If I Had A Million 05/13/23

KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray

Paramount’s nutty omnibus movie has seven directors and a fistful of top stars: Gary Cooper, W.C. Fields, Charles Laughton, Wynne Gibson, Charlie Ruggles, George Raft, Jack Oakie and Frances Dee. A dying millionaire divides up his fortune between eight strangers, each of whom mishandles their windfall inheritance. Joe Mankiewicz wrote four episodes. Ernst Lubitsch directed the Laughton sequence, a nicely sustained item with a one-joke payoff. Fields and Alison Skipworth use their fortune to lay a trap for eight road-hog bad drivers. Allan Arkush joins Daniel Kramer on Kino’s commentary. It’s pre-Code mirth, reviewed by Charlie Largent on Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.

05/13/23

CineSavant Column

Saturday May 13, 2023

 

Hello!

Many thanks to correspondent Chuck Shillingford for this fun link . . . the Internet marketplace sometimes reminds me of the incredible toy shop windows when I was a kid, when it seemed like every store was a treasure trove of goodies.

Whattaya know, it’s pair of Mysterians, technically speaking a ‘Mysterian action figure’ and a ‘Mysterian Chief Commander,’ each six inches tall. The prices are steep enough for me to remain a window shopper, but they do look cute. When kids were little I got to take them to see the movie in a theater . . . My ten-year-old daughter took one look at the Mysterian space pirates and said the title should have been Attack of the Parakeet People.  I mean, what other reason do people need for having kids?

These pictures belong to a site called Amoktime which sells a variety of products. What amused us mostly is a page of Toho and Daiei- licensed items by BanDai:

Amoktime Godzilla Page

I note the page is actually an eclectic mess of items, some of which have access issues. The scroll continues quite a ways . . . A $60.00 Varan the Indigestible caught my eye, but of course when you read the small print, the desirable items say ‘not available in the U.S.’  Some listings also shy away from giving exact dimensions, or any clue at all as to scale. That is how I once ended up with a 4.5-inch model of Atragon, that could have been a prize in a box of corn flakes.

Actually, the Paul Blaisdell monster at the top of this CineSavant post is there too, if you peek at the Amoktime Sci-fi entry : It! The Terror from Beyond Space. The little toy even has Ray Corrigan’s big pink chin.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Tuesday May 9, 2023

 

Go Eli!  He’s an absolute psychotic, yet we’re rooting for him. Is that a first?

Notre-Dame de Paris 05/09/23

Not on Region A disc
CineSavant Revival Screening Review

Another CineSavant Revival Screening Review, or in other words, it’s not yet officially available for English-language viewers. This French The Hunchback of Notre Dame may not be the cinematic masterpiece that is RKO’s 1939 version, but it has a literate script, good production values, color and CinemaScope — and it doesn’t mar the Victor Hugo original with a false feel-good ending. Anthony Quinn’s Quasimodo is a legit interpretation, and the late Gina Lollobrigida is excellent as Esmerelda. We need this in Region A, with English subtitles. NOT on Region A Blu-ray.
05/09/23

CineSavant Column

Tuesday May 9, 2023

 

Hello!

More digressions into strange movie lore from advisor Gary Teetzel:

Herman Cohen’s 1961  Konga  has everything: the subtle, nuanced thespian stylings of Michael Gough; memorable dialogue; the miracle of Spectamation; a giant ape; killer flora.  Only one thing is missing: a song!  Musical sidebar padding often popped up in American-International Pictures of the era. More than a few horror movies just stopped cold to allow some ‘teenager’ to warble a forgettable ditty to be sold on 45’s at your local record store. Who could forget the toe-tapping  “You Gotta Have Ooo-Eee”  from How to Make a Monster, or the soulful  “Eeny Meeny Miney Moe”  from  I Was a Teenage Werewolf?

Konga  originally had just such a number, to be sung by the Jess Conrad character Bob Kenton. It’s a loving ode to Bob’s favorite sweater, and its tender lyrics enumerate the reasons why he wears it constantly in the movie. It’s colored baby blue, you know, like Bob’s eyes. Some people that have closely examined the photo above have been able to pick Bob out of the crowd. It’s because he projects that dynamic ‘James Dean’ quality.

Thanks, Gary.  Although cut from the film, the song was released on record. Listen if you dare:

Jess Conrad: Pullover

Not enough punishment for you?  Here are American-International’s dire rock’n’roll tie-in singles for
Horrors of the Black Museum  and  The Headless Ghost.  Dozens of film tie-in songs — some are pretty good — are linked back at an old CineSavant Column from February 16, 2019.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Saturday May 6, 2023

Asked for an audio bite, the generous Mr. Demme instead cooked up a 35mm gag scene for my ShoWest promo, making us look like heroes to Orion.

Never Say Die 05/06/23

KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray

Sounds like a James Bond title, doesn’t it?  Never heard of this one before, but it’s hilarious. Preston Sturges is one of the writers behind a romantic comedy adapted from a play — Bob Hope is a guy with only a month to live, who runs out on his engagement and gets involved with Martha Raye, a crazy Texas heiress. Screwball complications ensue, with a dream cast of clowns: Andy Devine, Alan Mowbray, Gale Sondergaard, Sig Ruman, Monty Wooley, Hans Conreid. And don’t forget the original word puzzle: “There’s a cross on the muzzle of the pistol with the bullet and a nick on the handle of the pistol with the blank.”  Reviewed by Charlie Largent, on Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
05/06/23

CineSavant Column

Saturday May 6, 2023

Hello . . .

Well, we’ve got welcome news. Scott MacQueen informs me that the Ignite disc release of Invaders from Mars has won big in the Rondo Awards, reaping both the BEST DISC and BEST RESTORATION prizes, and coming in second for BEST EXTRAS.

The competition was strong and worthy but we like the way this turned out … Invaders from Mars was a difficult and costly restoration job, and Ignite’s Jan Willem Jansen gave it the full push instead of settling for a compromise in quality. It was a case of personal commitment, and we hope that Mr. Jansen, Mr. MacQueen and all of their associates know we realize that. We’re the beneficiaries.

 


 

Next . . . more from the “Oh, There’s a Cryin’ Need for That!” Department.

Yes, more silliness from the feverish mind of consultant, advisor and dependable alibi-for-cash friend Gary Teetzel:

At last, the Godzilla collectible we’ve all been waiting for!  Just when you thought they couldn’t come up with anything new to slap a Godzilla sticker on, I present to you . . . . the official, licensed Godzilla hockey puck!

‘The Original G’ Limited Edition Hockey Puck.

This limited edition, official collaboration puck is a perfect addition to your growing Godzilla collection. An exclusive collectible made in limited numbers, each puck comes with its own protective case to keep it in perfect condition.  Better order today, as it’s a limited edition.  They make excellent furniture coasters, just buy four (no discount).

This is part of a ‘puckhcky’ line of Godzilla-themed hockey merchandise, because when you think of Godzilla you naturally think of winter sports. (Personally, I am eagerly awaiting an official Godzilla curling stone.) The full line of hockey streetwear featuring hockey jerseys, t-shirts, flannels, hoodies, hockey pucks, and more:

The Godzilla ‘Puck Hcky’ Collection.

Frankly, I think the hockey jersey looks good, just don’t know where I’d wear it. It’s too expensive to wear casually.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Tuesday May 2, 2023

Let’s shoot the feature in Havana. The new leader LIKES movie stars.

Deep Impact 4K 05/02/23

Paramount Home Video
4K Ultra HD + Blu Ray + Digital

🎶  “Have you heard . . . about the stars? . . . Ju-pi-ter could collide with Mars . . .”  🎶  A comet is on a collision course with Earth, a saga seen through a TV Network, the teenager who first discovered the astral threat, and the team of astronauts dispatched on a deep space mission to destroy it. The ‘humanist’ epic is really about man’s ability to adapt to new problems, even when the worst can’t be avoided. Steven Spielberg producers Zanuck & Brown and director Mimi Leder, plus a fine cast: Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave, Morgan Freeman, Maximilian Schell, Mary McCormack, Kurtwood Smith, James Cromwell, Jon Favreau and Leelee Sobieski. And it’s a knockout in a killer 4K encoding. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital from Paramount Home Video.
05/02/23

CineSavant Column

Tuesday May 2, 2023

 

Hello!

Correspondent Greg Skora filled us in some of the  3-D Film Archive’s  new announcements, at their newly-relaunched website.

Coming Soon on 3-D Blu-ray — perhaps in 2024? — and remastered in 3-D HD from 35mm original elements … the 1953 Dean Martin / Jerry Lewis comedy  Money from Home.  It’s one of the few 3-D pictures actually filmed in original 3-strip Technicolor.

The archive has  Robot Monster  and  Prison Girls  completed and coming out much sooner; and their website is presently touting future 3-D restorations of the western  Southwest Passage  and Universal-International’s  The Glass Web  with Edward G. Robinson and Kathleen Hughes.

Looking at his tally board, Gary Teetzel reminds us that Money from Home is the 27th 3-D film from the 1950s to be either released or announced as forthcoming. It’s nice to see films from a variety of different genres made available in 3-D.

According to posts from Bob Furmanek, the 3-D Film Archive’s other 3-D restoration projects in the pipeline are  Bwana Devil,  The Man Who Wasn’t There (1983)  and the long version of  The Bubble.  Our wild guess at a possible title described as “one historically significant 3-D release” may be Arch Oboler’s 1990  Domo Arigato  but some other hinted-at restorations remain a mystery.

We just hope our 3-D TVs are still working by the time all of these come out . . .

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Saturday April 29, 2023

Ann Savage gave me her autograph, even though she knew a Wrong Guy when she saw one.

Silent Avant-Garde 04/29/23

Kino Classics
Blu-ray

CineSavant dips into film school heaven with Bruce Posner’s new collection of experimental art pix spanning a hundred years of cinematic impishness. The Dadaists and Cubists are here — Léger, Man Ray, Duchamp — plus camera geniuses, cinematic theorists and others wishing to make a splash in museum showings. Featured are works by Orson Welles, Slavko Vorkapich, Jay Leyda, Joseph Cornell, Francis Thompson, Mary Ellen Bute, Robert Flaherty, Ralph Steiner and Robert Florey. All are digitally optimized, with curated soundtracks. On Blu-ray from Kino Classics.
04/29/23

CineSavant Column

Saturday April 29, 2023

 

A typical odd / interesting / worthwhile link from key advisor Gary Teetzel, originally posted on the very helpful Classic Horror Film Board:

This link to a 1951 newsreel opens with a brief story about actor Jean Hersholt, then shifts over to a story about a blood drive being held on the Universal lot. We see a few glimpses of the front entrance and the back lot as it looked in ’51, and then someone in a Frankenstein mask is used to introduce the blood donation story.

Producers’ Library Footage

The library copy reads in part: ” … moving pov left side past Universal International studios – good shot – backlot shots – Frankfenstein c/s attempts to stab nurse – campy or comedy – he stops and they talk and walk away – he lays on bed and gives blood – war blood drive.”

If there’s anything confidential or top secret in this film, keep it under your hat, or give it to the Air National Guard.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Tuesday April 25, 2023

Was this the last English-language 35mm print?

Border Incident 04/25/23

The Warner Archive Collection
Blu-ray

The first MGM film from the noir team of Anthony Mann / John Alton is a crime exposé of the migrant farmworker issue. Ricardo Montalban is excellent as a Mexican immigration cop, and co-star George Murphy makes a traumatic impression in one of the most sadistic scenes in classic film noir. Hardcore noir addresses a thorny political issue, and has the guts to place the blame where it belongs — on corrupt U.S. agri-business. Mann and Alton are in top form; even with the film’s EGBOK ending, this was pretty strong tea for MGM in the middle of the HUAC years. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
04/25/23

12 Angry Men 4K 04/25/23

KL Studio Classics
4K Ultra HD

The Sidney Lumet classic graduates to the 4K bracket, with a new transfer. Pictures like this taught a generation of American kids that our system of justice was alive and vital — even if Reginald Rose’s tense drama suggests that twelve inconvenienced jurors can also behave like a Lynch Mob. Star Henry Fonda continued his career streak playing men of high moral principle. The drama hasn’t weakened and the direction is flawless — Sidney Lumet was very proud of this, his feature debut. Also starring Martin Balsam, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman & Ed Begley. One of the extras is William Friedkin’s 1997 remake with Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott. On 4K Ultra HD from KL Studio Classics.
04/25/23

CineSavant Column

Tuesday April 25, 2023

 

Hello!

A quick note about the top image above, the one with the link. It’s a close-up of a 35mm film scrap I saved from a screening in 2000 — A.I.P. / Orion / MGM’s last print of Voyage to the End of the Universe was stored so badly, that when we tried to screen it, each reel disintegrated about halfway through, leaving a solid block of fused celluloid at the core. I afterwards helped the projectionist sweep the floor of crunchy film scraps. The photo above has been horizontally stretched — it’s a ‘scope picture so normally looks like this. 

 


 

A huge assist from correspondent Ed Sullivan. At last Saturday’s CineSavant Column I asked who the ‘mystery actress’ was posing with Bud Westmore in the Universal Special Makeup Lab. I shouldn’t have been surprised when Ed solved the mystery.

Snooping around on Ebay, Ed found this sales post with a pub photo from the exact same shoot, identifying the starlet as Marianne Koch, the German actress best known for Sergio Leone’s Fistful of Dollars. Ms. Koch is still around, and her story is pretty inspiring — after her years as an actress she became a doctor.

 

What was the established European actress Marianne Koch doing at Universal-International in 1957?   She was in two Universal releases that year, director Douglas Sirk’s Interlude with June Allyson & Rossano Brazzi (actually filmed in Germany), and also Jack Sher’s Four Girls in Town. In both she was billed as ‘Marianne Cook.’

The next year, director Sirk brought over Germany’s Lisolette Pulver to star in Universal’s A Time to Love and a Time to Die. She was billed as ‘Lilo Pulver,’ a name used again when she appeared in Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three.

 


 

After last Saturday’s review of the Dennis Hopper / Vincent Price film Backtrack, friend and advisor ‘B’ sent along this note, with a link, showing me that Vincent Price was still acting after 1990. I’ll give ‘B’ the Last Word:

Glenn:  Nice reviews today.

Vincent Price seems a bit out of it when speaking in Backtrack, although he does give Hopper’s camera a few good silent snarls and baleful looks. It is true that his part in Edward Scissorhands was shortened. I think his Inventor character does briefly speak, but perhaps not on camera. But VP did give one more short performance a few years later in which he retains at least a little of the old Price panache.

In The Heart of Justice, a 1993 TNT original drama, Price is seen briefly as a famous elderly gay author dining with … Dennis Hopper, playing another well known author. The two trade bon mots about life, some of them slightly amusing, for a minute or so. As Hopper gets up to leave the restaurant, he pauses to sweetly kiss Price on the forehead. If you wanna take a look at this, it’s at YouTube: The Heart of Justice.

Price’s scene with Hopper is at the very beginning; Price has a later, slightly longer scene with Eric Stoltz at about 57:40. The scenes are supposed to take place at the National Arts Club, but were shot elsewhere.

Anyway, VP looked okay (if fragile) in this. He remains greatly missed.  — B.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Saturday April 22, 2023

We especially like her early in the movie, ‘looking ghostly.’

Backtrack 04/22/23

KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray

Dennis Hopper’s self-indulgent romantic hit man thriller is too interested in modern art and cinematic detours to give its own storyline a fair shake. The supporting cast and celebrity walk-ons are fun; star Jodie Foster does the heavy lifting with a difficult character to play. Kino’s disc has both versions — the theatrical cut is shorter than Hopper’s director’s cut, and uses uses some alternate scenes. The candid audio commentary is by the actual unbilled authors of the shooting script, Tod Davies and Alex Cox. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
04/22/23