CineSavant Column

Tuesday June 25, 2024

 

Hello!

Welcome to Summer Heat.  We take advantage of an article from last year circulated by Joe Dante, a really nice piece about the consummate filmmaker Michael Powell.

Written for ‘The Arts Desk.com’ last October by Saskia Baron, the brief but telling article discusses the moviemaker’s  Peeping Tom but also Powell’s skirmishes with producer David O. Selznick on  Gone to Earth, starring Jennifer Jones.

As always, the Powell quotes are choice. He even remarks on Francis Coppola’s wild Zoetrope Studios experiment. The link to the article is here:


Michael Powell interview – ‘I had no idea that critics were so innocent.’
 


 

Ignite Films, the people that brought us  Invaders from Mars two years ago, are back with another major restoration for Blu-ray, one of the most respected films from WW2.

The Story of G.I. Joe  dramatizes the experience of journalist Ernie Pyle, who chooses not to cover the European fighting from behind the lines, but up close with the infantry. It was directed in fine semi-docu form by William Wellman, and stars Robert Mitchum and Burgess Meredith. It was the film that launched Mitchum’s career; he was nominated (for the first and last time) for an Oscar, one of the film’s four nominations.

I’ve seen a sample of the final encoding, which betters anything previous by far; even the TCM copies tended to be rather rough, with troublesome soundtrack issues.

The special edition carries two new video essays, an original trailer, and an audio commentary by Alan K. Rode. Street date is July 25, ’24 and preorders are under way.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson