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Gary Teetzel has unearthed a pair of informative American Cinematographer articles on the making of MGM’s Forbidden Planet, from 1955. According to Teetzel,

“…the weird thing is cameraman George Folsey’s descriptions of the scenes with the Id Monster, where he talks about visualizing the monster’s presences with strange lighting effects. But no strange lighting effects are apparent in the scene where ‘the blasted thing’ sneaks aboard the spaceship. There is, of course, red lighting when we see the Id Monster outlined by the force field and laserfire, but not as the monster approaches as Folsey remembers. He makes no mention of animation being added to the scene, either. Did they perhaps experiment with different lighting effects, and ultimately rejected them? Or is it possible that they made an attempt to never show the monster at all?”

The article is of course interesting, but Folsey should have checked his dictionary. I’m not sure he knew the definition of the word ‘pretentious.’ Part two of the Forbidden Planet article is here. Folsey also says that in 1922 he filmed a movie for Biograph called The Man from Mars, that had Martians with ‘huge heads and gleaming talons.’ Somebody tell Bob Furmanek: it was in 3-D.

The ever-vigilant Gary also tipped CineSavant off to an announced Sony Blu-ray MOD disc release of Ishiro Honda’s Toho Sci-Fi attraction Battle in Outer Space on September 25. All the info I have is that a commentary will be included, perhaps the same one from the DVD release. That leaves us asking, will both the Japanese and American cuts be included? If we’re given the longer Japanese version, will accurate subtitles be provided this time around? It’s mostly rumors we hear so far — someone online has claimed that it will be a pressed disc, not a burned MOD. The link is to the older DVD Savant DVD review.

Blu-rays of colorful Toho science fiction fantasies sound like a good idea to me — expensive Japanese releases normally omit English subtitles. But will we ever see a quality release of their third early outer space film, Gorath? We want the giant walrus, for crying out loud.

I almost missed an occurrence over at Paramount Studios last weekend — apparently Quentin Tarantino turned the outside of what was originally the old RKO building at the corner of Gower and Melrose into a filmic exterior of Columbia Studios, circa 1969, for his new movie about the Manson Killings. My tip came late and I got there just in time before the two posters came down — crews had already removed several others. When the show comes out, I’ll have to see how they cover up other Paramount signage visible in these photos. Those poster panels are BIG — it was pretty impressive.

Various photos have been showing up online from a couple of weeks earlier showing how Tarantino’s art directors redressed of parts of Hollywood Blvd. as well. It’s likely that the Paramount corporate lizards preferred that the ads for a rival studio be removed without delay.

Just arrived in-house are the new Warner Archive discs of The Last Hunt with Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger, Russ Tamblyn and Debra Paget, and Raoul Walsh’s The Naked and the Dead with Cliff Robertson, Aldo Ray and Raymond Massey. Plus I have a review lined up for Severin’s The Changeling.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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Friend Phil Hall has a good site up called The Bootleg Files, which reviews hard-to-see or graymarket items, the kind that fall between the cracks. This week he covers a film that was in production when I was at ‘The Cannon Group,’ Menahem Golan’s Mack the Knife. I never got to see a good copy of it either, although in 1989 I hadn’t seen any version of The Threepenny Opera.

Helpful correspondent Rob Gaczol found this odd cue Mothra Metal, that samples the original Yumi & Emi Ito, aka ‘The Peanuts’ from the 1961 film Mothra. The original Yuji Koseki song has been reinterpreted by Isao Bito, with new lyrics. The title is, I guess, ‘Mothra Song the Best.’

On my review of the new Bfi disc of It Happened Here, one listed extra is a book introduction by critic David Robinson. Correspondent Bee Hall couldn’t access it. She wrote the Bfi and found out that it had been left off the disk… but the Bfi responded by putting it online at a custom Special Bfi ‘It Happened Here’ Page. Careful, it’s loaded with spoilers. but Robinson does give an excellent account of the the controversy about Kevin Brownlow’s so-called ‘Nazi picture.’ Many thanks to Ms. Hall.

And contributor-advisor Gary Teetzel once again finds something fun with a 1935 Picture Play magazine article by Helen Louise Walker, Three Live Ghosts. It’s a fluffy tinsel-town overview of the three top actors associated with horror, albeit at a time when the Production Code had curbed most of the desired excesses of the pre-Code horror wave.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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Not a lot of news or fabulous links today. For devotees of Region B releases, the good news from correspondent Louis Irwin today is that a new German Koch Media disc of Gillo Pontecorvo’s Burn! aka ¡Queimada!: Insel Des Shreckens sounds like a good buy. Louis gave me a mini-review:

“This version is 129 minutes and thus 17 minutes longer than the U.S. release (112 minutes), but 3 minutes shorter than the alleged complete version of 132 minutes. It is Region B only. Audio is in Italian (or German if you want), and English subtitles are available. Visually it is pretty good (bitrates over 30Mbps) and is miles ahead of the U.S. DVD. I had the feeling that colors could be improved if they were a bit more saturated.

The extra material I noticed were a series of incidents with José Dolores (Evaristo Márquez) that Sir William Walker (Marlon Brando) takes note of prior to Walker’s brutal incitement of José to provoke him to rebel. In the shorter version, Walker sees José pick up a rock as if he is going to use it to attack a soldier who just kicked him, then there is an immediate cut to Walker’s incitement. The shorter version eliminates all those prior scenes. The first time I saw the film was in Germany, and it was the longer cut, but the way I remembered it there were more scenes after José’s grabbing the rock and Walker’s incitement. I seem to recall that Walker approached José after the rock scene and offered him employment and developed an initial bond prior to his provocation. My memory may be incorrect, but it would perhaps account for those additional 3 minutse. In any case, the additional senes in the Koch version provide a certain buildup that is lacking in the shorter version. All the best to you — Louis Irwin”

I thought the domestic DVD of Burn! looked pretty drab, like a low-grade spaghetti western. As I know the picture has plenty of fans, I thought I’d pass this on. Also, from correspondent Edward Sullivan, this Adam Lippe article on the movie explains a lot of background I didn’t know.

The scary news is a report from correspondent Simon Wells, about the much- touted Christopher Nolan restoration of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I’d like to know if other readers have seen the show, and if their prints were different, or better. Here’s Simon’s note — actually, two notes I’ve shuffled together:

“Hi Glenn, Just wondering if you happened to see the recent Nolan de-restoration of 2001 in 70mm in recent months?

Getting films you never thought you’d see on Blu-ray is great but this kind of vandalism just depresses me no end. I’d be very curious to hear your thoughts. — Simon Wells”

Am I stirring up a non-issue, taking a reader’s evaluation on something I haven’t seen myself? The last time I saw 2001 on a big screen was at the 2012 TCMfest, and the 70mm print looked just fine to me; I’ve never seen a bad print, even in 35mm. I can say that the WB film management and restoration experts are some of the finest in the world, and that their 2003 remastering of Ryan’s Daughter was the most perfect film presentation I’ve ever seen. I’m all for celebrity filmmakers helping promote film restoration, but I’d hardly think that 2001 was being neglected.

I am curious to get more feedback on the 70mm reissue, which I am told is a different animal than the special IMAX reissue coming up shortly. So if you saw 2001 in ‘Nolanvision’ please let me know!

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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It’s a radio show dedicated to the work of makeup man Dick Smith, a discussion with makeup artists Craig Reardon, Steve Johnson and Kevin Haney, hosted by Scott Essman: The Godfather of Make-Up Effects. It starts with a sentimental audio clip from Smith himself, recorded in 2011. CineSavant correspondent Craig Reardon was one of Smith’s worshipful protégés, and has always had a lot to say about the genius of the man who invented the makeup for The Exorcist, Little Big Man, The Godfather films, Altered States and Scanners.

Second up is an actual Warners feature La classe Américaine 99%, the link forwarded by Joe Dante. First, here’s Joe’s description: “This weird 70 minute project started when Warner Bros. agreed to let the French TV channel Canal+ use its 4000-movie catalog free of charge for a month. Directors Michel Hazanavicius and Dominique Mézerette assembled a vaguely Citizen Kane-like plot out of reams of disparate footage and redubbed it all with many of the local voice actors associated with the various movie stars on hand.”

It’s weird all right — with a title that translates as American Class, the crude comedy may be intended as a slap at the gutter-level vulgarity of ‘populist’ film comedy from Hollywood these days. An ultimate comedy re-dub job a la What’s Up Tiger Lily?, Hazanavicius concocts a ‘story’ weaving together WB films just for the fun of making ’50s and ’60s movie stars talk as dirty as the characters in a Trey Parker / Matt Stone ‘‘comedy.’

Of course, it’s all dubbed into French, so we read the English subtitles. The gutter level insults definitely have a shock appeal. Everybody’s either gay or happily gay-bashing somebody — John Wayne, James Stewart, Henry Fonda — by cutting together clips from films like Rio Bravo, Harper, All the President’s Men, The Sea Chase, Freebie and the Bean, The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, even The Searchers. Have no idea where it was shown, but I haven’t seen anything like it so polished, and so begging for defamation lawsuits.

Hey, here’s something we all need in the house, a HAL 9000 Life-Size Replica! It has plenty of features, is stylish, comes in various models. Just don’t put it in charge of your Life Vital Signs .. the thing’s been known to lock doors, cut off the phones and wi-fi, and turn on the gas with the pilot off. Before you know it, ‘Life Functions Terminated!’

CineSavant advisor Gary Teetzel noted:

“You’re supposed to be able to run Alexa or Siri through it, but what good is that without Douglas Rain’s voice? Come on, he’s still alive! Sure, he’s ninety and probably doesn’t sound anything like he did fifty years ago, but still . . .

Then of course there’s another product, that seems the worst of what the future has to offer: Gatebox’s Cute Virtual Character. Wayne Schmidt thought it sounded like something from Blade Runner 2049. Gary predicted how one might relate to it:

It’s kinda creepy that it acts like a teenage girl. To make it more realistic, it should be periodically moody, and then, over time, act more bored, not message you as often, etc. Then, after a year, it should tell you it wants to explore seeing other people.”

And, as expected, UK’s Powerhouse Indicator did indeed announce an all-Region Blu-ray of Jacques Tourneur’s superlative Night/Curse of the Demon. The buzz at the moment is that they’re touting four distinct versions. We’ve covered the title here pretty well, with Wayne Schmidt’s chronicle of How the Long Version Was Saved, and we’re eager to find out what the other two versions are, exactly — they can’t just be the two different lengths, both with different main titles, can they?

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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I think the word has been leaking out for weeks, but we’re told that Powerhouse Indicator will shortly be announcing a Region A compatible Blu-ray of Jacques Tourneur’s incomparable Night of / Curse of The Demon. We Region B- equipped viewers love the encoding on the French disc from a while back, but there’s always the carrot of PH’s thorough extras. Gary Teetzel sent along not one but two links to YouTube radio shows of M.R. James’ source story Casting the Runes: 1947 ESCAPE with John McIntire as Edward Dunning and William Conrad as Karswell, and Michael Hordern’s classic read.

Gary Teetzel’s rummaging in the pulp trades of the past uncovered this odd 1928 company ad for MGM, addressing exhibitors, Note that it actually declares that, with MGM movies playing in your theaters, you’ll be able to get good and drunk. Pretty impressive considering that prohibition was then the law of the land; I guess they weren’t lying when they said that nobody took that Constitutional Amendment seriously.

I’ve been getting lively responses on my review for The Stranglers of Bombay and my photo article about a special effect in Kronos; even some of my web colleagues sent along a few nice words about them.

Right now I’ve got my nose jammed in the mail slot waiting for a UK disc of Kevin Brownlow’s It Happened Here to show up. So it isn’t due for another week … we don’t let details like that dampen the enthusiasm.

Although we’re not doing anything spectacular this year, I’m really enjoying our Summer in Los Angeles — no stress, etc., and fun on the side with a couple of visits from relatives. My daughter and I share a ‘thing’ for the Kaiju monster Mothra, in that I took her to a screening when she was four, and drew her a comic book version as preparation for the outing. She lately found herself a ritzy Mothra toy, and just yesterday sent me an (I suspect) pricey Godzilla toy, just for the fun of it. There’s no way to put a bad face on that — maybe I can even make Big G expert Gary Teetzel envious!

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson