Tuesday June 27, 2017
Savant’s new reviews today are:
The Savage Innocents 06/28/17
Olive Films
Blu-ray
The original Quinn the Eskimo (no kidding) is another life-loving rough portrait from Anthony Quinn, in Nicholas Ray’s rather successful final spin as a writer-director. Despite some technical awkwardness, Ray’s sensitivity to outsider souls finds full expression. Humans don’t get any more ‘outside’ than Inuk, a primitive unequipped to deal with the modern world. With Yoko Tani as Inuk’s wife and partner for ‘laughing’; this also has one of Peter O’Toole’s first film appearances. Filmed in Technirama. On Blu-ray from Olive Films.
06/27/17
Hell and High Water 06/28/17
Twilight Time
Blu-ray
That wild man Samuel Fuller sure knows how to turn up the geopolitical tension, especially in a rip-roaring action picture. This provocative atom threat adventure movie might have caused problems, if anybody cared what movies said back when the Cold War was hot. Richard Widmark skippers a leaky sub to the arctic and discovers that the Chinese communists are going to start WW3 — and blame it on Uncle Sam. No, Quinn the Eskimo is not involved. It’s an insane comic-book adventure about very serious issues — and we love it. With Bella Darvi, Victor Francen, Cameron Mitchell and the absolutely essential gritty sub crewman, Gene Evans. Great atom-age special effects! On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
06/27/17
Hell in the Pacific 06/28/17
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
Class-act director John Boorman continues to mix genre grit with European-flavored art cinema, and the result is another winner. Toshiro Mifune and Lee Marvin fight a miniature two-man war when they’re marooned together on the same tiny island. Boorman’s strong direction and Conrad Hall’s knockout cinematography insure a maximum visual impact; it’s great filmmaking all around. KL gives us terrific extras, including a John Boorman talk that’s even more fascinating than usual. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
06/27/17
Savant Column June 27, 2017
Hello!
Deadlines loom and there’s too much to do, so just one announcement today. Kino Lorber doesn’t have a date yet, but they did announce that they’re releasing Billy Wilder’s Avanti! on Blu-ray. The charming comedy with Jack Lemmon, Juliet Mills and Clive Revill bombed in 1972 yet has a acquired a solid fan base. When this one hits Blu, the only remaining Wilder film controlled by MGM and not yet released on Blu will be 1963’s Irma La Douce. Interestingly, the Wilder film being saved for last was the writer-director’s biggest theatrical hit, surpassing even Some Like it Hot and The Apartment.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
Saturday June 24, 2017
They Live by Night 06/23/17
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
Don’t look to this noir for hardboiled cynicism – for his first feature Nicholas Ray instead gives us a dose of fatalist romance. Transposed from the previous decade, a pair of fugitives takes what happiness they can find, always aware that a grim fate waits ahead. The show is a career-making triumph and a real classic from RKO — which shelved it for more than a year. Starring Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell, with a major assist by the great Howard Da Silva, and Marie Bryant singing Your Red Wagon. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
06/24/17
Running on Empty 06/23/17
The Warner Archive Collection
Blu-ray
These fugitives on the run aren’t innocent young lovers. Still wanted for anti-war violence from years before, an ex-radical couple struggles to remain free just as their children become old enough to think for themselves. Screenwriter Naomi Foner and director Sidney Lumet’s fascinating movie is a sympathetic look at an untenable lifestyle. Christine Lahti and Judd Hirsch star, with major portrayals from River Phoenix and Martha Plimpton. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
06/24/17
Comfort and Joy 06/23/17
Studiocanal / BfI
Region B Blu-ray
You never heard of the Great Glasgow Ice Cream Wars? They weren’t exactly Armageddon, and the gentle director Bill Forsyth makes a radio personality’s involvement with two competing ice cream companies more of a plunge into amiable drollery. If you like Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero you’ll understand the odd, unhurried attitude of this oddball show from 1984. Likable Bill Paterson is a radio personality trapped in a rigid role, as ‘Dickie Bird,’ the morning wake-up guy. On Region B Blu-ray from Studiocanal / BfI.
06/24/17
Savant Column June 24, 2017
Hello!
Some screwy links to keep you thinking today. Gary Teetzel forwards us a URL to a 1936 Japanese propaganda cartoon given the makeshift English title Evil Mickey Attacks Japan. That’s exactly what it is. Happy Japanese — people, animal people and quasi- Yokai characters frolic and dance on a tropical island (obviously not Japan) until American monsters bring war — evil machine-gun snakes, crocodile ships and Mickey M. himself riding a bomber bat with mouse ears. Traditional Japanese characters retaliate. What can we say? We could really use a Japanese culture expert (hey Stuart!) for some insight on all the visual references. From Gary: “The actual title is “Toybox Series 3: Picture Book 1936.” Why that particular year? One website speculates that it has to do with the looming 1936 expiration of a Naval Treaty; alarmist Japanese politicos predicted that the U.S. would attack right after it expired. Some speculate that the short thus shows traditional Japanese culture pushing back against the pervasive inroads of western (American) pop culture.”
These things are addictive. The vintage Japanese animation led me directly to some good old-fashioned Soviet propaganda, a color cartoon translated as Valuable Kopeck. Happy Soviet currency makes friends and dances with (stereotyped) coins from around the world, while the evil, capitalist American penny only brings guns and war. A cute, feminine Kopeck undergoes some kind of currency change. Animated Soviet propaganda can be really scary. This one isn’t as dark as Stalin-era pieces but has a pretty steep creep factor. The person who posted the cartoon on YouTube gives it a 1949 date, but judging from the appearance of some passenger jets we see, it must really be from the 1960s.
The Warner Archive Collection has announced its July Blu-ray lineup. I’m told that the animated Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is quite good. Skipper John Wayne is a good German in The Sea Chase and a Commie hater in Blood Alley. And a welcome guilty pleasure is Where the Boys Are with Paula Prentiss, Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, Jim Hutton and Yvette Mimieux. For this kid WTBA is pure nostalgia: at age 8 in 1960 I thought this is what being a swinging student would be like if I went to college. Boy, were things different in 1970.
And the biggest announcement this week is that Kino Lorber will indeed be putting out a 3-D Archive– engineered Blu-ray 3-D disc of William Cameron Menzies’ The Maze. The Walter Mirisch production from 1953 uses the depth format well, for an appropriately spooky haunted castle story with a wholly unexpected monster. I got to see this at the Egyptian a few years back, with Walter Mirisch in attendance (and his son, my college friend Larry). 3-D fans will rejoice. It’s expected in the Fall.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
Tuesday June 20, 2017
Savant’s new reviews today are:
Brother Can You Spare a Dime 06/20/17
The Sprocket Vault
DVD
It’s 1930s America as seen in the movies, through music, and the evasions of newsreels. Franklin Delano Roosevelt preaches prosperity while James Cagney slugs out the decade as a smart-tongued everyman — in a dozen different roles. Director Philippe Mora investigates what was then a new kind of revisionist info-tainment formula: applying old film footage to new purposes. The presentation includes a full hour of non-depressing Depression-era newsreels. On DVD from The Sprocket Vault.
06/20/17
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage 06/20/17
Arrow Video
Blu-ray + DVD
This time they may have gotten it right! If a knife or a straight razor won’t do, how about killing a victim with 500-pound metal artwork studded with spikes? Dario Argento distilled a new kind of slick, visually fetishistic horror who-dunnit thriller subgenre with this shocker, aided by the dreamy cinematography of Vittorio Storaro. With Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi and Umberto Raho. A Dual-Format edition on Blu-rayand DVD from Arrow Video.
06/20/17
Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy 06/20/17
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
Rome Open City, Paisan, Germany Year Zero: Filmed mostly on the streets in newly-liberated territory, Roberto Rossellini’s gripping war-related shows are blessed with new restorations but still reflect their rough origins. The second picture, the greater masterpiece, looks as if it were improvised out of sheer artistic will. The disc set comes with more key-source extras than you can shake a grissinoat. From The Criterion Collection.
06/20/17
Savant Column June 20, 2017
Hello! Hey, they turned up the heat for summer out here.
Twilight Time just announced their September releases, and they’re all good for disc fans. All six titles appear on the 19th: September (1987) is a serious Woody Allen drama set in a confined space, and is a good place to see the late, great Elaine Stritch. The unheralded Hour of the Gun is one of John Sturges’ very best westerns, with James Garner and Jason Robards. Lawman with Burt Lancaster is a Michael Winner film that’s actually not annoying. The CinemaScope, color and stereophonic sound Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef is from a script by A.I. ‘Buzz’ Bezzerides, with a great music score by Bernard Herrmann. And Gun Fury 3D is a Raoul Walsh western I’ve never seen, featuring Rock Hudson and Donna Reed in 3 Dimensions!
Criterion goes all ‘artful’ on us in September. Hitchcock’s Rebecca (9.05) is the main vintage title, accompanied by Murray Lerner’s music documentary Festival (9.12). Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (9.26) with Isabelle Huppert, Kelly Reichart’s well-received Certain Women (9.19) with Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart; and the new docu David Lynch, The Art Life (9.26).
As for the side-by-side pictures at the top of the frame, my excuse is that my daughter’s dog inspired me. And ya can’t frustrate inspiration.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
Saturday June 17, 2017
Savant’s new reviews today are:
The Man from Planet X 06/20/17
Scream Factory
Blu-ray
The first visitor from outer space in the ’50s sci-fi boom is one very curious guy, dropping to Earth in a ship like a diving bell and scaring the bejesus out of Sally Field’s mother. Micro-budgeted space invasion fantasy gets off to a great start, thanks to the filmmaking genius of our old pal Edgar G. Ulmer. With Robert Clarke and the great William Schallert — and given a fine audio commentary by Tom Weaver and friends. On Blu-ray from Scream Factory.
06/17/17
Marcel Pagnol: The Marseille Trilogy 06/20/17
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
Marius * Fanny * César No longer out of reach, Marcel Pagnol’s stunning 3-feature saga of love and honor in a French seaport is one of the great movie experiences — and the most emotional workout this viewer has seen in years. The tradition of greatness in the French sound cinema began with gems like these, starring legendary actors that were sometimes billed only with their last names: Raimu, Charpin. Those two, Pierre Fresnay and Orane Demazis are simply unforgettable — it’s 6.5 hours of dramatic wonderment. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
06/17/17
8 Million Ways to Die 06/20/17
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray + DVD
Tonight on ‘movies we really want to like’ we have Hal Ashby’s final feature, an L.A.- based crime saga with a great cast and spirited direction and . . . and not much else. It isn’t the train wreck described in Kino’s candid actor interviews, but we can see only too well why it wasn’t a big winner when new. Any day that a Jeff Bridges picture doesn’t shine, is a dark day in my book. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
06/17/17
Savant Column June 17, 2017
Hello!
After my admittedly enthusiastic review for Blue Underground’s Death Line last time, it wasn’t long before this email arrived — from the film’s director, Gary Sherman:
Glenn. . .
Thank you for that great review. It is very gratifying to have one’s work so completely understood. Again Thank You. Would like to correct one misconception. The tracking shot was originally done in one piece. Unfortunately, the negative of the one perfect take was damaged. This was long before we had CGI to fix things like that. So I had to work a little analog magic to remove the damaged frames. It didn’t really change the flow or content of the shot, just eliminated passing through one archway. You are the first to notice and the first to get an explanation. Bravo! — Gary (Sherman), June 15.
I’m pretty sure that it’s Gary Teetzel that tipped me off to this 45-second
‘Horror Pictures Collection’ film clip from 1934: taking a break from the set of The Black Cat, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi are in costume as they review children parading past with their pet cats, some of them black, for a Universal Newsreel. The kids look none too happy, but we can’t tell if the black-clad actors make them nervous, or the if the kitties are scratching them to ribbons. Or maybe the publicity gag is being filmed at that grim WW1 cemetery from the movie.
And an even briefer glimpse of Bela Lugosi is offered in the newsreel clip from the
California Pacific International Exposition from San Francisco. Bela appears at the 48-second mark, doing some hand-kissing with Marie Wilson, while Lee Tracy watches. I think my IDs are correct, so here’s your chance to show me up. (It figures… so far both Joe Dante and Craig Reardon identify the woman as Anita Louise not Marie Wilson. Time to go stare at some faces some more.)
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson