The Movie:

Although I wasn't expecting much from The Boy from Oklahoma, this pastoral 1954 Western won me over with its disarming story, smooth direction, and offbeat, appealing cast (headed by Will Rogers, Junior!). As an ideal candidate for the made-on-demand (m.o.d.) market, it's perfectly appropriate that the folks at Warner Archives have reissued it as part of their program of bringing their lesser-known film and TV holdings back into circulation.

While prepping this review of The Boy from Oklahoma, it came as a surprise to find that this obscure Western was one of just 21 films released by the Warner Brothers studio in 1954. That year's release slate included Hitchcock's Dial M. for Murder, Judy Garland's comeback v...Read the entire review

A prison picture that 86s the very things that make a prison picture fun? I wanna talk to the warden.... Warner Bros.' Archive Collection vault of hard-to-find cult and library titles has released Duffy of San Quentin, the 1954 prison drama (you noticed I didn't write "prison actioner"), based on the autobiography of San Quentin reformer warden Clinton T. Duffy, starring Louis Hayward, the gorgeous Joanne Dru, Paul Kelly (as Duffy), and Maureen O'Sullivan (for about four minutes). A criminally talky, pompously self-righteous little snooze (that Warners inexplicably has included under their Film Noir Archive Collection sub-label), Duffy of San Quentin is the genetic opposite of all those speedy, pulpy Warner Bros. prison pictures of the 30s it so piously wants to negate, brought down by two of the deadliest B-movie sins: wooden performances and good intentions. No ext...Read the entire review

TheMovies:
 
Warner Archives has been doing an outstanding job of makinglower profile films from Hollywood'sgolden age available to fans.  Onefranchise that has been woefully neglected until recently is The BoweryBoys, aseries of films that lasted, in one form or another, for over 20 years.  The first of four collections, TheBowery Boys Volume One, collects aneven dozen of the movies including some of the best installments thatweremade.  These sets aren't chronological(though this one does present the first three films) rather they'rereleasingthe movies that are ready to go first, giving them time to spruce uptheothers.Read the entire review

Hanna-Barbera's "The Roman Holidays," which aired in 1972, tried to do for ancient Rome (circa 63 A.D.) what "The Flintstones" did for the caveman period. In place of the Flintstone family we have the Holidays: Father Augustus, or Gus (voiced by Dave Willock), his wife Laurie (Shirley Mitchell), teenage son Happius, more often called Happy (Stanley Livingston, best known as Chip Douglas on "My Three Sons") and younger daughter Precocia (Pamelyn Ferdin). They live in the Venus de Milo Arms apartment building with their pet lion Brutus, voiced by Hanna-Barbera regular Daws Butler. Another frequent character on the show is their landlord named Evictus, voiced by Dom DeLuise. As you might guess from his name, he often threatens to evict the Holidays from their apartment for the slighte...Read the entire review

Surprise!

You'd think the word would get out to all the various punks, kidnappers, Commie spies, grifters, embezzlers, and killers: you can not beat the F.B.I....in 1968, at least. Warner Bros.' terrific Archive Collection vault of hard-to-find library and cult titles has released The FBI: The Fourth Season, Parts One & Two, a 2-volume, 7-disc, 26-episode collection of the hit ABC crime actioner's 1968-1969 season. Even though I didn't review the third season, I can pretty much guarantee that nothing too radical has changed for this fourth go-around...because it plays exactly the same as seasons one and two (with the exception of William Reynolds coming on board). And with this kind of assured, polished storytelling routinely featuring an absurd amount of top-flight supporting players for every episode...who wants anything to change? No extras for these okay transf...Read the entire review

The Movies:

Nudity, premarital sex, violent crime, prostitution ... Hollywood could get away with most anything during the Pre-Code period. It's all in Warner Archives' recent m.o.d. collection, Forbidden Hollywood, Vol. 6.

A short history lesson: although the Hayes Code was established in 1930 as an agreed-upon set of guidelines between censorship boards and the Hollywood studios, at the time it was only loosely adhered to (after all, sex and violence sold tickets). It wasn't until the summer of 1934, when the Breen Office established a mandatory Production Code which stayed in place for more than thirty years. It is this pre-sanitized period that is celebrated in Warner Bros.' wonderful Forbidden Hollywood DVD series, currently at its seventh volume. As with all of volumes since last year's Read the entire review

Most early 1950s Cold War movies emanating from Hollywood are dreary, fear-mongering polemics condemning Soviet-styled Communism unsubtly. Many of these histrionic films are unintentionally hilarious fun seen today. Perhaps because MGM produced Never Let Me Go (1953) through its British studio in Borehamwood, the film's politics don't overwhelm a compelling love story that's also got an extremely suspenseful third act.

Clark Gable stars as a foreign correspondent who falls for a Russian ballerina (Gene Tierney). After they're married the Russians kick him out of the country and force her to stay, leaving Gabe to take matters into his own hands. Directed by Delmer Daves and produced by Clarence Brown, Never Let Me Go also boasts an excellent supporting cast of British actors, notably Kenneth More, Bernard Miles, and Richard Haydn in revelatory "straight" performance.

Never Let Me ...Read the entire review

The Shorts:
 
Warner Brothers, through their direct-to-consumer programThe Warner Archives, have been releasing a treasure trove of earlysound shortsover the last couple of years.  Theirlatest collection, Vitaphone VarietiesVolume Two, is another wonderful collection of vaudeville acts,bandperformances, and short plays that were used to entertain audiencesover 80years ago.
 

"In The Wonderland Zoo,
There are certain bears who,
Stay at home every night,
Never quarrel or fight.
'Aww! We don't even bite!'"

'Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch!'"

Critic-proof for anyone who grew up on this pap..as long as you can still feel it. Warner Bros.' Archive Collection of hard-to-find cult and library titles, has, through their Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection line, released Help!...It's the Hair Bear Bunch! &#8213; The Complete Series<...Read the entire review