Glenn Erickson's Reviews: Month: August 2023

Borsalino 08/29/23

Jacques Deray’s Yankee-style Buddy picture was a smash in France, with its stellar pairing of Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo The expensive epic a gangster picture suitable for James Cagney, but set in 1930 Marseille and stressing elaborate period costumes, automobiles and fancy décor. Our boys take turns admiring the attractive female stars, punching out bad guys and killing their way to underworld leadership … but always looking good in their sharp suits and luxury Hats— hence the borrowed name for the title. The movie stumbled here in the U.S. but its ‘cute’ musical theme was a hit. The special edition’s exhaustive extras tell the whole story. On Blu-rayfrom Arrow Video USA.
08/29/23

The Long Voyage Home 08/29/23

This 2016 restoration helps Eugene O’Neill’s seagoing story retake its place as one of John Ford’s most accomplished pictures. John Wayne stars as part of an ensemble — Ford’s direction and Gregg Toland’s cinematography are the stars. A crew of ordinary merchant seaman must sail into wartime waters. O’Neill provides the ironic character studies, and John Ford’s philosophical view of men at sea fills out the details. With no conventional romance, this melancholy thriller faced an uphill battle at the box office — O’Neill and Ford offer a more realistic representation of the sailors’ women in port. The cast is a full roster of Ford actors — Thomas Mitchell, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond, John Qualen — and a melancholy outsider, Ian Hunter. On Blu-ray from Viavision [Imprint].
08/29/23

After Hours 4K 08/26/23

Odysseus has nothing on lowly Paul Hackett, whose chance date takes him from his dull office routine into the nightmare land of SoHo after midnight. Trapped by an escalating series of weird denizens, he wanders a Forbidden no man’s land, a Kafka-captive of circumstance. Director Martin Scorsese is at his nervous, anxiety-generating best, aided by a wonderful cast doing their best work: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Teri Garr, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard, Linda Fiorentino. Reviewer Charlie Largent sings the show’s praises, now on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-rayfrom The Criterion Collection.
08/26/23

Blonde Ice 08/26/23

All hail the lowly output of Hollywood’s Poverty Row, where mediocrity ruled and good work was rarely rewarded. This potboiler about an avaricious blonde who slays ‘inconvenient’ suitors is memorable for its low-rent charm and rather vague performances — although glamorous leading lady Leslie Brooks is quite capable with both gun and knife. We celebrate this ‘Film Classics’ show but also Poverty Row wonders overall … movies that sometimes seem to play in another dimension. A terrific digital restoration revives this pot-boiler’s rather impressive cinematography. On Blu-ray from ClassicFlix.
08/26/23

Cimarron (1931) 08/22/23

“Terrific as all Creation!”  Wesley Ruggles’s film adaptation of Edna Ferber’s epic novel won the Oscar for Best Picture, helping to establish the RKO studio. Noble Richard Dix and beautiful Irene Dunne’s complex characters span 40 years of Oklahoma history — the oil wells arrive, the wild west fades, and Dix’s heroic Yancey Cravat never settles down. Things get patchy in the second half, but Ferber’s critique of racial prejudice and bigotry is retained. The film’s Oklahoma Land Rush was long considered the biggest action scene this side of the Ben-Hur chariot race. The digital restoration makes the show look and sound brand-new. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
08/22/23

To Live and Die in L.A. 4K 08/22/23

A William Friedkin fan favorite reaches 4K — the reputation of this thriller has risen over the years, along with the career of its cultured villain, Willem Dafoe. On the trail of a murderous counterfeiter, William Peterson’s elite Secret Service agent goes rogue, running wild and putting lives at risk. His callous use of informants make his New York predecessor Popeye Doyle look like a Boy Scout. Cameraman Robby Müller provides the stylish imagery. The deluxe edition collects most of the old extras, on a second Blu-ray disc. On 4K Ultra-HD + Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
08/22/23

The Puppetoon Movie Volume 3 08/19/23

George Pal’s magical stop-motion Puppetoons are back for a third go-round, and the word is that this volume’s selection of Technicolor short subjects is better, and better-looking, than ever. We grew up with these wood-and-paint wonders in B&W on TV, and their rediscovery adds another chapter to animation history. Reviewer Charlie Largent persuses the ‘new batch’ in this Limited Edition which includes an entry from Dr. Seuss, and the mind-bending Puppetoon in which Jasper battles the Screwball Army. Extras include Cel Animation cartoons in HD. The musical Puppetoons have performances by Peggy Lee, Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman. On Blu-ray from Puppetoon Productions.
08/19/23

Is Paris Burning? 08/19/23

They said ‘We’ll always have Paris,’ but for three weeks in 1944 the survival of the City of Light was in grave doubt. This gigantic all-star national epic didn’t please everyone yet will dazzle viewers willing to accept the city itself as the star. Working from a screenplay by two Americans, director René Clément shows how France took back its capital, and how a German general stalled, sidestepped and disobeyed Hitler’s orders to burn it to the ground. Over forty speaking parts are played by as many name actors; just as appealing is Maurice Jarre’s stirring, patriotic music score. Brennt Paris?!  Brennt Paris?! On Blu-ray from L Studio Classics.
08/19/23

Rio Bravo 4K 08/15/23

Everyone’s favorite gun-down & sing-along John Wayne western is also Howard Hawks’ cagy comeback in an industry that had left him behind. Hawks stitched together favorite ‘pieces’ of his 1940s hits and imposed the structure of an impromptu TV sitcom. Accompanying the box office powerhouse Wayne is a comedian-crooner still proving his worth as an actor, a hollow teen idol, and yet another sharp actress trying to embody the ideal ‘Hawks woman.’ This western is all about personality. It clicked with audiences big-time, and Hawks more or less re-made it again and again. Caution — there’s no backup Blu-ray version on board. On 4K Ultra HD + Digital Code from Warner Brothers.
08/15/23

Force of Evil 08/15/23

Abraham Polonsky’s ode to corruption in the American success story is one of film noir’s most artistic achievements as well as John Garfield’s best film. It’s realistic in tone, yet its dialogues are stylized almost to the level of poetry. A hotshot lawyer goes too far while lobbying for a ‘slightly illegal’ racket. Blinded by the prospect of making his first million, he ends up forced to question the entire system. Also starring Thomas Gomez, Beatrice Pearson and Marie Windsor, this is a Top Ten noir, no questions asked. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
08/15/23

The Ranown Westerns 4K 08/12/23

Five Films Directed by Budd Boetticher  “Pure western heaven” is the catchphrase for Budd Boetticher’s perfectly-scaled ruminations on ethics and actions in an imperfect wilderness. The five RANdolph-brOWN features here present Randolph Scott’s range rider as an icon of masculine nobility. The new 4K encodings transport home theaters to a lost era of horse-opera charm, with dramas that reward adult attention. And don’t forget, no cowboy star rides a horse better than Randy. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
08/12/23

The Anderson Tapes 08/12/23

Sidney Lumet directs his first on-location New York crime picture, giving the escapist heist thriller a taste of paranoid cinema to come. Released after ten years in stir, thief Sean Connery launches into an immediate raid on a swank 5th Avenue apartment building, not realizing that a Brave New Surveillance World is watching and recording everything he does. Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Ralph Meeker, Alan King and a young Christopher Walken shine in this three-ring-circus of mob politics, sly comedy and a daytime heist that’s both brilliant and absurd. So is the movie, with its prescient warning about the New Wave of extra-legal surveillance snooping. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
08/12/23

Unman, Wittering and Zigo 08/08/23

Those joyous School Days of intimidation, threats, and Murder!  The helpful extras on this new Blu release explain how this tale of cold-blooded malice in a British ‘public school’ ( = a private school with a steep tuition) is deeply rooted in UK culture. This film version brilliantly directed by John Mackenzie reflects a restrained, ‘civilized’ oppression in the school tradition — morally righteous and proper on the outside, chillingly cold and corrupt at the core. David Hemmings’ newbie teacher is on the job only a day when his ‘unruly’ students inform him of their murderous conspiracy, and expect him to cave in to their demands. It’s quality filmmaking, with an especially fine cast, for a grim thinkpiece that’s disturbingly defeatist in tone. On Blu-ray from Arrow Video.
08/08/23

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams 4K 08/08/23

As his career wound down Akira Kurosawa found new champions among Hollywood’s young ‘film student’ generation, several of whom helped him secure financing for important film projects. Warner Brothers backed this utterly personal film of poetic expression, containing several ‘short stories’ illustrated with fanciful visuals. Kurosawa’s ‘dreams’ include a mythical fable, a haunted tale of WW2, and a strange apocalyptic fantasy. The 4K Ultra HD encoding gives the entire project the appearance of an artist’s watercolor; Disc producer Elizabeth Pauker’s extras are highly informative. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
08/08/23

Roman Holiday 4K 08/08/23

William Wyler’s perennial charmer is 100% undiluted entertainment: Gregory Peck and the new star Audrey Hepburn share a Roman fairy tale that’s also a tourist’s dream. A runaway Princess takes in the town like a galavanting Cinderella, not realizing that she’s being set up for an image-damaging photojournalism exposé. The show is a hands-down joy and one of brightest hits of the 1950s. One surprise is that it was also finessed to make just the right political statement for the Cold War — even though it was written by ‘dangerous’ Dalton Trumbo, using a front. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Paramount Pictures.
08/08/23

Soundies The Ultimate Collection 08/05/23

‘Are they enhanced short subjects, or proto-music videos?’  The 1940s phenomenon of ‘Soundies’– musical juke boxes that played movies, too — captured a wide range of overlooked talent, including a lot of underexposed black performers. A fantastic job of film research by committed experts like curator Susan Delson is behind this impressive aggregation of rare performances caught on film. Reviewer Charlie Largent wades into the 200 shorts that encompass jazz, country-western, folk, and the boogie woogie roots of rock ‘n’ roll, all newly restored from 35mm and 16mm materials preserved by the Library of Congress and other archives. For music fans, it’s a full ten hours of undiluted joy. On Blu-rayfrom Kino Classics.
08/05/23

Helen of Troy 08/05/23

Robert Wise’s Italian-filmed epic looks better than ever on Blu, showcasing a fine cast and imaginative special effects. It’s a straight telling of Homer’s The Iliad with just a drop of Cold War attitude — this time the Greeks are the unreasonable aggressors. Neither Rossana Podestà nor Jacques Sernas excited the critics of ’56, but we can appreciate the high-powered cast, which includes Stanley Baker, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nora Swinburne, Janette Scott and especially Niall MacGinnis, who all but steals the show as the cuckolded King of Sparta. It’s an intelligent pageant — the Achilles-Hector duel is a highlight, and the famed Trojan Horse quite a spectacle. And for the curious, a young Brigitte Bardot is present and accounted for, perky and pouty. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
08/05/23

Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round 08/01/23

James Coburn’s starring film career began with projects he deemed ‘far-out’ — and writer-director Bernard Girard promptly hooked him on this eccentric thriller about an infallibly seductive con-man. It’s a low-key, non-violent puzzle picture about a perfect heist, and also a guessing game that skips from San Francisco to Denver to Boston to Los Angeles, all the while hiding an ironic narrative sting in its tail. Will Coburn’s brand of Cool prevail? The supporting cast mostly stays out of the way: Camilla Sparv, Aldo Ray, Nina Wayne, Robert Webber, Todd Armstrong, Michael Strong, Severn Darden — and even Rose Marie. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
08/01/23

East of Eden 4K 08/01/23

Elia Kazan hits 4K with an extras-lean but visually stunning edition of this early CinemaScope feature, now rated ‘PG.’ It’s James Dean’s first and best starring role, and with Kazan in charge the actors push the ‘drama’ accelerator to the floor. It still holds up, with top-billed Julie Harris doing everything Dean does, but effortlessly and with no strings showing. Raymond Massey, Richard Davalos, Burl Ives and Albert Dekker are 100% solid. The great Jo Van Fleet is even moreso — she takes control of any film in which she appears. The classic adapts only a few chapters of John Steinbeck’s massive novel for an emotionally satisfying experience. On 4K Ultra HD + Digital Code from WB.
08/01/23