Glenn Erickson's Reviews: Month: August 2025

7 Women 08/30/25

Now back in a dazzling remaster, John Ford’s final feature is a ‘problematic masterpiece.’ The director reaches back to the expressionist 1930s for a grim tale of a Christian mission outpost overrun by savage bandits. His cranky traditionalism in this case sides 100% with core feminist values, thanks to Anne Bancroft’s sterling performance as an outspoken, unapologetic doctor banished to a Chinese backwater. The daring, uncompromising result may not please religious zealots or minority advocates. It’s a must-see, both for Ford advocates and for fans of Bancroft. At present, there’s an appeal for a restoration of the film’s longer version. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
08/30/25

Out of the Clouds 08/30/25

Aviation buffs will see plenty to admire in Basil Dearden’s drama of events at London’s Heathrow Airport. The show comes off as a low-stress precursor to our Airport, back when the notion of routine air travel was a glamorous and romantic novelty. It also functions as an institutional advert for British aviation and good PR for the shrinking Empire. Film fans not impressed by the simple & sincere personalities depicted may be tickled by the score of actors we associate with Ealing comedies and Hammer horrors. Anthony Steele and Robert Beatty are tame male leads, but there’s plenty of charisma with James Robertson Justice, Eunice Gayson, Gordon Harker, Bernard Lee, Marie Lohr, Abraham Sofaer, Melissa Stribling, Sidney James, Megs Jenkins and Katie Johnson. On Blu-ray from Powerhouse Indicator.
08/30/25

Mr. Peabody & Sherman: The Complete Collection 08/26/25

You’ve got EVERY episode?  Strap yourself into the WABAC Machine, because a brainy dog and his human pal are going into the past. It’s Mr. Peabody’s Improbable History: 91 excursions into the 4th Dimension, to learn about old civilizations and important personages. It’s like Rocky & Bullwinkle, but educational, sort of. The whole kerfluffle is clumped together in one DVD set, reviewed with aplomb by dapper Charlie Largent. Some of the historical facts are correct, too!  Our favorite bit is the opening, a reverse on sentimental fluff for kids — an academically illustrious dog adopts an ordinary boy. On DVD from Universal.
08/27/25

Sense and Sensibility  — 4K 08/26/25

Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet shine as Jane Austen heroines that endeavor to maintain their composure while swooning over the highly eligible swains Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman. Please don’t tell us that nobody got along on this production, because the result seems all so pleasant. Emma Thompson’s adaptation could hardly be improved, and Ang Lee’s gentle direction is exemplary, and. This 1812 version of a modern pop romance still works because we can identify with Austen’s vivid characters; a terrific production doesn’t hurt either. On 4K Ultra HD + Digital from Sony.
08/27/25

The Cobweb 08/23/25

William Gibson’s multi-character soap about a psychiatric clinic has a severe case of Caligari Syndrome: the doctors need more counseling than do the patients. Richard Widmark leads an impressive cast (Lauren Bacall, Charles Boyer, Gloria Grahame, Lillian Gish, John Kerr, Susan Strasberg, Oscar Levant, Paul Stewart) as everybody goes crazy over various manias, staff rivalries, and the biggest issue of Our Times: who will choose the new curtains for the clinic library?   Director Vincente Minnelli keeps it all running smoothly enough, considering the psychic strain placed on the narrative line. It looks great, remastered in HD. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
08/23/25

Sands of the Kalahari 08/23/25

Cy Endfield’s intense African survival adventure purports to teach lessons about the Territorial Imperative and the easy slide to savagery when civilization is far away. Plane-wreck survivors in a remote African desert must fight the local baboon population for food and water. Stuart Whitman, Stanley Baker and Nigel Davenport are tempted by the female castaway, Susannah York. It’s certainly realistic, if too insistent in its thesis that humans are No Damn Good. But it will delight nihilistic survivalists. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
08/23/25

Sylvia Sidney pre-Code Classics 08/19/25

The early pre-Code era yields two star vehicles from the dawn of Sylvia Sidney’s long career. In Confessions of a Co-Ed her college girl falls for Phillips Holmes’ thoughtless student and gets herself ‘in a family way.’  In Ladies of the Big House she and her new husband Gene Raymond are framed by a gangster and a corrupt politician. She’s handed a life sentence while he lingers in the Death House. Also along for the ride are future director Norman Foster, Louise Beavers, Wynne Gibson, Jane Darwell and a singing Bing Crosby. Ms. Sidney will forever be the long-suffering Belle of the Depression … she can break hearts with a single close-up. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
08/19/25

Frantic  — Reissue 08/19/25

Another reissue disc that we wish were revived in an extras-laden 4K edition. Roman Polanski’s exceedingly rewarding thriller gives us Harrison Ford at his very best as an American doctor trying to recover his wife kidnapped at the outset of their Parisian getaway. Was the appeal more for middle-agers than kids?  Not funny enough?  Not ‘Indy’ enough?  If you skipped this one back in the day, you’ll now find it an intense, richly rewarding experience. The soundtrack is one of Ennio Morricone’s best of the 1980s. It’s on a double bill disc, with another Harrison Ford mystery drama. On Blu-ray from Warner Bros.
08/19/25

The Enchanted Cottage 08/16/25

Is it a Gothic fairy tale, a fantastic romance, or a backhanded comment about wounded war veterans?  Mutilated flier Robert Young and the ‘unacceptably plain’ (?) Dorothy McGuire find each other in a seaside love nest out of a Harlequin Novel, overcome their self-loathing, and experience a miracle. Why not?  The only witnesses are a blind composer (Herbert Marshall) and a maybe-witch (Mildred Natwick). Poor Hillary Brooke is the fianceé shown the door before you can say ‘Julie Andrews!’  It hasn’t dated well, but it’s still an exceptionally popular romantic fantasy. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
08/16/25

Bonjour Tristesse 08/16/25

Otto Preminger’s take on the Françoise Sagan’s novel finds the right tone despite the drawback of censorship limitations and Englanders and Americans playing French characters. CinemaScope and Technicolor on Saint-Tropez locations help, but the big plus is the radiant presence of Preminger’s discovery Jean Seberg as Sagan’s amoral heroine Cécile. David Niven is the father Cécile adores, and Deborah Kerr the romantic interloper that she can’t abide. We have to imagine the decadent details, yet the picture feels like something new, progressive. Music by Georges Auric; Juliette Gréco sings. On Region B Blu-ray from Powerhouse Indicator.
08/16/25

Hearts of Darkness  — 4K 08/12/25

One of the best-ever documentaries about the making of a movie returns in a fresh 4K restoration, with its feature film clips rendered in full widescreen resolution. New interviews and featurettes are provided by Francis Coppola, and the late Eleanor Coppola is represented with a new documentary piece and encodings of several of her short films. It’s a 3-disc set, and its two Blu-rays are Region B. On 4K Ultra-HD + Region B Blu-ray from Studiocanal.
08/12/25

The Wild Bunch  — reissue 08/12/25

No, it’s not a new disc. This is also not exactly a disc review, but Warner’s reissue allows us to write about Sam Peckinpah’s film for the first time in years. We’re happy to recount the film’s twisted release history, and its path on home video. The point of course, is to encourage Warner Bros. to undertake a new remaster, perhaps reinstating some additional trims here and there. The title is still Gold in the WB vault, and few commercial titles as good as this one are begging to make the jump to 4K. Very little in it dates — we even love cameraman Lucien Ballard’s liberal use of the zoom lens. This time Sam ‘did it right’ as he never quite did again. On Blu-ray from Warner Bros..
08/12/25

Sorcerer  — 4K 08/09/25

William Friedkin follows up on The Exorcist with a harrowing remake of The Wages of Fear that expands on the crimes that strand a cross-section of international outlaws in a jungle hellhole. The only path to survival is an mission transporting unstable nitroglycerin across an impossibly rugged landscape. Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal and Amidou are the thieves with nowhere to go; Friedkin drops romantic concerns to concentrate on the hair-raising jungle ordeal, all now boosted to 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray clarity, from The Criterion Collection.
08/09/25

Town without Pity 08/09/25

MGM’s in-house Blu-ray label is back with another worthy remaster: a Mirisch- supervised West German production that leads with a Gene Pitney smash hit single and gives Kirk Douglas another tough-guy attorney to play. A brutal gang rape in Germany puts four U.S. soldiers on trial; to save their lives, Kirk must demolish victim Christine Kaufman on the witness stand, with tragic results. E.G. Marshall and Barbara Rütting co-star; the slimeball defendants include Richard Jaeckel, Robert Blake, and Frank Sutton. Collectors take note: the Blu-ray disc is a correct widescreen, not 4×3 as noted by MGM and the websellers. On Blu-ray from MGM.
08/09/25

Strange Freedom  Arch Oboler Resurrected Part II 08/09/25

Matt Rovner’s thoroughly annotated academic history of the life and work of Arch Oboler continues. Part 2 covers Oboler’s trouble with conservative politics, before, during and after World War II, when the radio genius struggled to speak out about the Nazi menace. His radio show about a fascist takeover of the United States is bankrolled by General Motors as a movie version PSA starring Claude Rains, but then it is suppressed as well. Other correspondence reveals the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright chiding Oboler for being concerned about the world’s Jews. It’s key source research on a fascinating subject. A special CineSavant Article from Matt Rovner.
08/09/25

The Citadel 08/05/25

Once restored, old movies with ‘creaky’ reputations can yield surprising qualities, especially when the filmmaker is as earnest and creative as the great King Vidor. This English production sees the director engaged by the controversy of medical ethics. The approach may be emotional, but the film makes its points well. Robert Donat, Rosalind Russell and Ralph Richardson are excellent, aided by a battery of good support from Rex Harrison, Emlyn Williams, Francis L. Sullivan, Mary Clare, Cecil Parker, Edward Chapman, and Athene Seyler. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
08/05/25

Senso 08/05/25

Italian maestro Luchino Visconti set the ’50s high mark for epic period reconstruction and historical authenticity. Alida Valli and Farley Granger’s doomed affair plays against a backdrop of civil war in the 1865 il Risorgimento. This new restoration brings out the feel of original Technicolor prints. It includes the English-language version, with dialogue written by Tennessee Williams and Paul Bowles; a delightful extra is a half-hour discussion between director Visconti and opera star Maria Callas. On Region B Blu-ray from Radiance Films.
08/05/25

The Diabolik Trilogy 08/02/25

Italy’s anarchic master thief gets a Covid-era trilogy of films that hew fairly closely to stories from the original Giussani comic books: Diabolik,  Diabolik: Ginko Attacks!,  Diabolik: Who Am I?  It’s all very serious, literal and evenly paced, but can boast terrific art direction and a couple of intriguing characterizations. We’re impressed by the faithful adaptations — the producing-writing-directing Manetti brothers go out of their way not to look like modern attention-deficit overkill action fare. And they can’t be accused of copying Mario Bava. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
08/02/25

Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics   — Reissue 08/02/25

A Warners reissue puts the cream of American gangster epics within easy reach, and at a better price. Robinson, Cagney and Bogart each found stardom in crime, just before the Production Code banned the genre outright. The four-disc set tells the rags-to-riches-to-gutter tales of Cesare Rico Bandello, Tom Powers, Duke Mantee and Cody Jarrett. That quartet of thieves, thugs and killers caught the imagination of the American public — glamorizing the ‘flip side’ of the American Success Story. The high-def remasters are also restorations, which for the earliest pictures are true revelations. On Blu-ray from Warner Bros..
08/02/25