Hello!

We were happy last July to review Criterion’s new 4K of  Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, even if it meant taking some flak for not being a fervent admirer of the movie as a whole. Scholar and film writer Gordon Thomas told me back then that he was writing up his own article on the movie for the Bright Lights Film Journal, and now it has arrived:

I’ve made an effort to appreciate the good things in PGABTK but get bogged down in its shapelessness and lack of development. Mr. Thomas finds a different group of complaints… for instance, he finds the acting contribution of Bob Dylan to be difficult to watch. But Thomas concludes goes on to hail the show as an unique masterpiece and one of Sam’s best.

We’ve been admirers of Gordon Thomas’s film criticism for more years than we care to admit. We strongly recommend his older Bright Lights essays for  Beggars of Life,  Ben-Hur and  War and Peace.

3-D Responses:

Just three days ago we put out a feeler at the CineSavant Column to find out how other 3-D collector aficionados were dealing with the shaky situation with Blu-ray 3-D. I received a number of prompt responses, and discovered that die-hard fans of the format were finding different ways to hang on to 3-D capability.

Here’s a sampling of responses, minimally edited. I’ve not identified anybody, partly because I forgot to ask for permission! —

From October 14:

Hi Glenn … In response to your request for reader feedback on whether we still have 3-D setups, the answer is yes! A few years ago my beloved 3-D plasma tv – a Samsung that delivered stunning picture quality as far as I was concerned – bit the dust and I was pretty blue about it. So last year I invested in a Benq projector with 3-D capability and am in love with it. It uses active glasses – I believe you’ve talked about projectors that used passive glasses, but I was unable to find any. Would be curious about which make/model you mean. But active glasses are not much of an issue for me, so I was happy to buy this model.

My projector cost a little over $1000 and the quality of the 3-D is infinitely better than what I enjoyed on my old plasma screen. I continue to buy new 3-D discs as my budget allows, and am very grateful to those who keep putting them out. And to you, for helping me keep up to date on new releases!  Best, —

Note: we can’t remember mentioning any ‘passive’ 3-D projectors … we also don’t think there are any.

October 14:

Glenn … I have two 3-D options: I bought the last generation of 3-D capable LG 64 inch flat screen with passive glasses about the same time as your set-up, and like you I hope it will run for a few more years at least. But more recently I also bought an expensive Sony 4K projector that could be upgraded with active 3-D. It has a laser lamp which is supposed to run for something like 20,000 hours, i.e. for the rest of my life span I hope. These 3-D capable projectors are still on the market, as are 3-D capable Blu-ray and 4K players.  Best, —

October 13:

Glenn – Good to see 3-D get a mention in this week’s column. It seems the format has been in the conversation a bit more lately with plenty of releases popping up (Deadpool & Wolverine imported from Japan, an upcoming Jackie Chan title from 88 Films and the usual 3-D Film Archive efforts).

Personally I’ve really become a bit obsessed with gathering all the titles I can before they disappear for good. And with used 3-D TVs nearing the end of their lifespan, they can be found second hand on places like Facebook Marketplace for $50 to $100 bucks. I’ve scooped up four in the past year (much to my family’s dismay) just to make sure I’m not left in the lurch … mostly Panasonic active plasma displays that still look terrific. Thanks for helping to keep the format alive and kicking! —

From October 13:

Regarding your comment in the column about the continued active use of 3-D in home TV arrangements. Well, my son still has a Ben-Q 3-D projector and I am heading over there today to set it up for my Movie Group to watch House of Wax. I would bet that I am the only one out of the group who has seen it before. We did a similar screening a year ago for Creature from the Black Lagoon. The 3-D does make quite an impression being on a BIG screen with good sound. During the year, I’ll go over and check out a few treasures (Hugo and the 2014 Godzilla recently). My grandsons still enjoy it, but I don’t think they (or my son) spend that much time with it. —

From October 12:

Glenn,  I have a 2016 passive 3-D-capable LG 55″ TV in my secondary setup in my bedroom. I have several pairs of polarized glasses for viewing. The 3-D performance is very good to excellent depending on how good the disc master is. I hope I can keep this going for many more years. —

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

We’ve really got no Column today — assembling today’s big reviews gobbled up the available hours. But rather than completely beg off, this gives me an opportunity to thank correspondent Nicholas Krisfalusy, who sent me a disc last month that I wasn’t expecting.

It’s a Universal Essentials Collection disc from a year ago last October, the 1953 Sci-Fi item  It Came from Outer Space, remastered in 4K Ultra HD. I passed up the disc last year, for purchase or review, because for me the way to see that movie is in 3-D, and I’d already reviewed Universal’s handsome 3-D disc, from eight years ago.

The bad news is that only 3-D capable collectors are able to see good Polaroid-passive Blu-ray 3-D at home, and the industry stopped selling the good monitors for that years ago.

I should have looked at the disc package more carefully. It includes the fine-quality 4K encoding, a Blu-ray disc and a digital access code, and a lot of printed special edition extras. What I didn’t bother to notice is that the Blu-ray disc includes a 3-D option as well. Universal didn’t promote the feature in its text publicity. In other words, it’s still a 3-D friendly package, and recommended.

So thanks again Mr. Krisfalusy.  My question about 3-D to Cinesavant readers is this: do many of you maintain the ability to see Blu-ray 3-D?  Do you have a passive Polaroid setup, or the active setup with the battery-powered glasses?   Do you have other means of seeing Blu-ray 3-D?   I treasure my ability to screen good 3-D, but don’t know how long that will last. My home setup is now eight years old … when it gives out, It might be the end of good 3-D at Casa CineSavant!

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Correspondent and advisor Gary Teetzel has found something good. Posting on YouTube just a few days ago, ‘Soundtrack Fred’ gives us about fifteen minutes of original cues from an RKO recording session for  All That Money Can Buy  aka  The Devil and Daniel Webster. It sounds like the original source is a transcription disc.

The bonus content is a few seconds of composer Bernard Herrman giving instructions to the orchestra, at the beginning and the end of the recording. His voice always surprises — he doesn’t sound like a stereotyped refined musical genius. He apparently hears extranous noise in his headphones:

“Don’t touch anything, don’t rattle any half-dollars, anything else …”

It’s a good listen for Herrmann’s Oscar-winning music, one of his very best film scores.

And here’s another call-out for fans of Euro-westerns. Genuine expert Tom Betts started decades ago with a printed newsletter, and for quite a while now he’s been running a website blog dedicated to his area of expertise.

The blog may not be for casual Italo and European western fans, but it can’t be beat for enthusiasts that want to know every last detail about the films, particularly the hundreds of actors that played in them.

Tom Betts’  Westerns… All’Italiana page is the place to go for genre loyalists. In addition to Tom’s writing are some essential links … including his & Jay Jennings’ YouTube  Spaghetti Westerns Podcast.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

More podcast news today, this time paralleling today’s new CineSavant review. Dick Dinman once again has coaxed Warner Archive overseer George Feltenstein into talking about a new release.

Since it’s a major digital reupholstering job on a classic MGM musical, we can guess that George was a big part of the restoration effort. (Yegads … I just realized that I worked for Mr. Feltenstein 33 years ago…)

A few days ago Joe Dante circulated this article by Jake Rossen, from the Mental Floss website. It’s short and to the point, but I’ve never heard the subject explained so clearly.

The notion of Howard Hughes ensconsced on the top floors of a Las Vegas hotel, ordering his favorite shows to be played over and over again on his own TV station, should be etched in the annals of eccentric Americana. It gives us mental images of Hughes screening  Ice Station Zebra over and over again. The James Bond movie Diamonds are Forever lampooned Hughes’ enforced isolation with a character called Willard Whyte — what a place to go mad … ?

Hello!

We of course follow all the doings at the 3-D Film Archive, keeping a running tally of projects in the works, like last year’s  Robot Monster 3-D, one of those weird Z-pictures that hasn’t lost its appeal — it must still be seen to be believed.

The Archive is rounding out its coverage of the 3-D legacy of the eccentric filmmaker Arch Oboler, who of course made a mint when he ignited the ’50s 3-D craze with his daring independent feature  Bwana Devil. Oboler’s semi-travelogue Domo Arigato may be shipping in a couple of months, and the next item up is a return to Oboler’s Sci-fi effort “The Bubble”, from around 1967. A truncated 3-D Blu-ray was released back in 2014; the Archive is now promoting a Kickstarter page to remaster the original full-length premiere cut of the movie starring Deborah Walley and Michael Cole.

Their kickstarter page features an original trailer for “The Bubble”. It interested me because it has no scenes from the movie, and instead gets its message across with polished radio writing with perfect timing — Oboler’s forte.

Friendly correspondent and  Major Dundee news bloodhound Chris Howard sent along this article from life.com commemorating a vintage photo spread, from when photographer Bill Ray was dispatched to Mexico to glamorize Austrian star Senta Berger.

The photo-heavy piece actually had to be taken in 1964, at least the on-location material with Charlton Heston and Sam Peckinpah. The cheesecake photos may have been in ’65, nearer the run-up to the film’s release. Did Ms. Berger’s agent work overtime to nab this exposure in a big magazine?  I honestly forget whether LIFE in ’65 would print all the pictures we see.

Between Chris Howard and myself, we figure that Senta Berger is among the last surviving participants in Major Dundee still with us, along with Michael Anderson Jr., Mario Adorf, and Aurora Clavell. Senta appears to be still working, at 83 years!

For my fellow Californians this is going to be no big deal. Friends living closer to the hills or especially out in the San Fernando Valley or West to Agoura, etc. see all manner of wildlife in or about their homes, rummaging through their garbage bins, who knows what else?  But for us here just South of Hollywood and only about 6 miles from downtown Los Angeles, the average animal sighting is maybe an opossum or a raccoon, and usually in the dead of night.

So it was a surprise to be out getting my paper at 7am this morning, and to run into this hungry fellow, chewing on something in a front yard. I’ll have to tell the neighbors to stay careful with their pets. Unless he/she has a den in some park nearby, he/she had to drift down from the hills, 1.5 miles to the north. Are these cousins of Wile E. here all the time, and I’m just too unobservant to notice?  Is that why our feral cat population has gone down a little bit?

Yes, it’s about as far from Blu-ray news as CineSavant can get, but I was too proud of snagging these pics, venturing out in my pajamas. We foolish city dwellers get our kicks where we can.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson