Hello!

We can tell that writer-director John Sayles really loves this movie, a sentiment we understand with Jules Dassin’s masterpiece — it’s extremely well made, even the so-called weak domestic scenes with the young detective’s family. I’m linking to Trailers from Hell’s trailer-plus-commentary John Sayles on The Naked City. Without apologies, I think I’ll pull out that disc again. CineSavant’s third and latest review of the show: The Naked City.

And our thanks go out to correspondent Charles Lore for sending along a very handy YouTube link: in last Tuesday’s review of the Harry Palmer/Michael Caine spy romp Billion Dollar Brain I talked about a scene that had to be trimmed for music clearance issues– and Mr. Lore forwarded a link to The Deleted Beatles Music scene from Billion Dollar Brain. I know Ken Russell never thought this was a personal picture, but for me it’s one of his best.

Now you can see the excised scene opening for yourself, exactly as I described it. Enjoy it in all its low-res glory. Thanks Charles!

We received a nice Criterion Collection announcement of their planned releases for February 2022 — all Blu-ray, no 4K. It’s a fine quartet of prime cinema from the 50s to the 90s– Douglas Sirk’s Americana success & impotence saga Written on the Wind with Lauren Bacall, Rock Hudson and Robert Stack; the Coen Bros.’ marvelous gangster romp Miller’s Crossing with Albert Finney, Gabriel Byrne, John Turturro and Marcia Gay Hardin; Leo McCarey’s swooningly romantic Love Affair with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer; and Ann Hui’s Boat People, a drama about the state of Vietnam three years after the Communist victory.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson