
Gary Cooper makes an unlikely physicist-secret agent, flying into wartime Switzerland and Italy to contact atom scientists working for the Nazis and engaging in one of Hollywood's most brutal fight scenes of the 1940s. But the real mystery in Fritz's Lang's espionage thriller is the "why" of how its anti-nuke, anti-Fascist message was suppressed -- pressure was brought to bear to eliminate the film's entire last reel of expensive location work. Savant has the whole story. In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
5/11/13
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