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November 30, 2015
Savant's new reviews today are:
Ikiru
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
Akira Kurosawa goes full tilt humanist with this emotionally wrenching, vastly insightful look at human nature. A faceless bureaucrat, alone and unfulfilled, is diagnosed with stomach cancer. He rebels and breaks down, but then finds a way to give meaning to what remains of his life. Kurosawa one-ups the Italian Neorealists by seeing hope and value even in the oblivion of the human condition. Starring the great Takashi Shimura. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
12/01/15
Sense and Sensibility
Twilight Time
Blu-ray
Emma Thompson both screen-wrote and stars in this latter-day Jane Austen adaptation, blessed with fine locations and costumes, a congenial cast and attentive direction by Ang Lee. Kate Winslet consolidates her newfound stardom as a second Austen husband-seeker, lost in a maze of family intrigues and betrayals. But none are so severe as to prevent faith, hope and charity from prevailing in the end. The forecast is for joyful weddings. With Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman, and also Greg Wise, who went on to marry his co-star Thompson. On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
12/01/15
and
The Civil War
PBS
DVD
Ken Burns and Co. made a big splash with this historical documentary miniseries that in 1990 gripped the imagination of the whole country. Eleven hours of history are a breeze when presented in what was then a new form: authentic photos and paintings accompanied by dramatic recitals of letters and documents from the era. It also comes to life with the aid of historian-interviewees like the great Shelby Foote. Those long-ago people enduring the War Between the States seem just like us, as if it all happened yesterday. On DVD from PBS.
12/01/15
Hello!
While checking out the new disc of Ikiru I stumbled again on the film page Film Blanc -- The Cinema of Feel-Good Fantasies by Bill Shepard, an old Savant associate. Bill started the page quite a while ago and if I remember correctly I think he was partly inspired by an article in DVD Savant. Anyway, although gave I him the benefit of my faulty memory, he sussed out the earliest references to 'film blanc' in critical literature on his own. Bill has been compiling a reference to movies in the style all this time, keeping accurate synopses, etc. He welcomes input, should you find an appropriate title that isn't yet represented in his logs. Good going!
Some fun responses came in regarding my review of the just-reviewed 'Psychotronic evergreen' The Brain that Wouldn't Die. Reader and friend Craig Reardon gave me kudos for my bad puns. Helpful correspondent Gene Schiller corrects me regarding the obscurity of the movie in 1962:
"I can assure you Glenn... a lot of people saw The Brain that Wouldn't Die. There was a non-stop barrage of publicity for a week or two, as it played the drive-ins and first-run theaters. No kid worth his salt would have missed it!"
Bill Shaffer offered these comments:
"Enjoyed your reviews very much tonight. I am not a big fan of The Brain, but it does have a certain 'train wreck' attraction plus it can be awfully darn funny. However, I want to take issue with the 'uncut' and rare versions of it. I first saw this film at 4:30 pm on a Sunday afternoon in 1967 or '68 on the Sunday Big Show on our local ABC/TV affiliate in Wichita, Kansas. They ran it uncut from start to finish including the scene where the monster bites part of Herb Ever's jugular vein out, holds it up and flings it across the room. I certainly never forgot it. 'Gross and disgusting' was about all I had to say about it. Now, whether or not the ABC affiliate pre-ran and checked the film I do not know, but I suspect they did not since everything got shown in a two-hour time slot with commercials on a late Sunday afternoon. I did catch a recent showing of it on TCM and it's still an amazingly bad movie, but it was exactly what I saw years ago."
Reader John Black slipped into greater detail:
"I saw the uncut version on late night TV (Seattle's "Nightmare Theater") in the late 1960s. However, the next time it aired somebody substituted the shorter censored version. The same thing happened with Homicidal, which aired uncut the first time but was missing the gory knife murder when repeated months later. Actress Adele Lamont ("Doris Powell") had a contract with MGM in the late 1950s that specified that her nude scene could only be exhibited in foreign territories. I was hoping that Shout Factory might insert the nude scene into the body of the film. I know the footage is missing its soundtrack, but perhaps that sleazy saxophone music could have been utilized? I've never heard of a book about the making of the film, but there was a lengthy article to that effect in Scary Monsters Magazine a few years ago. Perhaps the audio commentator wrote that piece? There was also a piece about screenwriter Rex Carlton, who may have later committed suicide to avoid being the target of a mob hit when he couldn't repay so-called "investors." I think it
was Nightmare in Wax that led to the unfortunate demise of Rex Carlton. He kept borrowing money for his next picture from the wrong people."
"I began daily readings of the Seattle newspaper's movie theater listings in 1960, and do not recall ever seeing The Brain that Wouldn't Die playing theatrically in Seattle. However, the same can be said for Invasion of the Star Creatures, so I suppose that double bill might have played for one week, perhaps at drive-ins, and I missed seeing those ads. I can say that Brain never showed up on the various triple horror bills that became popular at urban grind houses and family suburban theaters. When it aired on late night TV in the mid-to-late '60s I had never heard of it. It instantly became a favorite of mine, due to its surprisingly graphic content."
Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson
November 28, 2015
Savant's new reviews today are:
The Brain that Wouldn't Die
Scream Factory
Blu-ray
Forget your 'Jan in the Pan' jokes and 'thing in the closet' remarks about gay subtext. This loopy, kooky and kinky horror offering from New York's Tarrytown is a keeper despite its primitive direction and campy screenplay. When it becomes impossible to tell whether an effect is plain awkwardness, unconscious expressionism or raw cinema gold, choose the last. Mad scientist Herb Evers answered the call to Bring Me the Head of Virginia Leith, and goes on a sleazy shopping spree to find a voluptuous body to make her complete, in the literal sense. It's all in the worst of taste - in other words, delightful. The special edition has some good extras, including a nude outtake for foreign use -- or maybe that was for the director's private reel. On Blu-ray from Scream Factory.
11/28/15
and
Queen of Blood
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
Curtis Harrington took an assignment nobody else would and fashioned a gem of low-budget Sci-Fi. A Russian space epic purchased at a bargain sale provides expensive-looking special effects scenes for Harrington's new space-horror drama about a deadly alien (Florence Marly) rescued from a crash landing on Mars. John Saxon, Judi Meredith and Dennis Hopper lead the space mission, while Basil Rathbone checks in by radio. The show looks great in HD, and the extras include excellent interviews with Roger Corman and effects specialist / historian & archivist Robert Skotak. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
11/28/15
Hello!
A quick notice today, as holiday and family commitments have kept me busy much of the week. I do have a cute link on tap. Joe Baltake of The Passionate Filmgoer sends us to a new article about an Australian stage play version of Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest. The play is said to dramatize the film's famous action scenes.
I'm just beginning to get a look at the movies being pushed for Oscar consideration. The Assassin was highly recommended but I found it too slow and too complicated to follow. I imagine that on a screen or on Blu-ray the images alone would hold my attention. Brooklyn is very good, a no-tricks story of an immigrant in a romantic bind. Very nice character work and a charming performance from Saoirse Ronan. I think we now all need a primer in the pronunciation of Irish names.
Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson
November 23, 2015
Savant's new reviews today are:
The Hurricane
KL Studio Classcis
Blu-ray
John Ford and Samuel Goldwyn's South Seas disaster picture has spectacular action and compelling romance. The unjustly imprisoned Jon Hall crosses half an ocean to rejoin his beloved Dorothy Lamour under The Moon of Manakoora, before an incredible (and incredibly expensive) hurricane blows his island to smithereens. With Mary Astor, Thomas Mitchell and Raymond Massey. Ford's direction is flawless, as are Dudley Nichols' screenplay and Alfred Newman's Hollywood-exotic music score. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
11/24/15
Forbidden Hollywood Volume 9
The Warner Archive Collection
DVD
Depraved convicts ! Crazy Manhattan gin parties! Society dames poaching other women's husbands! A flimflam artist scamming the uptown sophisticates! All these forbidden attractions are here and more -- including Bette Davis's epochal seduction line about impulsive kissing versus prudent hair care. The five pre-Code attractions in Volume 9 are: Big City Blues, Hell's Highway, The Cabin in the Cotton, When Ladies Meet and I Sell Anything. On DVD from The Warner Archive Collection.
11/24/15
and
Dont Look Back
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
D.A. Pennebaker puts cinema verité on the map with his terrific up-close docu portrait of Bob Dylan. The poet songwriter runs from concert appearances to hotels, cuts up with his friends, practices with Joan Baez and gives reporters grief. The extras include the filmmaker's early work and excellent discussions about the rest of his career. This is the best look yet at Pennebaker's innovative approach: don't direct, observe. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
11/24/15
Hello!
Hi -- sort of a hairy weekend leading into Thanksgiving. That and the five movies in one of the new reviews slowed me up a bit. Or should I say I reviewed seven titles today, covered in three entries?
These years are melting away fast -- the fact that 2015 is almost over seems impossible until I look back at the calendar and see indeed everything I did this year. No comparison with many, but for me I was fairly busy. A very nice thing happened over the weekend. I was contacted by a childhood friend from San Bernardino I hadn't seen in 44 years, James Heath. I made my first 8mm movies with James. Together we got into all kinds of fun that kids just aren't up for anymore, like racing his father's car up and down the driveway at age 13, or setting half the back yard on fire playing with Tiki Torches and alcohol-based fuel. Great stuff, and we never actually got run over, or electrocuted, or burned up. Nor did we ever shoot each other, not once. I was overjoyed to hear what a great life Jim has had... and pointed out to him that I mention him in my recent commentary for The Satan Bug: he was my best pal for downtown double feature matinees.
Another wild card research question: does anybody have any detailed release information on the Czech sci-fi movie Ikarie XB 1? I have a research inquiry from a Czech contact, who wants to know more about its domestic and English release as Voyage to the End of the Universe. He has info asserting that an English-language cut is out there, that's longer than the standard American cut, to wit, it has more of the original Czech scenes in it. Did A.I.P. dub the movie, or was there an English-language export version that perhaps went to the U.K.first? My studio contacts turned up nothing.
One look at December's Twilight Time offerings, and I want to write up every one of them: Born Free, The Detective, Kings Go Forth, 1984, Mysterious Island, and Harlock Space Pirate 3-D.
The same goes for Kino: Love At Large, Queen of Blood, Welcome to L.A., Tabu and Moana with Sound... and just announced, The Vikings in Technirama!
Also just in, today's Greenbriar Picture Shows has a nice article (November 23) on the new German Blu-ray of This Island Earth. The subject is film budgets for Sci-fi in the '50s. If space movies were so popular, I thought, why weren't there a lot more of them? John McElwee has the same answer, with money figures, that he wrote up for my Sci Fi Reader a few years back -- the Sci-fi spaceships and monsters never were grandly successful, not even the big titles. I guess we should be grateful for what we got.
Just enough time for a silly link, generously provided by Gary Teetzel. It's intended for only the most serious and discerning genre fans, the kind that read only refined film-related resources, like DVD Savant. If you're not certain that you qualify, send $10.00 by money order to this site, and I'll readily assure you that you are. I know you'll thank us for this one.
Happy Turkey Day -- we'll probably have a fancy salad! --- Glenn Erickson
November 20, 2015
Savant's new reviews today are:
Black Widow
Twilight Time
Blu-ray
Forget film art for a minute: Bob Rafelson and Ronald Bass's smart and sexy murder thriller throws Debra Winger and Theresa Russell into a slick neo-noir with fancy glamour trimmings, and comes up a bright, intelligent entertainment. A government agent tracks a serial killer against the wishes of her superiors -- who ever heard of a female Bluebeard, who marries 'em and burys 'em? With Sami Frey, Dennis Hopper, Nicol Williamson, Terry O'Quinn and D.W. Moffett. On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
/15
No Man's Woman
Olive Films
Blu-ray
Shall we sing the praises of actress Marie Windsor? A self--assessed Queen of the Cheapies, Windsor was anything but cheap, gracing some of the better films noirs and delivering some of the most deliciously acidic dialogue ever heard on screen. The woman doesn't just have bedroom eyes, she has bedroom everything, and a wicked smile to go with it. This Republic whodunnit also stars John Archer, Nancy Gates and Richard Crane. When a conniving, greedy art gallery owner turns up dead, everybody else in the movie seems to have a viable motive for murder. On Blu-ray from Olive Films.
11/21/15
In Cold Blood
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
More than one movie has been made about the story behind this lurid, unthinkable crime on the Kansas prairie, and its author-commentator Truman Capote. Criterion's disc returns the discussion to Richard Brooks, the director that dared adapt Capote's unfilmable novel. The show may also be the last gasp of artistic B&W cinematography from Hollywood, thanks to the indelible images of Conrad Hall. Scott Glenn and Robert Blake are the mass murderers; the great music score is by Quincy Jones. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
11/21/15
and
Terror at the Mall
The Warner Archive Collection / HBO Documentary Films
DVD
Is this exploitation, or needed documentation of a modern horror that's become all too frequent? It's a Terrorist assault on a restaurant, mall and supermarket complex packed with afternoon shoppers, many of them women and children. The camera coverage includes dozens of surveillance recordings plus cell phone snaps and images taken by a photojournalist who accompanied brave plainclothes police into the killing ground. Meanwhile, dozens of government troops stood by, as the shots rang out for literally hours. The show is disturbing and controversial. On DVD from The Warner Archive Collection / HBO Documentary Films.
11/21/15
Hello!
An associate at Trailers from Hell said my selection of reviews from last Tuesday was truly eclectic : Pitfall, Come Fly With Me, Phase IV, The Fireman's Ball. I had to laugh, because I hadn't planned such a thing. That should be obvious from the four reviews up tonight - they're all thrillers about murder, with only variety being in the kind of violence involved. All I do in choosing what movies to review is to stick with interesting subjects, and to sample discs from a variety of companies. Oh, and I push pet movies, personal favorites. Who wouldn't?
A couple of links come to mind. Over at the 3-D Archive, the formidable Bob Furmanek has a new article up, with his reliable emphasis on solid documentation. It's about The First Years of Stereophonic Motion Pictures. I remember being largely unaware of stereo in movies until I came to film school, even though I'd seen a Cinerama feature first-run, and likewise noticed the stereo separation in Camelot, when they bused us from our home town. Then an L.A. afternoon movie host was showing the Warner release Blowing Wild one afternoon and mentioned that the studio was experimenting with three-channel stereo sound in 1953. Later on, I was convinced that I saw The War of the Worlds in stereo, in a 35mm IB Tech screening at FILMEX. Apparently I was wrong, according to the experts -- Paramount had lost those tracks years ago, and it was unlikely that they would screen an archived Stereophonic print in a marathon situation.
Bob Furmanek affirms that a lot of movies came out with stereophonic tracks around that year, in reaction to the new aspect ratio formats and 3-D. His article lists them all... and when he says he's nailed down the final word on something like that, I'm compelled to believe him. After all, Bob Furmanek is the man who is resurrecting a 3D GOG, marrying together one eye-record from a studio print, with the complementary eye-record matched up from a surviving but faded collector's print. Amazing!
Our response, and that of our friends, to this Variety article about How Universal Plans to Bring Its Monster Movies Back to Life is abject depression. Somebody over in Universal City should know better, should realize how pitiful an idea this is. The article's corporate-speak vocabulary and buzz phrases generate no confidence whatsoever: "The characters will interact with each other across movies" -- "We're incubating it at the moment, and we're taking the time to get it right" ... "heightened world," "family identity," etc. They say they're "creating a mythology," but they need reminding that they're 'creating' absolutely zilch, just mucking up the studio heritage. Making the classic Universal monster movies imitate a Marvel Universe franchise is 'a change of pace?' Go invent your OWN movie ideas! The Uni horror legacy has been trashed enough, starting with the Indiana Jones reboot of The Mummy.
You know, perhaps one of the ten writers gang-scripting the concept will dazzle the execs with an original idea to supplant this one. See, I'm an optimist.
Finally, correspondent - advisor Gary Teetzel reports on the Tuesday night Aero screening he attended of Mr. Holmes, where Ian McKellen was a guest interviewee, with the questions moderated by Guillermo Del Toro:
"Ian McKellen was a great guest, and del Toro was a good moderator. McKellen remarked that he didn't think he was a good movie actor until Richard III. He pointed out that his breathing in the gas mask during the opening was actually done in iambic pentameter rhythm! He said he wanted the opening of Richard III to be a battle scene because he felt most moviegoers go into a Shakespeare film thinking "Oh, it's going to be all talk." By adding the battle, he wanted people to instead think, "When are they going to talk?"
McKellen expressed a great admiration for actor Ian Holm, who would alter his performance as Bilbo in the Lord of the Rings films from take to take, giving Jackson lots of options to more or less create the final performance in the editing room. To portray the 93-year old Sherlock Holmes, clothes that were slightly too large created the impression of an old man who had gotten smaller, while the elderly detective's wrinkles were created via the traditional stretch-and-stipple makeup technique that dates back to the silent days. McKellen praised his Mr. Holmes co-star Laura Linney as a professional who comes completely prepared, but who is also flexible enough to be spontaneous. When acting on the stage, McKellen says he likes to vary his work from performance from performance, and appreciates working with actors who can work with that approach.
McKellen mentioned that he owns a set of paint brushes that belonged to James Whale, whom he portrayed for Mr. Holmes director Bill Condon in Gods and Monsters. Del Toro was jealous!"
(Photo © Copyright 2015 Gary Teetzel)
Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson
November 16, 2015
Savant's new reviews today are:
Pitfall (1948)
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
This is a GREAT film noir, a domestic drama about a straying husband whose innocent dalliance wrecks lives and puts his marriage in jeopardy. Been there, done that? Dick Powell and Lizabeth Scott are menaced by Raymond Burr, while wife Jane Wyatt is kept in the dark. Andre de Toth's direction puts everyone through the wringer, with a very adult look at the realities of the American marriage contract. With little Jimmy Hunt, and great shots of Los Angeles circa 1948. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
11/17/15
Come Fly With Me
The Warner Archive Collection
DVD
Flight attendants Dolores Hart, Pamela Tiffin and Lois Nettleton aim to pick off attractive, wealthy husbands from among their guests on the new passenger jets -- Karl Boehm, Hugh O'Brien and Karl Malden. There's more social comment in this 'coffee, tea or me' romantic comedy than can be found in a graduate thesis about the sexual habits of liberated stewardesses. It's a soap opera fantasy, by turns funny, dramatic and sentimental. And Hey, Frankie Avalon warbles the classy title tune! On DVD from The Warner Archive Collection
11/17/15
Phase IV
Olive Films
Blu-ray
The ants are taking over, and they mean business. The proving ground for world conquest is a research lab in Arizona, where Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy and Lynne Frederick try to hold out against super-intelligent hormigas that cut them off, develop sophisticated weapons and instantly adapt to any chemical attempt to stop them. The eerie ecology-minded thriller is given a psychedelic edge by brilliant graphic expert-turned director Saul Bass. I have the full rundown on the notorious spacey alternate ending, with links. On Blu-ray from Olive Films.
11/17/15
and
The Fireman's Ball
Arrow Films UK
Region-Free Blu-ray + PAL DVD
Milos Forman was the prince of the Prague Spring with this Czech New Wave classic, a hilarious black comedy about the cheerful corruption and incompetence of petty bureaucrats. A fire brigade throws a bash, and by the end of the evening the lottery prizes are all stolen and the beauty contest has become a travesty. And they can't even put out a simple fire. Forman's non-actors are splendid, and the movie's just too affectionate to be cynical -- although the joke is clearly aimed at the Soviet-influenced government. When repressive measures kicked in again, Forman and his writer Ivan Passer came to America. On Region-Free Blu-ray and PAL DVD from Arrow Films UK.
11/17/15
Hello from Los Angeles, where the writing pace is a bit tough but I'm keeping up. A close associate was in Paris last week, and managed to squeak back in one piece. He described streets and monuments that are usually packed with people, totally deserted except for security troops.
So I posted all those chirpy, cheerful plugs and links on Saturday, which at the time didn't feel right. Now I'm glad I didn't wait. Corresponding with readers and prepping new stuff kept me away from our deplorable news outlets, and especially away from Facebook, where even opinions I agree with seemed depressing. That's all the griping I'm going to voice -- readers come here to snoop about movies and discs. I get political enough when discussing movies, as we well know.
So I'll stick to my reviews. Here are four fun titles, with more to come. Let's all be thankful for what security we still have.
Hey, here's something that I found in my attic over the weekend -- an actual casting from the head of one of the animation models for Mighty Joe Young. Either David Allen or Jim Danforth cast up a bunch in plaster, and way back in 1977 or 1978 Randy Cook gave me one. It's all chipped, but finding it made me smile. That's how big the actual puppet was!
Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson
November 14, 2015
Savant's new reviews (!) today are:
Mr. Holmes
Lionsgate
Blu-ray + Digital HD
Ian McKellen and director Bill Condon re-team for an intensely felt portrait of Sherlock Holmes in his sunset years, trying to hang on to his intellectual capacities as he revisits an unhappy case from years before. Laura Linney is his housekeeper, who fears Holmes is a bad influence on her son -- but the relationship is mutually beneficial. The movie also has a marvelously integrated Alfred Hitchcock homage, not for style but for theme -- its thoughts about human relationships are an emotional revelation. With a touching performance by Hattie Morahan as a sympathetic seeker, one who got away. Now, what is the difference between wasps and bees? On Blu-ray + Digital HD from Lionsgate.
11/14/15
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
Olive Films
Blu-ray
Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing star together in a worthwhile horror attraction -- and even share scenes for once. Milton Subotsky puts Amicus on the map with five tales of the uncanny that scared the bejesus out of happy matinee attendees in 1965; each story has a clever twist or sting in its tail. Creepy mountebank Cushing deals the Tarot cards that spell out the fate of five worried train passengers; Lee is a pompous art critic terrorized by a... aw, you already know. Also with Michael Gough as a tormented artist, and more or less introducing a young Donald Sutherland, whose nervous, vulnerable small-town doctor all but steals the show. On Blu-ray from Olive Films.
11/14/15
Broken Lance
Twilight Time
Blu-ray
Edward Dmytryk's big-scale cattle empire saga sees paterfamilias Spencer Tracy discovering that the ruthless and autocratic qualities that helped him win his massive ranch, have driven away his sons and made him unsuited to deal with modern civil disputes. Robert Wagner is his loyal son who went to prison out of a sense of family duty, while Richard Widmark is the resentful son impatient for Dad to cash in his chips. The big screen western in early CinemaScope and stereophonic sound is a transposition of an earlier Fox film noir! It's been given a commentary with supporting actor Earl Holliman. Also with Hugh O'Brien, Jean Peters and Katy Jurado. On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
11/14/15
and
Passage to Marseille
The Warner Archive Collection
Blu-ray
Hollywood's 'morale building' war-themed movies turned vicious in the last years of the conflict, and Michael Curtiz's tale of French convict Humphrey Bogart fighting to get back and defend France has a still-controversial scene of violence. The convoluted storyline nests enough flashbacks-within-flashbacks to confuse any viewer, and packs the screen with every actor on the Warner lot who can handle a foreign accent: Claude Rains, Philip Dorn, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, George Tobias, Helmut Dantine, John Loder, Victor Francen, Vladimir Sokoloff, Eduardo Ciannelli. The love interest is Michèle Morgan. Also packed with plenty of unusual special effects. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
11/14/15
Hello!
--- A lot of very bad news at the moment, a sad and fearful day --
I'm pleased to be posting reviews on Saturday again... I like spreading them out across the week. One can't pass up Joe Dante's remarkable commentary on the trailer for the beloved Robot Monster -- Joe keeps a straight face as he offers a perfectly logical, scientific reason why Ro-Man's work environment requires a constant supply of bubbles from the Automatic Billion Bubble Machine by N.A. Fisher Chemical Products, Inc.. I hear the 3-D in Phil Tucker's opus is actually excellent, so heck, we need a 3-D Blu-ray revival of this gem. Was there ever a movie more deserving of our love? More than once, when I've been faced with a family, social or business dilemma, I've wanted to rise to my feet, wave big hairy arms around my head and moan, "I cannot, but I must! I must, but I cannot! Oh where, oh where on the spectrum do 'cannot' and 'must' meet?" Priceless.
In scouring the web for an exploitable image of Brian Keith or Sean Connery I stumbled onto this link to an excellent concert piece. Dedicated Jerry Goldsmith fans most likely found it four years ago, but hey, as Danny DeVito says, we don't do anything original here because this is Hollywood! I really dig the lady percussionist who handles the big drums. I'll have to see if I can get this one to play on my now- cable connected TV, the one that's videotaping everything I say and do.
Gary Teetzel tells me that Jack Harris' marvelous 4D Man is coming to Blu-ray next year. That's good news for the sci-fi fanatic in Savant -- I love the show and hope it gets a great commentary from someone tightly keyed into the show, like Bill Warren or Tom Weaver. I'd love to air my crazy breakdown of the movie's imaginative premise, I must admit.
And finally, let's reach out and help a needy Savant reader, who needs to identify a mystery movie. Do any movie sleuths out there remember this storyline? It sounds to me like it has to be from an old suspense TV show, but he says it was feature. Here's the description verbatim, as it was given to me, word-for-word, without editing, unexpurgated, uncensored:
"The movie was in black and white. All I remember about it is a small child gets kidnapped by some gangsters. I believe his father was a DA or something like that. The kid is watched over by this hardened thug. The kid is currently learning all about Abraham Lincoln at school so he tells the thug all the stuff about him and the thug begins to take an interest in the kid. It works out that the other gangsters are coming over to murder the kid. All I remember is that the guy goes out and stops them all but also gets gunned down. The last scene is the gangster stretched out in an alley in the rain and the camera zooms in on the thug's hand and he is holding a penny with the Lincoln side showing." Now how can we sleep in peace until this is solved?
(Note, 11/15 ... We have an answer, from correspondents Bart Steele and Annelisa J. Purdie: The Last Gangster, 1937 with James Stewart and Edward G. Robinson. How 'bout that?)
I'll try to keep posting twice a week, with as many reviews as I have time for -- Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson
November 09, 2015
Savant's new reviews today are:
Devil in a Blue Dress
Twilight Time
Blu-ray
Carl Franklin hit a home run with this exciting adapation of Walter Mosley's first 'Easy' Rawlins detective tale, starring a terrific Denzel Washington as the South Central resident who takes up snoop work to pay the mortgage. Easy's in the crosshairs of city, with a mystery woman everybody's after, Jennifer Beals. Tom Sizemore is an impressive thug, but Don Cheadle steals the show with his portrayal of Easy's loose-cannon pal from Texas, 'Mouse' Alexander. With glowing color cinematography by Tak Fujimoto. On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
11/10/15
Croupier
Hen's Tooth Video
Blu-ray
The Brits score another elegant crime classic. Mike Hodge directs Paul Mayersberg's script about a frustrated writer who goes back into casino work to find material for a book, and ends up writing about his own criminal activities. Clive Owen made major star progress as the rakish but sensible roulette and blackjack dealer with a steady girlfriend (Gina McKee), plus two more on the side, Alex Kingston and Kate Hardie. Terrific suspense and twists that can't be predicted -- a very classy thriller. On Blu-ray from Hen's Tooth Video.
11/10/15
The Mask
Kino Classics
3-D Blu-ray
A major restoration and a treat for 3-D capable home systems. The legendary 1961 spook-show classic has been fixed up and adapted to a better 3-D system than used for its original release. A psychiatrist possessed by a Mayan ritual mask becomes a mad killer, but his crimes are nothing compared to the fantastic hallucinatory world he enters each time he's told to, "Put on the Mask NOW." Kino accompanies the show with a full documentary, short subjects by montage wizard Slavko Vorkapich, and a 2014 3-D short subject also with a "let's go to Hell" story concept. On 3-D Blu-ray from Kino Classics.
11/10/15
Run of the Arrow
The Warner Archive Collection
DVD
Sam Fuller's fierce and insightful western stars Rod Steiger, Brian Keith, Charles Bronson and Sarita Montiel, and takes on a tall stack of potent issues. A Reb sharpshooter denies the defeat of the South and goes west to join the Sioux nation, where he can continue his war against the Yankees. Fuller's tale of a Man Without a Country is one of his best, thanks to a generous budget, unflinching action violence and committed performances. On DVD from The Warner Archive Collection.
11/10/15
Living in Oblivion
Shout! Factory
Blu-ray + DVD
Tom DiCillo's satire about the pitfalls of low budget filmmaking is less a farce than it is a loving valentine to the difficult task of getting something relevant on film. Steve Buscemi is the frustrated director, Catherine Keener the insecure actress, and Peter Dinklage the little person not pleased that he's been hired to play a phantom in a dream sequence. Hilariously clever, the show also has a big heart. A definite favorite of 1995 that plays even better now. With Dermot Mulroney and James Le Gros. On Blu-ray + DVD from Shout! Factory.
11/10/15
Mulholland Dr.
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
Fourteen years make a big difference -- David Lynch's major mystery movie is back looking better than ever in a 4K transfer. Two women in Hollywood merge personalities as strange events overtake them. Sort of a non-spinoff spinoff of Twin Peaks, the movie is as enticingly dense as ever. Criterion's presentation comes with a stack of interesting interviews with Lynch, Naomi Watts, Laura Herring plus other actors and crew people. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
11/10/15
and
Tenderness of the Wolves
Arrow Video (UK)
Region B Blu-ray + PAL DVD
Ulli Lommel made this perverse art-movie horror shocker. The catalyst might be writer-actor-art director Kurt Raab, who plays Fritz Harrmann, an infamous real-life serial killer who used his position as a police informer to disguise his abominable activities. A cross between Peter Lorre's child-murderer and the ghoul Nosferatu, Haarmann has a unique method of preventing his victims from screaming... and his offenses probably included cannibalism. Produced by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. On Region B Blu-ray + PAL DVD from Arrow Video (UK).
11/10/15
Hello!
Too many good movies from too many good suppliers -- so I've got seven new reviews up this week. And I've also been given approval to post reviews bi-weekly again, to spread the pain joy out more evenly through the week! If my reviews all seem positive, don't forget that I get to pick and choose what to review. The fun part of this is promoting good movies, wherever they may be found. Moviemaking isn't easy - who wants to slam people?
There must be a lot of HD- hungry This Island Earth fans out there, because I got several notes from readers who ordered the German Blu-ray mentioned in my last post. Most report that it looks great, with detailed descriptions. One reader noticed a ripple in the opening music, when the German subtitles clicked on for a second. Another with an Oppo player says that the disc keeps reverting to the default German audio track. Are these issues with particular players? So the thing isn't playing perfectly for everyone, obviously. One thing that is established, is that it is Region B locked, for sure.
What's waiting in my disc queue that's so important? Plenty, that's what. Blu-rays of Andre de Toth's Pitfall, John Ford's The Hurricane, Michael Curtiz' Passage to Marseilles, Murnau's Faust, John Cassavetes' A Child is Waiting, Guy Hamilton's A Child is Waiting, Milos Forman's The Fireman's Ball, Black Widow and Bill Condon's Mr. Holmes.
I'm expecting the following to drift in shortly as well: Shadows and Fog, Broken Lance, Sense and Sensibility (Twilight Time), Closely Observed Trains (Arrow UK), Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Flying Disc Man from Mars, Phase IV, No Man's Woman (Olive).
On DVD I have in hand the Julian Duvivier in the Thirties box (Eclipse), and from The Warner Archive Collection, Barbary Coast, Five Came Back, Come Fly with Me and Terror at the Mall.
Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson
November 02, 2015
Hello -- more reviews will be coming on Tuesday, as is the present norm at DVD Savant, co-hosted by DVDtalk and Trailers from Hell.
Are there readers out there intrigued by famous murder cases like Jack the Ripper, Charlie Manson and The Black Dahlia? After absorbing the movie set Five Films By Patricio Guzmán, I've become even more more intrigued by the vast mass murder of the Pinochet regime in Chile, that began in 1973. Now there's breaking news, 42 years later. As reported by The Associated Press a couple of days ago, Chileans are trying to confirm another possible victim, the famous poet Pablo Neruda. If it turns out be true, Neruda will be to Chile and Pinochet, what Federico García Lorca was to Spain and Franco, forty years previous.
Other disc news. We've got conflicting reports coming in about the quality of the new German Blu-ray of the Universal Sci-Fi classic This Island Earth. The first news from a poster to the CHFB was pretty harsh:
"Waste of money, sad to say. To begin with, it's 1.85 like the previous German release and the UK DVD, not 2.00 as advertised in advance (shades of the German Revenge of the Creature 'big lie,' pre-sold as either 1.85 or 2.00 in 2D, released to horrified buyers as a 1.33). It's also the weakest of all video incarnations of the film, with smudgy, waxy imagery, even though the distributor insists no DNR was applied. Hard to believe. Titles were reconstructed in German (red lettering over the moving star field); I'm not sure if the correct English titles can be accessed elsewhere. Haven't checked out the extras yet, but I'm in no hurry. Bottom line? Second disastrous German release of a classic U-I '50s title after Revenge."
But two DVD Savant readers that risked a blind purchase contradict the CHFB report entirely. Correspondent Mark Crawley:
"Just gave it a spin. Widescreen presentation looks very good to me. Print in great shape."
Correspondent Brad Arrington is even more emphatic:
"I just got the Deutsch Blu-ray of This Island Earth in today's mail. I threw it on my TV and guess what? It's All-Region. I didn't have to change any of the settings. I just got a little ways into it. My reaction? So far, it's gorgeous! I don't know who the heck it was that gave it a bad review but he certainly couldn't have been watching the same thing I'm watching. The picture is razor-sharp, colors, brilliant, flesh-tones, excellent (the green where Cal's jet is enveloped by Exeter's ray is the best I've seen and there isn't a scratch on the thing, at least not so far. The sound is crisp with good bass to it. This has my total endorsement. Get it.
I will try to get it for a review. I haven't written about This Island Earth since my Sci-fi essay book.
In other exciting disc news, Gary Teetzel reports that the Twilight Time Facebook page has dropped the hint that a Blu-ray of the Henry Hathaway-Gary Cooper-Bernard Herrmann western opus Garden of Evil is coming to Blu-ray. As I'm always intrigued by the way the alien landscapes merge with Herrmann's sound-scape in Garden of Weevils, this is really nice to look forward to. As Alex Cutter says, "Tape 'em!" (obscure joke, maybe)
Oh, and let me ad that gracious correspondent Ken Camp obtained the UK Signal One Blu-ray of On the Beach and reports that its audio track is in perfect synch. I think I'm going to consider this and maybe This Island Earth as Christmas gifts for myself -- the extras for On the Beach sound very enticing.
Thanks for reading -- Glenn Erickson
Tuesday November 3, 2015
Savant's new reviews today are:
A Special Day
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
Not another Sophia Loren-Marcello Mastroianni comedy, but a serious drama about two outsiders in Mussolini's Rome of 1938. She has become a chattel in a system of patriarchal oppression, while he's been ostracized as a political undesirable. Writer-director Ettore Scola's insightful warning about oppressive authoritarianism shows not extreme Fascist crimes but the most basic human rights violations. Contains an excellent interview with Scola and one just as good with Sophia Loren. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
11/03/15
Rashomon
BFI (U.K.)
Region B Blu-ray
Akira Kurosawa's unquestioned top rank classic remains a fascinating study of truth and justice, via the puzzle of determining what occurred in a forest encounter that left a man murdered and his wife raped. Or did something entirely different happen? The witnesses Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura and Machiko Kyo give radically differing testimony. This edition offers a full commentary by Japanese film expert Stuart Galbraith IV, plus a new documentary about The Daiei Studio, with interviews with surviving personnel and footage showing the film's locations as they appear today. Plus an introduction by director John Boorman. On Region B Blu-ray from BFI (U.K.).
11/03/15
Deep in My Heart
The Warner Archive Collection
Blu-ray
The MGM musical biography gets one last go-round, as producer Roger Edens and director Stanley Donen gather an all-star cast to illustrate the songbook of composer Sigmund Romberg. José Ferrer, Merle Oberon, Helen Traubel, Doe Avedon, Walter Pidgeon, Rosemary Clooney, Gene Kelly, Jane Powell, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Howard Keel, Vic Damone and Tony Martin play roles in Romberg's backstage life, or sing and dance in recreations of his show music. Gene Kelly dances with his brother Fred, and Cyd Charisse does a hot number with James Mitchell; Ferrer goes on stage with his wife Rosemary Clooney. The extras include unused musical numbers, including audio for a cut song featuring Joan Weldon. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
11/03/15
Je t'aime, je'taime
Kino Classics
Blu-ray
Yet another European art film director tries his hand at Sci-fi. Alain Resnais' movie about the mysteries of memory this time uses a generic time travel framework to motivate his fragmented-flashback editorial style. Claude Rich and a mouse are to be projected back exactly one year, for exactly one minute. Since he's a melancholic fatalist, the idea's just fine by him. Did anybody expect things to go smoothly? Rich becomes unstuck in time, re-living snippets of moments from his past -- all dovetailing on the tragic event that motivated him to commit suicide. On Blu-ray from Kino Classics.
11/03/15
Thieves' Highway
Arrow Academy (U.K.)
Region B Blu-ray + PAL DVD
Director Jules Dassin teams with writer A.I. Bezzerides on one of Hollywood's strongest indictments of the abuse of the free market system. Independent truckers Richard Conte and Millard Mitchell are outmatched by Lee J. Cobb's unofficial boss of the San Francisco produce market. If he can't cheat them, Cobb steals their cargo outright or arranges for their trucks to be sabotaged. To survive in this dog-eat-dog setup, the truckers must drive unsafe vehicles and cheat the growers they buy from. With Valentina Cortese, Barbara Lawrence and Jack Oakie. The exclusive extras include a full video docu about Bezzerides; on Blu-ray and DVD from Arrow Academy (U.K.).
11/03/15
and
Scream and Scream Again
Twilight Time
Blu-ray
Vincent Price's diabolical surgeon is the key ghoul in a labyrinthine conspiracy to produce a new breed of supermen, and his latest 'composite' creation is also a serial-killing vampire. While the police put out a manhunt, the conspiracy spreads to an Eastern-bloc dictatorship, where another composite is consolidating power through high-level murders. Christopher Lee is a British minister ferreting out the conspiracy-- or is he part of it? Those two and Peter Cushing are top-billed, but the bulk of the movie belongs to actors Marshall Jones, Alfred Marks and especially Michael Gothard, the discotheque-swinger vampire. Twilight Time provides more than its usual quota of extras, including a commentary and a full making-of docu. On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
11/03/15
Hello!
Halloween was fun. I watched Shaun of the Dead again, and it's still just as funny. I then followed it with Quatermass 2, something I've probably seen forty times, if not more. Always a pleasure.
This week I have six reviews, just because there's so much good stuff out there I'm not getting to. I want and need to cover as much as possible but it seems like gotta-review shows are coming in faster than ever. One thing I need to do if I'm posting at Trailers from Hell much
longer is to figure out how to do footnotes with their blog system. My scattered writing likes being sidetracked into tangents.
A couple of links! Joe Dante has been circulating more good web addresses. The best is Jim Casey's video assembly of audio interviews done by Jeremy Bernstein back in 1968, which he calls Stanley Kubrick: The Lost Tapes. Kubrick's voice sounds like that of any other young New Yorker, except that he expresses himself so clearly that a transcript of his interview answers would make a very satisfying career article. I started to merely sample the 24-minute piece and ended up listening to every word.
I'm linking to Greenbriar Picture Shows twice in two column postings, but this one is worth it -- November 2nd's Greenbriar has a great illustrated article on the Cinerama blockbuster How the West Was Won.
And dues-paying, card-carrying DVD Savant fellow traveler Gary Teetzel steers me to a Star Wars- related piece. Sonny Bunch of The Washington Post gives a neo-con spin to Moff Tarkin's rationalization for using the Death Star's planet-destroying death ray. The title is "The Destruction of Alderaan Was Completely Justified," but I like Gary's better: Alderaan Had It Coming.
Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson
Don't forget to write Savant at [email protected].
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