Glenn Erickson's Reviews: Month: February 2025

Joan Crawford: Toxic Times Two 02/25/25

She said she preferred to play ‘bad’ women because they were more interesting than virtuous characters, but it’s tempting to speculate that Joan Crawford, the ultimate Hollywood survivor, was expressing her own conflicted personality. With the help of two trusted directors, one her lover, Crawford ruled the roost in a pair of indictments of American womanhood turned vicious, Harriet Craig and Queen Bee. Or, as Powerhouse Indicators’ essayists suggest, did these stories just highlight the anxieties of women in a patriarchal social system?  Each heroine is a prosperous homemaker-turned-control freak, tormenting their husbands and wrecking lives left and right. But Harriet and Eva really know how to dress, so what’s the big problem? On Blu-ray from Powerhouse Indicator.
02/25/25

Blood and Lace 02/25/25

It’s bloody havoc at the orphange … the deadly Mrs. Deere presides over horrible mutilations by a scarred maniac, visited on the likes of Melody Patterson, Milton Selzer, and a young Dennis Christopher. Reviewer Charlie Largent confirms that “Terror Strikes AGAIN and AGAIN!” — The big star is Gloria Grahame, who expects her charges to overlook a few random hammer murders, with bodies stashed away in a freezer. Oh yes, a meat cleaver is involved as well. That’s what you get when the state will pay only $2 a day for warehousing orfinks. On Blu-ray from Kino Cult.
02/25/25

The Cat  — Die Katze 02/22/25

Düsseldorf is ground zero for a superior Deutscher Kriminalfilm that never made it to the U.S.. Heist mastermind Götz George guides a bank hostage standoff from afar, stage-managing the details of an amorous inside job. Director Dominik Graf winds up the tension for this precise ‘puzzle-crime:’  Only ‘The Cat’ knows the full plan, and he’s the one who must scramble to improvise when the cops change their tactics.  Excellent extras tap the director, the screenwriter and the producer. On Region A+B Blu-ray from Radiance.
02/22/25

The Conqueror 02/22/25

This Golden Turkey embarrassment is far too entertaining to be dismissed as a mere Bad Movie — Howard Hughes’ ode to Mongol barbarians does have perhaps the worst-cast star role of all time, and every third dialogue line is fall-down hilarious, but it’s great fun. John Wayne, Susan Hayward and Pedro Armendariz give it their best. So do a dozen tough guys from westerns and war films, outfitted in the weirdest costumes imaginable. The joke’s not on any of them — we applaud their commitment. Dick Powell’s second units whip up fine action sequences, churning up that red Utah dust — that was lethally radioactive. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
02/22/25

Performance  — 4K 02/18/25

Donald Cammell’s collision of gangster brutality and drug-soaked decadence steps up to 4K clarity. Excellent extras properly credit the writer-director, whose name is sometimes omitted in favor of co-director Nicolas Roeg. Mick Jagger’s first dramatic role is as a recluse who interrupts his drugs ‘n’ sex lifestyle to shelter a mobster on the run; James Fox is excellent as the sadistic thug in hiding. A psychological transformation takes place when two personalities begin to merge. Also starring Anita Pallenberg and Johnny Shannon. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
02/18/25

Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles 02/18/25

The Complete Series  Reviewer Charlie Largent takes on Hanna-Barbera’s catch-all cartoon subject goulash: monsters, superheroes and rock music. Kid genius Buzz Conroy fights crime with his super robot Frankenstein Jr.; and ‘The Impossibles’ is a rock group composed of super-freaks with weird superpowers — ‘Coil Man,”Fluid Man,’ etc. It’s the whole show, 18 half-hour episodes on two discs with an extra animated short subject thrown in for good measure. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
02/18/25

Fade-In 02/15/25

This movie sat on a shelf for 5 years, and was shown on TV only when Burt Reynolds became a big star. A romance heats up on a movie location in Utah, between a local guy and an assistant editor. It’s a ’70s ‘new Hollywood’ slice-of-life character study, but 5 years too early … and relying too much on ‘pretty’ travelogue shots. But the young Reynolds is excellent, and it’s a rare opportunity to see a very special actress, Barbara Loden, in a well-intentioned film role. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
02/15/25

Cronos — 4K 02/15/25

Guillermo Del Toro’s first feature is a mini-masterpiece that revitalized the Mexican fantastic film. Inventing his own macabre horror concept, Del Toro envisions a bizzare fountain of youth with an unforseen side effect that’s akin to vampirism without supernatural powers. Federico Luppi, Ron Perlman and Claudio Brook star in a beautifully designed and directed scare show. Extra treats include a brilliant del Toro short film, and a tour of his eye-opening ‘Bleak House.’ On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
02/15/25

Yojimbo + Sanjuro — 4K 02/11/25

Kurosawa’s witty samurai classics are back, in 4K Ultra HD. The master of cinema greeted the 1960s with American pulp cynicism in Japanese period costume, creating what was essentially a Japanese western. Toshirô Mifune is a riot as an amoral sword for hire in Yojimbo, promoting a turf war for fun and profit. In the sequel Sanjuro he shows a touch more moral fiber. Never one to be outshone, Kurosawa gives the movies a sense of humor as well as occasional shocks — nobody forgets the second film’s surprise conclusion. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
02/11/25

Invasion of the Bee Girls 02/11/25

Is it exploitative junk or a radical feminist manifesto?  Or just an out-of-control genre mashup between Sci-fi and a skin flick?  It’s Denis Sanders’ final feature and Nicholas Meyer’s first script, but the real auteur may be the producer who put voyeurism above all other concerns. Scores of males in Peckham are dying in the act of sex … are those weird entomology experiments involved?  Could Bee…  William Smith, Victoria Vetri and Anitra Ford don’t know whether to Bee or not to Bee. Okay I’ll stop. On Blu-ray from Kino Cult.
02/11/25

Gabriel Over the White House 02/08/25

With the economy in collapse and millions out of work during the Great Depression, a few Hollywood thrillers proposed radical political changes. William Randolph Hearst was the impetus behind this bizarre tale of a President ‘possessed by an Angel’ who assumes dictatorial powers. The Cabinet and Congress are pushed aside, labor camps are set up for the unemployed, and the crime problem is easily solved: gangsters are summarily executed by an extra-legal court. Foreign nations are promised violence if our demands aren’t met. Walter Huston, Karen Morley and Franchot Tone star in this polished fantasy of political delirium. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
02/08/25

Film Noir the Dark Side of Cinema XXIII 02/08/25

Kino keeps finding noir thrillers for its Dark Side series; classic-era stars decorate collection Number 23. Paul Henreid tortures Burt Lancaster for diamond secrets in Rope of Sand, witnessed by Claude Rains, Peter Lorre and sultry Corinne Calvet. Ruthless crook James Cagney woos Helena Carter and foolishly doublecrosses Barbara Payton in Horace McCoy’s Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye. And John Drew Barrymore and Steve McQueen grow up on opposite sides of the law in Harold Robbins’ gangster meller Never Love a Stranger. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
02/08/25

Il posto + I fidanzati 02/04/25

Italian neo-realism and humanitarian sentiment meet in writer-director Ermanno Olmi, whose docudrama style wins over all that see it. In Il posto (The Job) a meek Milano goes through the humiliating process of applying for a career as a civil servant; in I fidanzati (The Betrothed) we witness the long-distance suffering of a young engineer relocated to Sicily for months, while his fianceé worries back home. The prolific, energetic Olmi has a knack for recording a living reality, reflected in Radiance’s excellent extras for this double-bill release. On Blu-ray from Radiance.
02/04/25

Alice, Sweet Alice — 4K 02/04/25

It’s the notorious slasher horror noted for ‘starring’ Brooke Shields … although she exits the picture very quickly. New York filmmaker Alfred Sole turns in one of the better psychodrama efforts of the 1970s, a bloody murder tale in a Catholic context. Awful events on a First Communion day point suspicion toward a surviving daughter. The subject is Catholic guilt of all kinds, and neither the estranged father, a good priest or a dogged cop can detect the killer … who commits crimes disguised in a plastic mask and raincoat. It’s a new remaster in 4K Ultra HD. On 4K Ultra HD from Arrow USA.
02/04/25

The Spanish Main 02/01/25

The Warner Archive Collection comes through with a splendid restoration of this great pirate picture. Paul Henreid is a superb Dutch colonial-turned buccaneer, Maureen O’Hara devastating in Technicolor, and Walter Slezak a marvelous villain, given dialogue by Herman J. Mankiewicz. Errol Flynn may still be king but he’s also not missed; every frame of this dynamic winner pops in digitally-restored color. It’s great fun, well-directed by Frank Borzage, with Binnie Barnes, John Emery, Nancy Gates and Mike Mazurki. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
02/01/25

The Undead — CineSavant Revival House Review 02/01/25

Charlie Largent comes up with an exotic winner from 1957, a Roger Corman horror gem we haven’t reviewed because decent restored discs are unavailable. Charles B. Griffith concocted a macabre twist on the Bridey Murphy craze, that ‘regresses’ Pamela Duncan to the middle ages — where she finds herself condemned as a witch. Corman’s first supernatural horror item is a beatnik precursor of his later Poe pictures, minus Vincent Price but plus Allison Hayes, Bruno Ve Sota, Mel Welles and Billy Barty. All the speeches are weirdly stylized, and our host is Satan himself. C’mon, folks, free the American-International features being held hostage by rights holders!  Not on authorized Blu-ray.
02/01/25