Clockwatchers 10/01/24
Shout! Studios
Blu-ray
Corporate culture had been around for years when the ‘Office Hell’ genre arrived, and this sleek fable from cubicle-land is both one of the best and one of the least seen. The much abused office temps Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow and Alanna Ubach don’t even have the luxury of cubicles, or desks of their own. The comic tones develop into a deeper statement about workplace alienation, that stifles relationships and shatters one’s sense of free will. Even when it’s funny, Jill and Karen Sprecher’s perfectly-arranged look at office reality hits home hard. Everybody shines, and the remarkable Parker Posey runs away with top honors. On Blu-ray from Shout! Studios.
10/01/24
Burn, Witch, Burn 10/01/24
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
No sooner do we dig up an old review for this horror masterpiece, than StudioCanal remasters it with a 4K scan and Kino adds some quality extras — just in time to start off the CineSavant Halloween season. College professor Peter Wyngarde refuses to believe that his missus Janet Blair has secured his high academic roost through witchcraft, but the lesson comes home with a vengeance when he throws away her amulets, potions and herbs — others on the faculty see an opening to throw malicious hexes his way. If you don’t like supernatural stories, it’s a dandy substitute for college politics, which as we all know can be vicious! We’re even surprised by some startling special effects — this has to be director Sidney Hayers’ crowning achievement (next to Circus of Horrors, of course). On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
10/01/24
CineSavant Column
Hello!
We of course follow all the doings at the 3-D Film Archive, keeping a running tally of projects in the works, like last year’s Robot Monster 3-D, one of those weird Z-pictures that hasn’t lost its appeal — it must still be seen to be believed.
The Archive is rounding out its coverage of the 3-D legacy of the eccentric filmmaker Arch Oboler, who of course made a mint when he ignited the ’50s 3-D craze with his daring independent feature Bwana Devil. Oboler’s semi-travelogue Domo Arigato may be shipping in a couple of months, and the next item up is a return to Oboler’s Sci-fi effort “The Bubble”, from around 1967. A truncated 3-D Blu-ray was released back in 2014; the Archive is now promoting a Kickstarter page to remaster the original full-length premiere cut of the movie starring Deborah Walley and Michael Cole.
Their kickstarter page features an original trailer for “The Bubble”. It interested me because it has no scenes from the movie, and instead gets its message across with polished radio writing with perfect timing — Oboler’s forte.
Friendly correspondent and Major Dundee news bloodhound Chris Howard sent along this article from life.com commemorating a vintage photo spread, from when photographer Bill Ray was dispatched to Mexico to glamorize Austrian star Senta Berger.
The photo-heavy piece actually had to be taken in 1964, at least the on-location material with Charlton Heston and Sam Peckinpah. The cheesecake photos may have been in ’65, nearer the run-up to the film’s release. Did Ms. Berger’s agent work overtime to nab this exposure in a big magazine? I honestly forget whether LIFE in ’65 would print all the pictures we see.
Between Chris Howard and myself, we figure that Senta Berger is among the last surviving participants in Major Dundee still with us, along with Michael Anderson Jr., Mario Adorf, and Aurora Clavell. Senta appears to be still working, at 83 years!
For my fellow Californians this is going to be no big deal. Friends living closer to the hills or especially out in the San Fernando Valley or West to Agoura, etc. see all manner of wildlife in or about their homes, rummaging through their garbage bins, who knows what else? But for us here just South of Hollywood and only about 6 miles from downtown Los Angeles, the average animal sighting is maybe an opossum or a raccoon, and usually in the dead of night.
So it was a surprise to be out getting my paper at 7am this morning, and to run into this hungry fellow, chewing on something in a front yard. I’ll have to tell the neighbors to stay careful with their pets. Unless he/she has a den in some park nearby, he/she had to drift down from the hills, 1.5 miles to the north. Are these cousins of Wile E. here all the time, and I’m just too unobservant to notice? Is that why our feral cat population has gone down a little bit?
Yes, it’s about as far from Blu-ray news as CineSavant can get, but I was too proud of snagging these pics, venturing out in my pajamas. We foolish city dwellers get our kicks where we can.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
The Project A Collection — 4K 09/28/24
88 Films
4K Ultra HD + Blu-raya
Jackie Chan’s legendary ‘Project A’ pictures reach 4K in a boxed set as lavish as home video can get. Chan’s pals Sammo Hung and Biao Yuen, and the amazing Chan Stunt Team assemble two of the most frenetic, athletic & death-defying comic action thrillers ever; the first is a Marines-vs-pirates epic and the second a semi-comic intrigue about police corruption. Fighting as well are Isabella Wong, Maggie Cheung, Rosamund Kwan and Carina Lau. We see star-writer-director Chan growing in cinematic smarts, while maintaining his limitless inventiveness for action scenes and daredevil stunts. It’s a 4-disc set, with all the bells and whistles. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from 88 Films.
09/28/24
The Lost Picture Show 09/28/24
Vinegar Syndrome
Blu-ray
Charlie Largent takes on a challenge — a ten-title, 15-hour, six-disc Blu-ray collection of marginal genre films advertised as being so marginal, they fall outside the lines altogether. What a sales gimmick — with titles like The Las Vegas Strangler, The Last of the American Hoboes, What’s Love, Beware the Black Widow, and The Sex Serum of Dr. Blake.… who’da thunk it? Are we curious about this one, or just Curious Yellow? On Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.
09/28/24
CineSavant Column
Hello!
I wouldn’t necessarily call this a public service … we expend too much effort around here arguing that movies and entertainent used to be better, so here’s something that proves the opposite. By 1974 I was in college and far away from Television, so I missed this pilot for a follow-up comedy series to follow George Schlatter’s Laugh-In.
It’s called Lampoon, and instead of doing something new, it copies the incredibly lame humor formula from the first show. The ‘zoom-in-and-out on a go-go dancer bit’ wore thin in the first year of Laugh-In but Schlatter doesn’t seem to have anything new in his bag of tricks — the not-well-cast Desi Arnaz Jr. and Brenda Vaccaro, a corps of Broadway hopefuls tasked with making something out of nothing, and slightly fancier pre-disco lighting effects. In the worst bit, about 15.5 minutes in, the new cast mimics the distinctive talent from the first show. It’s just not working.
Vietnam jokes! Oil embargo jokes! Are you laughing yet? It kills me to see the obviously talented cast members giving their all for this. True, almost every variety show from the time looks pretty lame, seen as little as ten years later; I’m kind of glad I wasn’t watching much. A lot of The Smothers Brothers held up, but it was taken off the air in 1969…
Thanks to Michael McQuarrie for sending in both of today’s links.
Correspondent Michael also sent along this photo, reminding me that it is indeed true that, over on the Mediterranean island-nation of Malta, the old ‘Sweethaven’ set for the Robert Altman / Robin Williams / Shelley Duvall musical comedy Popeye (1980), has been turned into a tourist destination. The set was an entire little town on a cove, built for Altman’s scores of actors to improvise in.
It has its own tourism website as Popeye Village. The big attractions are a restaurant, a winery and The Beach Bar.
A former boss/business partner retired to Malta. The scenery and historical sites, and the port of Valetta look wonderful, but I don’t really know if I need to see this movie place. Another friend (local) reacts to the mere mention of the movie Popeye as if it’s Kryptonite, the worst thing ever made. We like parts of it, especially its spot-on Popeye-Olive Oyl combo. I once had a theory that every scene takes 3 minutes to get going, and goes on 3 minutes too long. I wanted to edit a trimmed-down version severely pruning the ‘local color’ inanities … material that some fans is the best thing in the movie.
Anyway, can you see yourself having lunch at Popeye’s Sweethaven?
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
Kosmicheskiy reys: Fantasticheskaya novella 09/24/24
Ostalgica
Region-Free Blu-ray
“Space Flight: A Fantastic Story.” As ’50s kids we assumed that Soviet claims of ‘firsts’ in space science were a pack of lies. But this once- incredibly obscure 1936 silent feature dramatizes the space travel theories of a visionary Russian scientist who first published in the 1880s. The year is 1946 when the space ship ‘Joseph Stalin’ blasts off for the moon. Terrific stop-motion special effects depict a giant spacecraft hangar and Cosmonauts leaping across the craggy surface of the moon. The remastered disc also contains a decent encoding of the Soviet Sci-fi talkie Gibel Sensatsii — about Capitalists, Communists, and an army of nine-foot robots. On Region-Free Blu-ray from Ostalgia.
09/24/24
The Battle of Chile 09/24/24
Icarus Films
Blu-ray
La batalla de Chile. Patricio Guzmán’s 3-part ‘you are there’ documentary of the beleaguered presidency of Chile’s Salvador Allende goes into great detail to show how a democratically-elected government can be destroyed from within. Guzmán’s cameras witness terrible events leading to the military attack on the presidential palace on September 11, 1973. It’s an amazing achievement — the film had to be smuggled out of Chile and away from General Pinochet’s killers. Also included is Guzmán’s first feature, a docu account of Allende’s first year in office — which ends with trouble brewing for his fledgling socialist state. On Blu-ray from Icarus Films.
09/24/24
CineSavant Column
Hello!
The helpful David J. Schow sent along a link to a video about an avant-garde electronic music pioneer named Delia Derbyshire, posted by Umberto Santos on YouTube. Ms. Derbyshire’s heyday was the 1960s, at the BBC.
BBC had something called the ‘Radiophonic Workshop,’ where she spent her time creating electronic music.
The featured item forwarded by David is a minimalist piece called ‘Falling’ from 1964, posted by one Umberto Santos. It’s …. unusual.
And, as circulated by Joe Dante, Kyle MacNeill of The Guardian lauds what David Allen repeatedly called a ‘Lost Art’: Stop-Motion Animation. In 1973, when David was holding court on artistic opinions, Stop-Motion was becoming a Lost Art, ghetto-ized in Pillsbury Doughboy TV commercials. Nowadays it’s quite a busy racket for feature films, with descriptions of giant stop-motion farms with dozens of setups, often with scores of identical miniature sets. Some Stop-Motion features have been recorded on iPhones. An Aardman director might stay on-site to supervise, but we’ve heard of ‘hands on’ directors micromanaging material being filmed in London, as it is relayed to him on a beach on the other side of the world.
The article is
Why Stop-Motion Animation is still going strong a century on.
Just looking at the King Kong photograph reminds me that I need to see that picture again soon — it must have been 10 years since the last spin. The same goes for Jason and the Argonauts; I bet it will play better than ever. I must drag The Valley of Gwangi out once a year, along with The Golden Voyage of Sinbad — to at least see the Allosaurus roping round-up and the six-armed Kali battle. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad I should give a break to — when I watch it these days I tend to free-associate, because it’s just too familiar. But maybe Ms. Kathryn Grant deserves an appreciative nod…
Isn’t it time all those pictures were remastered in 4K? Just askin’.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
The Long Good Friday — 4K 09/21/24
The Criterion Collection
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
It’s still the best gangster film of the post- Godfather era. Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren are a striking couple at the top of London’s crime scene; Hoskins’ Cockney fireball Harold Shand is about to transform his crooked lifestyle with Mafia money and a land development scheme. Becoming the Posh Prince of the City has one hitch — unknown insurgents are firing up a turf war unheard of in England. Hailed as one of England’s best movies ever, John Mackenzie and Barrie Keefe’s tale is woven around the Easter holiday, with disturbing parallels to The Passion. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
09/21/24
Film Noir the Dark Side of Cinema XXI 09/21/24
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
Kino’s 21st noir series entry gives us two winners and a not-bad contender. Fritz Lang’s Cloak and Dagger with Gary Cooper and Lilli Palmer is a grim spy chase to keep atom secrets out of enemy hands; the weird Shack Out on 101 with Terry Moore, Lee Marvin and Frank Lovejoy sees a Malibu diner become a Cold War battleground for more atomic spies. Short Cut to Hell is a remake of an Alan Ladd hit, directed by James Cagney and showcasing the deserving unknowns Robert Ivers and Georgeann Johnson. All are remastered from 4K scans. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
09/21/24
CineSavant Column
Hello!
We’re on the mend from a bug picked up on vacation, but are gearing up to review the best of what’s on the CineSavant table. Around this time of year a vocal group of friends / readers / film fans beccomes either excited over or depressed by what’s in the offing for the Halloween season. Some even ask for a recommended buying list for collectors of horror / Sci-fi / the fantastic.
You know, if someone as astute and discriminating as Richard Harland Smith can get so excited about Halloween fun, why can’t the rest of us do the same? This year Trick or Treat night is shaping up as a genuine video-enhanced holiday, with a number of desirable titles. We haven’t seen any of these, but the list is promising — it includes several titles in 4K Ultra HD, too.
Here’s the list, with links, of hot titles on our radar, not necessarily a list of what we’ll be able to review:
The Bat 1926 Undercrank Productions
The Beast with Five Fingers The Warner Archive Collection
Burn, Witch Burn KL Studio Classics
Circus of Horrors 4K KL Studio Classics
Columbia Horror: Behind the Mask, Black Moon, Air Hawks, Island of Doomed Men, Cry of the Werewolf, Soul of a Monster Powerhouse Indicator – Region B
Creature with the Blue Hand + Web of the Spider Film Masters
Daiei Gothic: Japanese Ghost Stories The Ghost of Yotsuya, The Snow Woman, The Bride from Hades — Radiance
Demon Pond 4K The Criterion Collection
I Walked with a Zombie – The Seventh Victim 4K Double Feature The Criterion Collection
J-Horror Rising: Shikoku, Isola: Multiple Personality Girl, Inugami, St. John’s Wort, Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman, Persona, Noroi: The Curse — Radiance
The Return of Dr. X The Warner Archive Collection
El Vampiro: Two Bloodsucking Tales from Mexico Powerhouse Indicator – Region B
The Walking Dead The Warner Archive Collection
… and, just missing Halloween:
Godzilla ’54 4K The Criterion Collection
The NeverEnding Story 4K [Imprint]
I Vampiri Radiance
And while we’re at it, why not a round-up of desirable fantastic titles released in the last couple of years. This is just a sampling, with links to reviews. And just below, a guessing game quilt of key images. They don’t link, but each does enlarge …
Cloverfield 4K ••• The Asphyx ••• Dragonslayer 4K ••• Wings of Desire 4K ••• Deep Impact 4K ••• The Boy with Green Hair ••• Castle of Blood 4K ••• The Night of the Hunter 4K ••• Time Bandits 4K ••• The Tale of Tsar Saltan ••• La fin du monde (1931) ••• Gorgo 4K ••• Robot Monster 3-D ••• Cocaine Bear 4K ••• The Giant Gila Monster + The Killer Shrews ••• Freaks, The Unknown, The Mystic ••• The Horrible Dr. Hichcock ••• The Devil-Doll ••• Beast from Haunted Cave ••• World of Giants: the Complete Series ••• The Criminal Acts of Tod Slaughter: Eight Blood-and-Thunder Entertainments, 1935-1940 ••• Messiah of Evil ••• Barbarella 4K ••• Horrors of the Black Museum ••• Our Town ••• Red Planet Mars ••• Devil’s Partner + Creature from the Haunted Sea ••• Contagion 4K ••• The Whip and the Body ••• The Playgirls and the Vampire ••• *batteries not included ••• Dune ’84 – Dual Version Edition ••• Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors 4K ••• The Mask of Fu Manchu ••• Peeping Tom 4K ••• Back from the Dead ••• Planet of the Vampires ••• Cemetery Man ••• When Worlds Collide ••• Invasion of the Body Snatchers ’56 4K ••• Revenge of the Blood Beast (The She-Beast) ••• Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet ••• Reptilicus 4K ••• Alphaville 4K
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
Three Little Words 09/17/24
The Warner Archive Collection
Blu-ray
All of the Warner Archives’ newly-remastered MGM musicals are terrific, and this 1950 musical bio with Fred Astaire is no exception. His dancing partner is Vera-Ellen, and he’s backed up by Red Skelton playing a dramatic role. Looking smashing in Technicolor are Arlene Dahl and Gloria De Haven, and Debbie Reynolds and Carleton Carpenter make a splash in a novelty number. The subject is the Tin Pan Alley songwriters Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, who penned standards like Who’s Sorry Now? and I Wanna be Loved By You. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
09/17/24
Bringing Out the Dead — 4K 09/17/24
Paramount Presents
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader teamed several times, and this harrowing nightmare about Ambulance EMTs trying to wade through the chaos of drug & gang-ridden Manhattan is an effort that deserves more praise. Nicolas Cage’s EMT Frank is flipping out under the stress of the work and a guilt complex he can’t shake. He tries to get personally involved with Rosanna Arquette’s equally shaken Manhattanite, but is driven even more mad than his fellow emergency responders John Goodman, Ving Rhames and Tom Sizemore. The ‘mean streets’ have taken hold of Frank, who is succumbing to a serious dose of Catholic guilt … and the movie abounds with hallucinatory visuals and religious symbolism. On 4K Ultra-HD + Blu-ray from Paramount Presents.
09/17/24
Mother Nature’s Monsters 09/17/24
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
From September 14 Reviewer Charlie Largent touches down in Bert I. Gordon territory, and reviews two of the director’s ‘giant bugs and vermin’ thrillers, plus one that’s better by John Bud Cardos: The Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants and Kingdom of the Spiders. It’s a guick breeze-by of BIGordon’s popular shows, given star presence by A.I.P.: Ida Lupino, Joan Collins, William Shatner. You will believe that Marjoe Gortner free-form wrestled with a giant Rat. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
09/14/24