Glenn Erickson's Reviews: Month: July 2026

The War Game   — 4K UHD 07/28/26

Severin Slays with disc virtuosity … by reaching into the BBC archives for a 4K remaster of Peter Watkins’ searing ‘documentary’ of nuclear war in England’s County Kent. With minimal resources and maximum creativity, Watkins’ atomic horrorshow was deemed excellent yet was banned from the airwaves, starting a censorship controversy that still hasn’t cooled down. If anything, the new extras’ input seems to tilt away from championing Watkins’ defiant stand for free speech in the U.K. A super disc all around. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Severin Films.
07/28/26

The Seventh Cross 07/28/26

For his third feature film Fred Zinnemann scored big with a grim story of Nazi terror that finally took note of the Concentration Camps, if not the full immensity of their horror. Spencer Tracy’s everyman fugitive one of seven escapees, and the people he meets and things he sees would send any war industry worker back to the assembly line determined to work harder. The movie is artful, even elegant, and it doesn’t trivialize its subject. The ensemble cast includes Signe Hasso, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Agnes Moorehead, Herbert Rudley, George Macready and Kaaren Verne. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
07/28/26

Abandon Ship   — 4K UHD 07/25/26

Sony surprises us with another fine 4K upgrade for an unheralded classic in the Columbia library. It’s a shipwreck survival tale that challenges ship’s officer Tyrone Power with a series of impossible decisions. The most important is a heartbreaker: everyone will drown if the 9-person lifeboat continues to carry the 26 people presently clinging to it. To save as many as possible — to save anybody — logic dictates that some must be thrown overboard. What is a responsible ship’s officer to do?  Mai Zetterling, Lloyd Nolan, Stephen Boyd, and Moira Lister lead the ensemble of souls at sea in this surprisingly uncompromised thriller. On 4K Ultra HD + Digital from Sony Home Entertainment.
07/25/26

A Man Named Rocca 07/25/26

This early starring feature for Jean-Paul Belmondo co-stars him with Christine Kaufmann in an episodic crime tale. One friend tries to spring another from prison, while contending with gangsters on his home turf. It’s uneven but has many excellent scenes, especially a midsection filmed in le taule. Also starring Michel Constantine and Béatrice Altariba, and presented in a flawless new restoration. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
07/25/26

Oh! What a Lovely War  — Import 07/21/26

Pacifism goes Panavision and color in Richard Attenborough’s first directorial effort, a musical epic of the tragedy of World War One. The mirth and magic — and despair — comes from songs sung in the trenches, that were given alternate, irreverent lyrics by the soldiers themselves. An endless cast of English stars appear, in good roles; the highlight is Maggie Smith’s rousing music hall performance — luring young civilians to ‘take the King’s shilling’ and become one casualty statistic among millions. The movie nullifes a lot of patriotic illusions, and it looks great, newly remastered in HD. On Region B Blu-ray from Eureka! Masters of Cinema.
07/21/26

Walk a Tightrope 07/21/26

Dan Duryea’s slimy killer fesses up to a cold-blooded killing, but insists that the victim’s wife Patricia Owens hired him to do it!  This cheap English production is only fitfully competent but we were fascinated anyway … it provides more context to the story of a big film producer run out of Hollywood by the labor Guilds. The miracle is that the great Dan Duryea comes out of the show with his head held high … even though so little of what happens makes sense. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
07/21/26

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad   — 4K UHD 07/18/26

Harryhausen comes at last to 4K Ultra HD!  We hoped that the improved scan would bring out more to see in the master animator’s brightest film, and our initial response is a big Yes. The video remastering people at Sony have done a good job, taking advantage of the newer format’s improvements while retaining the old Technicolor look. That Cyclops is no longer the same dull orange — he jumps out at us even more. The 4K disc is great, but the included Blu-ray is going to disappoint purchasers … On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital from Sony.
07/18/26

Red Sun   — 4K UHD 07/18/26

The creative part of this international genre hybrid was assembling its dynamite all-star cast. The concept is unbeatable: what kid doesn’t want to see Toshiro Mifune as a samurai, fighting to redeem his honor in the Old West?  He tangles with outlaws Charles Bronson and Alain Delon, with Honeychile Ryder Ursula Andress thrown in for good measure. It’s almost perfect: all it needed was a good script. Arrow’s punchy 4K remaster improves the color over earlier discs, adding considerable spirit to the proceedings. On 4K Ultra HD from Arrow Video.
07/18/26

Stavisky 07/14/26

Alain Resnais’ historical drama of the notorious l’affaire Stavisky is one of his most accessible movies. Producer-star Jean-Paul Belmondo was fascinated by the story of a swindler who conned half of France in the early 1930s, igniting a scandal that almost brought down the government. His Serge Stavisky projects the charisma of a grand conman, Anny Duperey is his fashion plate muse, and Charles Boyer is the good friend who never realizes the depth of Stavisky’s betrayal. Renais concentrates on beautiful period recreations of a long-gone past. With excellent extras that illuminate the between-the-wars French political context. On Blu-ray from Powerhouse Indicator.
07/14/26

Pretty Maids all in a Row 07/14/26

The movie ratings system experienced a rough beginning. Studios got the notion that America wanted R-rated product, which led to which led to a number of mainstream movies that played like grindhouse smut. A main offender example is Roger Vadim’s unfunny soft-core murder comedy with big stars Rock Hudson and Angie Dickinson. With its twisted fantasy of underaged sex, the witless mess gives ‘the Freedom of the Screen’ a bad name. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
07/14/26

Letty Lynton 07/11/26

This Blu-ray re-premieres a notable Joan Crawford picture that’s been all but unseeable since 1936. It’s romance and murder the way the Rich do it: Crawford’s swank socialite falls in love with the ideal mate played by Robert Montgomery, but she can’t shake a foreign lover who would rather blow up a scandal than give her up. What else are little bottles of poison for?  Nils Asther is perfectly slimy as the Uruguayan louse; the dialogue gets thick and flowery but Clarence Brown’s direction is excellent, and Crawford is in control of her performance … too much in control?  How often do we get a ‘new’ picture by a golden-era movie star? On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
07/11/26

The Outfit 07/11/26

The best film of director John Flynn may be this unpretentious crime saga, a Richard Stark adaptation that makes no wrong moves across a hundred minutes of tense mob banditry. Robert Duvall is out of prison and looking to punish the syndicate. Aided by gunman Joe Don Baker and getaway driver Karen Black, he gets payback by following the time-honored Tony Camonte principle: Do It First, Do It Hard, and Keep on Doing It. Cinematic nostalgia provides added appeal … a gallery of supporting parts is cast with familiar faces from classic films noir: Marie Windsor!  Jane Greer! On Blu-ray from Arrow Video.
07/11/26

Deep Crimson  — 4K UHD 07/07/26

A big welcome to reviewer Terry Morgan, a critic who also writes for Trailers from Hell. Terry digs into modern Mexican horror with Arturo Ripstein’s colorfully murderous adaptation of the Lonely Hearts murder spree, transposed to rural Mexico in the late 1940s. Regina Orozco and Daniel Giménez Cacho are the loco de amor couple that express their undying devotion thru homicide. It’s the restored director’s cut, that clocks in 22 minutes longer than previous editions. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
07/07/26

Soylent Green   — 4K UHD 07/07/26

Richard Fleischer’s dystopian drama takes place in 2022, which makes it four years past its ‘sell by’ date. Is our world beginning to resemble Harry Harrison’s grim tale of overpopulation chaos?  Charlton Heston essays another tough-guy Sci-fi hero, a detective who’d rather be paid in scarce grocery items than money. In his final film role, the great Edward G Robinson strikes a painful sentimental note. The big twist ending of this futuristic Eco-horror became a cultural joke … but An Inconvenient Truth has confirmed that the joke is on us. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Arrow Films.
07/07/26

The Pornographers   — 4K 07/04/26

The Japanese New Wave strikes — in a challenging, entertaining art picture where all the perversity is in the characters’ heads. Shôhei Imamura’s unflinching view of low-level vice is a full menu of bad behavior — personal, social, legal — that makes us wonder if the problem is consumer society or human nature itself. The show comes on as a clinical exposé, but also a disturbing black comedy with a lot to say. We’re thankful for the excellent extras. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Radiance Films.
07/04/26

The Navy vs. the Night Monsters 07/04/26

Whoa … Red Flag Down. We’re so spoiled by improved transfers of Public Domain titles that we forget that poor quality PD releases are still with us. This Sci-fi thriller was never a winner and can’t claim a positive reputation, but that doesn’t stop us completists from wanting to take a look … The cast has Mamie Van Doren, Bobby Van, Billy Gray and monster plants, so there must be a little fun to be had. Beware this release, however — it’s worse than an inferior YouTube copy. On Blu-ray from Leomark/Shoreline.
07/04/26