Glenn Erickson's Reviews: Month: May 2021

Fast Times at Ridgemont High 05/29/21

“Learn it. Know it. Live it!” The best-remembered teen comedy of the ’80s is also an insightful and unabashed look at real attitudes, behaviors and motivations of young people learning to deal with adult issues. Beyond the hilarious Sean Penn and the luscious Phoebe Cates lies a talent squad of notables and stars-to-be like Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold and Robert Romanus, with appearances by Amanda Wyss, Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz, Nicolas Coppola and Anthony Edwards. The stunning feature directing debut of Amy Heckerling, from Cameron Crowe’s undercover high school exposé, should be acknowledged as a modern classic. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
05/29/21

Hellfighters 05/29/21

“Two smoldering women made all the danger worthwhile!”… heck, we didn’t even see ’em catch fire. John Wayne is charismatic and Andrew V. McLaglen’s direction is decent for once in this formulaic ‘easy listening’ pot-boiler from the Wayne school of laid-back ’60s entertainment. After winning the Vietnam War, our intrepid action man extinguishes 101 out-of-control oil fires, which appear to happen every twenty minutes. When nothing’s burning, there are plenty of domestic tangles to straighten out with the womenfolk. In support are Katharine Ross, Jim Hutton, Vera Miles, Bruce Cabot and Jay C. Flippen. It’s old-fashioned but not embarrassing — Wayne still has his charm. On Blu-ray from Mill Creek.
05/29/21

Blood of the Vampire 05/25/21

The man with eyebrows that can kill!  Not really, but that’s the impression given by the poster illustration. The Baker/Berman producing team gave their Hammer/Terence Fisher imitation a lot of production trimmings — good color, autopsy-grade gore, female victims in low-cut gowns — but neither Jimmy Sangster’s script nor the flat direction bring it to life. Donald Wolfit is the resurrected mad doctor stealing transfusion blood and committing murders with the help of his deformed servant Victor Maddern; the show’s highlight is the strong performance from favorite scream queen Barbara Shelley. Artus’ fancy special edition is Region A friendly, although the DVD is PAL and all the extras are French-only. With Vincent Ball and Andrew Faulds. On Region-free Blu-ray + PAL DVD from Artus Films France.
05/25/21

Giants and Toys 05/25/21

Yasuzo Masumura’s message is a shout: unfettered consumer capitalism is cannibalism, plain and simple. The radical director’s scathing, savage satire of the Tokyo’s ‘Mad Men’ advertising scene sees desperate ad men creating a fresh new star celebrity to promote their product, only for the rampant cutthroat competition to shatter careers, fortunes and basic human values. Masumura’s brilliant cinematic onslaught is at least ten years ahead of its time, in design, direction, writing and music — the movie outpaces American comedies about Succeeding in Business, recognizing that the tyranny of commercial media trashes the quality of life itself. Arrow’s Blu-ray has the informed and insightful extras that ask the important question: how can one movie get its complicated subject so completely right?. On Blu-ray from Arrow Video.
05/25/21

The Woman One Longs For 05/22/21

Meet Marlene Dietrich, before Josef von Sternberg and The Blue Angel: much of her mystique is already present. This sophisticated German silent observes a precarious, dangerous love triangle. Two men are entranced by the same woman: one deserts his bride on their wedding night and the other may have killed to possess her. Neither seems to get what he wants, yet Dietrich’s ‘woman one longs for’ is not a scheming femme fatale … maybe. The fluid, very modern direction of Curtis Bernhardt will be a revelation — this obscure Marlene Dietrich starrer is a superior piece of filmcraft. On Blu-ray from Kino Classics.
05/22/21

It Happened Tomorrow 05/22/21

Reporter Dick Powell comes into daily possession of tomorrow’s newspapers, a fantastic premise that leads mostly to trouble with the law, when he can’t explain why he knows about crimes before they’re committed, etc. It also doesn’t help that his girlfriend Linda Darnell assists in a clairvoyant’s act. Director René Clair gives this film blanc the needed light touch, aided by great supporting work from the likes of Jack Oakie, Edgar Kennedy and Edward Brophy. Charlie Largent offers an enthusiastic review of this smart restoration. On Blu-ray from Cohen Film Collection/Kino.
05/22/21

The Producers 05/18/21

Accept no substitutes!  Reviewer Charlie Largent dares approach the tasteless comedy about utter tastelessness, which is probably more ‘problematic’ (that word is problematic) in 2021 than it was in 1968 … when it was the height of hilarity. Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder show farceurs how it’s done, in a hail of Jewish jokes, gay jokes, Nazi jokes, Hitler jokes, bimbo secretary jokes … is Mel Brooks made of teflon, or what?  Kino’s special edition is ‘oversubscribed’ with extras: okay Michael Schlesinger, we’re counting on YOUR commentary to say 10 original things about this landmark comedy. With Dick Shawn, Kenneth Mars, Estelle Winwood and several other fine actors not afraid of having their careers terminated by that cultural maniac Brooks. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
05/18/21

History is Made at Night 05/18/21

What a gem — ‘Unabashed, unfettered romanticism’ runs wild in Frank Borzage’s golden-age masterpiece of a runaway wife and the crazy Frenchman who pursues her. Long lost to awful, ragged 16mm prints, the newly restored gem will dazzle fans of delirious love stories, where the right people get together despite distance, time, and the interference of jealous husbands, misunderstandings, accusations of murder and natural disasters. All the above figure in this mini-epic, yet the movie never seems like a genre mash-up. Jean Arthur skips the squeaky line deliveries, Charles Boyer drops the gloom act, Colin Clive is more frightening than in his horror movies and Leo Carillo steals the show with one of the most endearing characters of the 1930s. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
05/18/21

The Whistle at Eaton Falls 05/15/21

It’s another CineSavant Revival Screening Review of a show not presently available on disc: not an old favorite, but something we admittedly never heard of… a marvelous 1951 film that’s seemingly been hiding under the carpet for sixty years, despite being directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Lloyd Bridges, Dorothy Gish, Carleton Carpenter, Murray Hamilton, Diana Douglas, Anne Francis, Ernest Borgnine and Arthur O’Connell. At first we fear it will be another angry midcentury indictment of free enterprise … but it becomes something else entirely. The unusual near- neorealist picture was filmed on location in a New Hampshire mill town; it is newly restored and hopefully destined for Blu-ray soon. CineSavant has the full story of its restoration. Not on Home Video.
05/15/21

Escape from Fort Bravo 05/15/21

John Sturges’ first color western is a tightly organized and unpretentious winner about a stern Union prison warden and a Confederate prisoner teaming up to fight an Apache enemy … wait, that sounds familiar. William Holden and Eleanor Parker strike sparks out on the ruddy mesas, while Sturges has a field day with the amazing Death Valley scenery and a highly original action scene. ‘Realistic escapism?’ It’s like a formula for future action cinema. And the ads didn’t let us forget: it all looks sensational in glowing ‘Ansco Color.’ With John Forsyth, William Demarest, William Campbell and Polly Bergen; on Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
05/15/21

The Blue Lamp 05/11/21

It’s the granddaddy of British cop dramas of the modern era. The most popular English picture of 1950 introduced PC George Dixon, a warm-hearted constable who would become a staple on BBC TV for 21 years. T.E.B. Clarke’s screenplay of a murder manhunt is stocked with actors American fans know well — Dirk Bogarde, Bernard Lee — and some we should know better — Jack Warner, Robert Flemyng, Dora Bryan. The show was made by the top craftsmen of Ealing Studios, and its fast pace and Brit sensibility will definitely impress. And remember — the Bobbies on the beat don’t even carry guns. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
05/11/21

Nightmare Alley 05/11/21

One of the most glamorous / unsavory films noir ever, this creepy tale of a master con-man undone by warped ambition was planned as a career-altering role for the big star Tyrone Power. Power plumbs the depths of personal degradation in terms that even today skew to the squeamish side of human experience. Almost as fascinating are the women Power uses, arrayed in dynamic contrast by Coleen Gray, Joan Blondell and Helen Walker. Yes, this is the movie about ‘The Geek’… Hollywood hadn’t been this intimate with the seamy underside of carnival life since Tod Browning’s Freaks. The disc extras include top contributions from James Ursini and Alain Silver, Imogen Sara Smith and even Coleen Gray. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
05/11/21

Donnie Darko 4K 05/11/21

The 4K Ultra HD crowd has a treat in store, for Donnie Boy is back for theatrical quality home screenings. Richard Kelly’s dreamy/morbid teen fantasy has gained in stature in the twenty years (gasp) since the nasty bunny-man ‘Frank’ raised his ugly chrome head… and young Donald’s psychic sci-fi ordeal seems more relevant than ever. Arrow’s 4K-only release shows the label once again proving its mettle in the hard media video biz, with full-res encodings of both the theatrical and director’s extended cuts. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Patrick Swayze, Holmes Osborne, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Noah Wyle, Drew Barrymore, Katharine Ross. On 4K Ultra HDfrom Arrow Video.
05/11/21

Smile 05/08/21

Near the pinnacle of director-driven ’70s cinema is this marvelous comedy about an ‘American Miss’ contest, and the swirl of personalities that come to support, promote and ogle the teen beauties just learning the ropes of the good old U.S. hype machine. Bruce Dern, Barbara Feldon and Michael Kidd are just wonderful as the adults in charge of the pageantry; Annette O’Toole, Joan Prather and Melanie Griffifth are among the hopefuls, learning an early lesson in a time honored, entirely bogus Americana ritual: as Michael Kidd says, he teaches these sweet kids to dance and behave like Vegas showgirls. It’s deceptively, distractingly funny — and as true as the day is long. With Eric Shea, Geoffrey Lewis and Nicholas Pryor. On Blu-ray from Fun City Editions.
05/08/21

They Won’t Believe Me 05/08/21

The Warner Archive’s latest major restoration premiere restores a full 15 minutes of scenes to this classic-era domestic film noir about the havoc wreaked by a lousy husband on three unfortunate women. There’s no accounting for love, and the lesson taught by the cad Robert Young carries a murderous sting. All that Susan Hayward, Rita Johnson and Jane (swoon) Greer need to explain to me, is what they saw in Robert Young in the first place. It’s top-flight RKO noir, beautifully remastered; CineSavant spells out exactly which scenes are newly restored. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
05/08/21

The Dungeon of Andy Milligan Collection 05/04/21

Fearless Charlie Largent pries back the dungeon doors to give a full report on yet another exhaustive Severin box o’ gore devoted to a horror filmmaker on the margins of cinematic validity. More squeamish than Al Adamson!  More appalling than William Grefe!  Meet the man who showed 42nd Street grindhouses a new bottom below the bottom of the barrel!  Charlie took the time to sort out the fourteen features and innumerable extras on the eight Blu-rays in the box, with titles like The Ghastly Ones, Bloodthirsty Butchers, Fleshpot on 42nd Street and that nostalgic tearjerker The Rats are Coming! The Werewolves are Here!   I tell you, even the face pictured on the box top looks like the work of a police artist, drawn from the memories of Milligan’s victims!  On Blu-ray from Severin Films.
05/04/21

Columbia Noir #3 05/04/21

Witness six noir heroes, doing what noir heroes do: one crooked gambler, one psycho, another psycho with access to a gun, a dope railroaded into a prison sentence, and an even bigger dope who doesn’t realize he’s poisoning himself. That’s only five, but the sixth is a cop, and not a particularly compromised one, the way we like ’em in noir. Johnny O’Clock, The Dark Past, Convicted, Between Midnight and Dawn, The Sniper and City of Fear can boast name directors, beautiful HD transfers and some fascinating short subjects as extras. With Dick Powell, Nina Foch, William Holden, Edmond O’Brien, Glenn Ford, Broderick Crawford, Marie Windsor, and Vince Edwards; on Region B Blu-ray from Powerhouse Indicator.
05/04/21

The Night of the Following Day 05/01/21

Hubert Cornfield’s smoothly directed, moody kidnapping story is mysterious, engaging and well acted, but opts for an anti-thriller vibe with a curiously unsatisfying ending. Was this really the plan, or did the irksomely capricious Marlon Brando just not want to cooperate with the director?   Brando is terrific anyway (and in great shape, too). The well-cast Rita Moreno, Richard Boone and Pamela Franklin are short-changed by directorial and editorial decisions that don’t give us enough of a purchase on the characters. The overcast weather on the French coast is a plus, but not the director’s choice of a downbeat, arty finish. On Blu-rayfrom KL Studio Classics.
05/01/21

Broadway Melody of 1940 05/01/21

For his first teaming sans Ginger, Fred Astaire hot-foots it to MGM and the waiting tap & sweep partner Eleanor Powell, already a terrific box office draw in her own right. These were the days when the caliber of talent in Hollywood justified the exalted, glamorous aura of star status. The story is a backstage mixup with sidebar singing and joke acts, decent dialogue and not much else. But when these two alight on a dance floor — not just ‘a’ dance floor but an enormous expanse of glittering glass — Hollywood hits a too-glamorous-to-be-real peak. The music by Cole Porter includes Begin the Beguine. Just-okay George Murphy is the third wheel on this musical bicycle, with Frank Morgan serving as fuddy-duddy comic relief. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
05/01/21