Glenn Erickson's Reviews: Month: February 2024

Contagion 4K 02/27/24

If any motion picture can still be called important, this one qualifies. Scott Z. Burns and Steve Soderburgh’s superb ‘extrapolated’ pandemic thriller imagines a virus that spreads like wildfire and kills in 48 hours. Well-cast stars fill a variety of crucial roles: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Marion Cotilliard, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle and Elliott Gould. The parallels to the world’s recent experience are jarringly accurate: why the &$@#%! can’t we learn from our mistakes?  This one may make you very nervous … and rightly so. Now out in 4K Ultra HD + Digital from Warner Bros..
02/27/24

Cause for Alarm! 02/27/24

It’s a micro-scaled domestic noir: Loretta Young’s frantic housewife is tormented by a deranged husband, an invalid gone paranoid and determined to frame her for murder. Tay Garnett directs to spotlight Young’s increasing distress, with Barry Sullivan providing the psychotic menace. As a ‘woman alone’ picture it’s not bad — in Young’s frenzied state, even the neighborhood mailman seems to be against her. All she wanted was babies and a little garden! On Blu-ray from ClassicFlix.
02/27/24

The Roaring Twenties 4K 02/24/24

It’s all about James Cagney — his every expression commands our attention. Writer Mark Hellinger recaps a decade of gangster tropes in a Cliff’s Notes tour through the underworld racketeering of the Prohibition years. The message is that Crime Does Not Pay, yet audiences love Cagney’s reluctant mobster, carefully adjusted to sidestep Production Code no-nos. Frank McHugh is once again the happy sidekick and Humphrey Bogart a rat, but the film’s heart belongs with the unsung Gladys George. Director Raoul Walsh finds the poetry in a Big Shot’s downfall: it’s both sentimental and spectacular in 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
02/24/24

Blood on the Sun 02/24/24

Now it can be told — even if it’s total fiction!  James Cagney takes his rough & tumble ways to Tokyo to scoop the existence of a world domination conspiracy 11 years before Pearl Harbor!  It’s The Front Page meets Yojimbo circa 1945, except that Cagney’s scenarists have Tokyo militarists behaving like Chicago mobsters. Yes, most of the villains are played by Hollywood actors in yellowface makeup. A staple of old-time TV broadcasts, this independent production looks good in a new HD remaster, and vintage Cagney never disappoints. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
02/24/24

Afire 02/20/24

Aka Roter Himmel.  Christian Petzold’s movie wields a big impact on a deceptively modest scale. The problems of a young man sharing a summer house form a self-contained meditation on How To Live. Thomas Schubert’s Leon is an insufferable jerk who can’t understand why he feels so alienated from others. One of his tolerant housemates is Nadja (Paula Beer), the kind of bright, positively-oriented person who can change one’s life … if one isn’t so stubbornly self-obsessed. Trouble is coming, in a fiery form. Can Leon be redeemed?  This one grabbed us and didn’t let go. On Blu-ray from Janus Contemporaries.
02/20/24

Burn, Witch, Burn 02/20/24

We’re re-posting this review from 2015, because its original pre-CineSavant host page has been taken down . . . . What is worse, a demon from hell or academic politics?  One destroys your soul with unimaginable horror, and the other involves the supernatural. A duel of diabolists is underway at a small English college: Janet Blair’s spell-casting faculty wife employs charms and tokens to promote her reluctant professor husband, Peter Wyngarde, but the battle becomes murderous. It isn’t all Pomp and Circumstance, just your average college competition for Tenure.  On Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.
02/20/24

Red Planet Mars 02/17/24

Faith-based madness!  This 1952 sci-fi thriller is not a space opera, but a talky propaganda sermon. Peter Graves and Andrea King exchange radio messages with God, who lives on Mars, and a Nazi madman is eavesdropping on them. The show predicts that a Christian revolution will destroy Godless Communism, and advocates the replacement of our Democracy with a Theocracy — a very real concern in the political chaos of 2024. And get set for an endorsement of Eisenhower for President — he’ll be the Reverend-In-Chief!  This time around we offer some hints about the content of the original Broadway play from 1932. On Blu-ray from MGM/Create Space (Amazon).
02/17/24

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral 4K 02/17/24

Big stars, big action and a big sky canvas give Hal Wallis’ super-western everything we love in vintage oaters. Burt Lancaster & Kirk Douglas compare testosterone levels, with Rhonda Fleming and Jo Van Fleet cheering from the sidelines. The fabled showdown gun-down is embellished with VistaVision, Technicolor, and a classic clippety-clop soundtrack by Dimitri Tiomkin, aided by Frankie Laine. It was director John Sturges’ biggest picture yet, and it looks sensational in 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
02/17/24

Gentleman Jim 02/13/24

This near-perfect Errol Flynn movie became a timeless classic the moment it hit television. The story of boxer Jim Corbett stands as a prime example of studio-based filmmking that knows what the audience likes. It’s so good we don’t mind the thick Irish humor, and we’re forced to shed a tear for Ward Bond, too. Flynn was never better, and his chemistry with Alexis Smith strikes real sparks, thanks to sharp dialogue by Horace McCoy and Vincent Lawrence. Some pretty fancy boxing footwork from Flynn, too. Raoul Walsh could be proud of this one. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
02/13/24

Blood Simple 02/13/24

Neo-noir really hit big in the Coen Bros’ breakthrough thriller, with a new kind of hardboiled rural naturalism. A lonely dive bar, a rotten marriage and a three-way murder & blackmail scheme criss-crosses a fistful of fresh characterizations. The festival independent launched the star career of Frances McDormand, but also did great things for Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh and the clever cameraman Barry Sonnenfeld. It’s quite an experience — it’s as if the Coens could rent a camera lens customized to give their film a ‘visual drawl.’ On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
02/13/24

The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians 02/10/24

What’s the Czech word for eccentric?  Oldrich Lipský’s comic fantasy ribs 1890s thriller conventions in a story that combines gothic romance, sci-fi marvels and serial thrills. Welcome to the weird world of Czech filmmakers, and their affection for silly characters, low comedy and operatic delirium. We aren’t surprised that it was never imported . . . descriptions don’t suffice. Fans of Czech cinema magic will be hooked at the mention of the film’s special designer: Jan Svankmajer. On Blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile.
02/10/24

The Russians are Coming the Russians are Coming 02/10/24

Alan Arkin and John Philip Law are lovable Russkies in this Cold War satire that goes heavy on the slapstick & sentiment. Reviewer Charlie Largent weighs in on the feel-good liberal vibe from writers William Rose and Norman Jewison, in yet another hit from Walter Mirisch. Let’s not forget editor Hal Ashby, either. The stellar cast has memorable roles for Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters and Theodore Bikel. If only ideological harmony was this easily won. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
02/10/24

He Walked by Night 02/06/24

The little studio Eagle-Lion Films was at the forefront of noir violence in 1948, skating on the edge to tell the story of a particularly vicious real-life bandit. Richard Basehart excels as the trigger-happy psycho killer whose antisocial estrangement evokes an eerie noir vibe of existential amorality. The filmic approach pioneers the semi-docu style that would dominate noir in its final decade, but expressionist touches persist, through the fine cinematography of John Alton. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
02/06/24

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot 4K 02/06/24

Michael Cimino must have impressed Clint Eastwood — the screenplay for this tough guy crime caper was so good, Eastwood didn’t mind interrupting his progress as a director. Also great fun for Jeff Bridges fans, the show is writer-director Cimino’s least problematic picture — its only aim is non-stop action and agreeably vulgar comedy. And does it look good!  All that Montana scenery is dazzling in the upgrade to 4K. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
02/06/24

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio 4K 02/03/24

The story of the wooden toy puppet that comes to life is given a new spin in stop-motion animation, and a new interpretation as an anti-Fascist parable in GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO, an Oscar winner for best animated feature and a visual-musical delight. Co-director Mark Gustafson heads up the animation and effects team that puts Pinoochio in conflict with Il Duce’s soul-crushing blackshirts. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
02/03/24

Conan the Barbarian 4K 02/03/24

We kids ogled the ’60s pocketbook covers that promised forbidden adult content, but a full-blown sword & sorcery Conan film adaptation wouldn’t come along for twenty years. Dino De Laurentiis’ second stab at a Star Wars– style franchise hit paydirt: body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger became a bona fide star as the Cimmerian swordsman, ‘fleshing out’ John Milius & Oliver Stone’s adolescent fantasies of sex and violence. Designs by Ron Cobb and music by Basil Poledouris are a major asset. Arrow goes to town on this 4K special edition. On 4K Ultra HD from Arrow Video.
02/03/24