Hello!

We can depend on correspondent Michael McQuarrie to send along links of crucial interest:

It seems the Internet Archive has a pretty extensive selection of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines up, and rather well-scanned.

My teenaged collection began with Issue 28 — Bela Lugosi as a manimal, above — but it had to disappear when I went to college in 1970, along with 99% of my childhood possessions. Only a few times since have I sampled old copies of the magazine. Forrest J. Ackerman was no oracle of our times, but he did have fun with terrible puns. I’m advised to jump into early issues and start seeking out ‘reader write-in’ articles, where various fans, friends, superfans and the occasional future celebrity can be found.

The covers are certainly fantastic — for some reason I saved the incredible scarlet cover with Bernard Jukes, when everything else had to go. I recall digging into early issues I never saw, only to be confronted with material I had already read in paperback reprints. Yep, Forry and his publisher didn’t print anything just once, if 4 times would be tolerated.

Anyway, I’m going to refrain from dawdling too long in this archive … it doesn’t seem to be complete, or is it?

Internet Archive: Famous Monsters of Filmland 

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We once again shamelessly ‘adopt’ a link circulated by Joe Dante. This time out the prize is an hourlong TV docu about the legendary silent actress Louise Brooks, from the 1980s BBC arts series Arena.

The show takes excerpts from Brooks’ intense one-on-one 1975 ‘bathrobe’ interview piece with director Richard Leacock called A Conversation with Louise Brooks, that was later also folded into the documentary Lulu in Berlin. Also part of the mix is interview footage shot by Kevin Brownlow, for his solid-gold docu miniseries about silent movies, Hollywood.

Add to that numerous clips from Louise Brooks films and interview material with various spokespeople like critic Kenneth Tynan — he really seems to have been enthralled by the Brooks mystique. The actress was completely frank about sex. This particular docu begins with the oft-quoted bit from the Leacock interview, in which Ms. Brooks says that ‘Hollywood was invented by money men as a way of owning beautiful women.’

The documentary may change your mind about the sex appeal of silent movies:

Arena: Louise Brooks 

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This caught our attention as well. Long-time correspondent Malcom Alcala found these online photos online somewhere — they’re reportedly from an un-aired, possibly un-filmed Dick Tracy TV show sometime about 1967.

Friend Craig Reardon helped with some fantastic effects makeup jobs for the celebrated Warren Beatty film, but I didn’t know that an earlier production attempted to replicate the cartoonish appearance of Chester Gould’s menagerie of underworld villains.

All I can say is that the makeup man is identified as John Chambers … it’s reportedly Lon Chaney Jr. made up as “Pruneface,” and actor Leon Janney in full makeup as “Flattop.”  The Flattop still looks like it’s been touched up a little, maybe. Or maybe a lot. But it certainly matches the comic book look of Pruneface.

Is it just me, or does Pruneface look like a parody of Ronald Reagan?

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

 

http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s471tracy.html

It’s called using everything you’ve got that the marketplace will allow.

 

Hello!

Now this is nice to hear …. while we calmly wait for Paramount Presents’ upcoming 4K disc of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, an announcement arrives of an equally hot prospect … a June 18 release date for Roman Polanski’s 1974 masterpiece Chinatown on 4K Ultra HD.

For this one Paramount Presents adds new extras — a piece with the film’s assistant director, and two from Sam Wasson, author of the book that added much to the popularity of Polanski’s picture, The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years Of Hollywood.

An added Blu-ray will include the 1990 sequel, The Two Jakes. This one ought to be great in 4K — it’s up there with the best experiences we’ve had in a movie theater. I remember seeing it from the long-gone ‘Cathay Balcony’ of Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

 

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Among the web finds thoughtfully circulated by Joe Dante is this nice appreciation at Pocket Worthy of the late, great Tower Records company. Its superstore on the Sunset Strip was a must-stop destination with a lot of character — we had to approach from the East or the West ’cause my old car had trouble climbing the hill from West Hollywood.

The article by Ben Marks goes deeper than the history of the vast retail chain, describing what buying music was like in those old days. A vinyl album might cost less than $5 dollars, new. We’d see long-haired hipsters in leather carrying stacks of 30 albums to checkout, with their Jaguars and Rolls-Royces waiting outside …

Then there was me, pondering if I should spend eating money on an LP of the Les Baxter soundtrack to Master of the World. Hey, it was stereophonic!  I decided to eat instead.

The article makes mention of the documentary All Things Must Pass, which we reviewed at CineSavant early in 2016 … I still recommend it. The Pocket Worthy article is a click away:

If You’re Too Young to Remember the Magic of Tower Records, Here’s What You Missed 

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

A curious pro-militarist Japanese fantasy… a defiant Navy Captain never surrendered.

 

Hello!

An interesting filmic discovery this week at Wellesnet. How this 9 minutes of film came about is a little complicated, but CineSavant advisor Gary Teetzel manages a conscise description:

“Here’s some color footage from a production of Twelfth Night that Orson Welles directed at age 17 at the Todd School for Boys. He doesn’t act in the play, but he directed it and designed the set and costumes. His voice is heard providing an introduction.”

The interesting article was written by Ray Kelly. Welles presumably did not direct any of this home movie-style footage. The transfer does everything it can to prevent piracy, including formatting the reel wide-screen, chopping off the top and bottom of every shot:

Orson Welles’ Twelfth Night 

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And Joe Dante circulated without comment a link to another short AI film made with Sora,: Sora AI Film Series 1.

Most of the viewer comments are very positive. My first thought is that I’d like to see the text prompts (?) or script (?) or whatever that this started with.

I’d hate to think a computer program could be told, ‘make a brilliant montage using copyrighted clips,’ and then be instructed to ‘alter the clips enough to obscure their source and avoid infringement lawsuits.’  Or is that the fundamental premise behind the development of these AI tools?

When CGI came in, I wrongly thought some movies might carry a proud text disclaimer, saying ‘no digital effects, just camera art.’ Visuals By Committee are bad enough, but Visuals By AI is too much. Is it Art Made By Nobody, but Stolen From Everybody?   The link:

Air Head for Shy Kids 

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And since CineSavant falls for most everything having to do with Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, we were curious when our Facebook feed — which normally siphons peep show videos and links to articles behind firewalls — sent us to a Netflix presentation that ‘enhances and colorizes’ the classic sci-fi epic.

The colorization appears done more for mood than realism — it’s more like a tinting pass … a rather odd tinting pass. Colors shift and drift and little blasts of red pop in, while faces stay fairly consistent. I noted that some swift pans change the overall color bluish for a moment. With all the colorization fireworks, the recovered Argentinian footage is less distracting, I must say.

Enhancing accessibility to vintage films without completely mutilating them has to be seen as something positive… even Giorgio Moroder’s disco revision can be lauded for Keeping the Torch lit for Metropolis. Soon to be 100 years old, the movie still captures our imaginations. As Aitam Bar-Sagi might say, anything that promotes this Astounding picture is good. Next stop, 3-D conversion?

I suppose this video tranformation was created via AI and a couple of descriptive prompts?  I did not find this on my Netflix account, but the web link is:

Metropolis (1927) Enhanced and Colorized 

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

This very dry wartime thriller must have sold more theater beverages than Lawrence of Arabia.

 

Hello!

Just last Saturday we reviewed one of the disc sets pictured above — now Dick Dinman offers his latest podcast on the same subject …

The newest DVD Classics Corner On the Air show reaches deep into Dick Dinman’s audio archives for conversations he had about Edward G. Robinson with stars Karl Malden, Kathleen Hughes, Gena Rowlands, and Margaret O’Brien, all of whom have worked with the famed actor. It’s a Kino Lorber tie-in, to accompany new releases of Robinson’s films Scarlet Street, Vice Squad, Black Tuesday and Nightmare.

The podcast, up for listening, is

4 Stars Salute Screen Legend Edward G. Robinson. 

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On the evening of April 22, producer Arnold Leibovit is presenting a smash George Pal double bill at a terrific venue: The historic Village Theater in Westwood. The Village Theater recently made big show-biz news, having been purchased by an élite group of Hollywood personalities. The landmark theater was one of the first big buildings in Westwood, back when one saw only empty fields between Wilshire Blvd. and the brand-new quad buildings at the brand-new UCLA.

Arnold has been restoring and promoting George Pal’s Puppetoons for decades. The April 22 event will premiere ten Technicolor Puppetoon restorations. They will be followed by a terrific opportunity to experience a giant state-of-the-art screening of the 4K restoration of Pal’s 1953 sci-fi masterpiece The War of the Worlds. At the Village Theater, that classic alien invasion thriller is going to be Big and Loud.

Scheduled for attendance are Liebovit, actress Ann Robinson and director Joe Dante. Full details are available at a Sci-fi Biz web page,

The War of the Worlds + George Pal Puppetoons.Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Movies that tell the embarrassing truth are to be cherished.

 

Hello!

The news that came out on Wednesday couldn’t make us happier: the Warner Archive Collection for April promises remasters of some of the most interesting films in their vault.

The announcement backs up hints from WAC spokesperson George Feltenstein that disc collectors would be ‘very very pleased’ with the 2024 titles. All of these are on CineSavant’s wish list, starting with two from Francis Ford Coppola:

←  Coppola’s UCLA ‘Treatise’ film You’re a Big Boy Now, the one that debuted Karen Black and features a soundtrack by The Lovin’ Spoonful. It’s been needing a remaster nigh-on forever.

→  Also Coppola’s Zooetrope kick-off production The Rain People, the road movie with Shirley Knight and James Caan and Robert Duvall. You know what happens to Rain People when they cry …

←  Fred Zinnemann’s The Nun’s Story, one of his best and also one of the best Audrey Hepburn movies, with Peter Finch and filmed in Europe and Africa.

→  William Wyler’s beloved Friendly Persuasion, a cherished family film that rewards in every respect; it’s also a Civil War movie about pacifism. The cast is really special; Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer and Phyllis Love, plus the other starring Goose of the 1950s.

←   … and to make horror fans happy, MGM’s much desired pre-Code Boris Karloff shocker The Mask of Fu Manchu. They’ll need more space to write a ‘sensitivity disclaimer’ for this most overtly racist of all horror pre-Codes. The remaster reportedly restores to full quality eight minutes of scenes later found to be too offensive. Do you think Fu Manchu’s shouted promise might be a projection of white supremacist fears?: “We will KILL the white man and TAKE his women!”

CineSavant advisor Gary Teetzel passes on the news that George Feltenstein has promised more WAC horror and fantasy, sooner than later.

 

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And since we’re so happy about the WAC news, we don’t mind posting this link to the Warner Archive 15th Anniversary Sale, which ends on the 28th.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

The old saying ‘They Had Faces Then’ is no joke.