Hello!

The world is full of awful, dreadful, just plain Bad news … but we happily appropriate a link distributed by the illustrious David J. Schow, all about bad things happening at Disneyland.

Sometimes we ask ourselves if we have a morbid streak, or if we just like Charles Addams cartoons. I’m an easy-going guy who doesn’t hold a grudge, yet I grumble each New Years’ day when inclement skies suddenly turn Kodak-perfect for our local Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena. Can’t there be one January 1st where we can see expensive corporate floats blown to flinders by a typhoon, raining rose petals all over Southern California?

I digress. The article Schow has found is a dutiful tabulation of disaster at Disneyland, once the ‘happiest place on Earth’ for all, but that now is affordable only for households that control a six-figure salary. At ‘MapQuest Travel,’ writer Kevin Saltarelli enumerates 13 highly unlucky events that Dalt Wizzy’s Magic Kingdom suffered over time.

There are some truly sad cases, as there have been several fatal accidents at Disneyland. The article isn’t sleazy …. it just can’t help but appeal to normal curiosity. For example, the title for entry #7 simply reads Don’t Sneak into Disneyland.   Another is about the less lethal effect of listening too long to the song “It’s a Small World.”  Who can resist that?

Again, we’re not trying to be sadistic here, but when visiting the park, our thoughts did wander at times … nothing can be made absolutely safe.

Meanwhile, over at The Film Noir Foundation …

the new issue of Noir City, Issue number 23, is available. It’s accessible at the bottom of the Film Noir Foundation Page. The articles this time around are of special interest.

Jake Hinkson examines the notion of the ‘Southern Noir Gothic’ film, as represented by pictures like  The Story of Temple Drake. We also get a good article by Danilo Castro about the legendary stunt driver Bill Hickman, the ‘star’ of Bullitt who was closely linked to the fatal end of James Dean.

Oren Shai looks in on the French noir films of actor-director Robert Hossein. Finally, it’s about time that sometbody got around to the cheapie crime pix of Sam Katzman … Rachel Walther exposes all of those ‘city expose’ pictures.

Linsey Ford profiles the movie career of Peter Lorre. Ben Terrall compares the book and movie of  Devil In a Blue Dress, and Christian Gutierrez examines a classic Mexican film that edges toward the definition of film noir. Finally, we always go for the reviews of critic Sean Axmaker. Each issue of Noir City is a compendium of the latest thinking on the world of noir.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Here’s a video I thought was special, forwarded by David J. Schow :

It’s a lengthy video piece featuring self-described ‘horror filmmaker’ William Malone. If he’s the same Mr. Malone I met in 1975, I tried to hire his homemade copy of Robby the Robot for our UCLA screening of Forbidden Planet. Some of the effects modelmakers on ‘1941’ worked with Malone as well, on his ‘Syngenor’ movie.

Is that a rare German poster of Der Herr der Welt on the wall behind Mr. Malone?  This man thinks like I do.

The ‘Undertaking Cinema’ video is Malone’s explanation of his trials and errors in low-budget filmmaking. He sounds honest and candid, and it’s both amusing and educational. And it has Klaus Kinski, too!

We also want to call out the activities of sometime – CineSavant reviewer Lee Broughton, who began here 20 years ago with reviews of a wide range of Italo western releases.

It’s a simple call-out to note Lee’s new sideline in expert disc added value extras. Our ‘UK Correspondent’ has been picked up by some choice boutique labels. His latest efforts are for Eureka Entertainment and 88 Films:

1. ) The video essay Homelands: German Indianthusiasm and The Sons of Great Bear, which appears on Eureka’s Blu-ray of Josef Mach’s East German western,  The Sons of Great Bear (1965).

2. ) An audio commentary, along with a booklet essay entitled The Man Called Noon and British Gothic westerns, for 88 Films’ Blu-ray of Peter Collinson’s stylish British western  The Man Called Noon (1973).

I for one am curious as to just what a western produced in communist East Germany would look like. Did some beach stand in for the desert?  Lee Broughton’s CineSavant reviews include last year’s  The Borderlands, and we liked his essay in this year’s release of Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s  Steppenwolf. Lee’s home page is  here.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

I start out with what is a fun photo for me. Ten years ago I gave up trying to take care of my 1966 Mustang GT — with no garage for it and inadequate $ to really fix it up, I told my daughter that I might have to get rid of it. The solution was to give it to her … she got the ‘car’ bug more seriously than I ever did; she’s about 500 miles up in the Bay Area and has a garage to keep it safe.

Once or twice in the past I’ve posted pix of the car, which I get to drive for a few minutes every other year or so. She reworked parts of it and keeps it in great condition.

My daughter loves a particular Wim Wenders film almost as much as I do, and used its title for her custom license plate. And a few weeks ago she finally got the opportunity to take a posed picture with the Mustang in downtown San Francisco, matching a camera angle seen in the Wenders movie. So here it is … it can be enlarged so that the license plate is readable. Someday we’ll get some pictures matching the angles in the movie perfectly.

Dependable Michael McQuarrie sends along a pair of timely short subjects from World War 2, one English and one American. I have to say, the speech to America’s generals earlier this week, urging them to get tough, kill without mercy, etc., was pretty bizarre.

Well, I think I need to get tough around the house … and these two training films from our parents’ war are just the thing I need.

The 1940 English piece is all about battlefield etiquette, and a concept of ‘controlled fire’ — selling the idea that only infantry action that will succeed is orderly and directed by an officer. We love the vintage voiceover guy and his repeated admonition: “Shoot to kill!”

The basic message is to not shoot too early, and give away your position. It’s also judged unwise when scouting, to just stand up in the middle of a field where you can be picked off. Since training films were made to serve a purpose, you can bet that someone requested the topic because soldiers were just wandering around presenting themselves as targets. The training film is 35 minutes long — I can see young recruits being either confused or bored. But that title surely got ’em. Here’s the link:

The American picture makes its point with the kind of ruthlessness we associate with smart-aleck Warners cartoons, starting with its sarcastic title. It’s a gem, a well-directed piece with a very recognizable Stephen McNally and Barry Nelson playing tough GIs.

McNally captures two Japanese infantrymen who have just killed ten of his friends. The prisoners tell him that the American soldiers killed themselves, by making their positions known, ‘hiding’ in plain sight, and bunching up where a single machine gun burst could kill them all. It’s corny but effective, as it gets the point across. It’s also only about 8 minutes long, leaving nobody time to get bored.

Lock ‘n’ load!  America’s secretary of defense needs you ready to be tough. Here’s your link!

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Things did go smoothly on CineSavant’s much-appreciated break … which was essentially two weeks spent in other towns, far away. Good food, good company, pure bliss. Thanks go to Charlie Largent and Alex Kirshenbaum for taking care of essential business. We did manage one new review for every Tuesday and Thursday. Now we’re looking at a flood of good ‘early Fall’ discs to cover, which have our spirits up.

One nice thing is that while I was away, correspondent and friend Bill Shaffer sent in the makings of an excellent CineSavant Column item.

On September 22 Bill wentto the Glenwood Arts Theater in Kansas City, one of the movie theaters owned by the late Wade Williams. The theater was selling old, discontinued Image DVDs of early Williams releases. Bill bought a few, but his interest was taken up by the theater’s lobby display — featuring a wide selection of prime movie posters from Williams’ personal collection. A standout attraction was a couple of full-sized, classic movie robots.

So here is Bill’s selection of killer images of Wade Williams’ poster collection … some real beauties in there. They zoom out to make much larger images. One of the alien robots should need no introduction; the second is the killer metal man from 1954’s Target Earth!

We of course hope that some of the movies that Williams controlled will now be freed up, so they can receive remasters and disc releases.  Rocketship X-M and  Kronos come immediately to mind, but there are others as well. We’re glad that Edgar Ulmer’s  Detour was remastered a few years back, apparently without the benefit of elements in Williams’ possession.

We hope that the great collector’s heirs have his holdings properly inventoried. Williams reportedly held on to some film elements for  Invaders from Mars. Could they perhaps include the original optical elements for the effects shots, that could be used to improve the already fabulous Ignite Films 4K disc for  Invaders?

Thanks to Bill Shaffer …. and thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Yes, CineSavant usually doesn’t post on Mondays. The  CineSavant Reviews will continue, but the CineSavant Page is going dark for a few days.  The same thing happened last April. It’s nothing sinister, negative, or suchlike, so no need for concern.

New reviews will still be posted at Trailers from Hell on the normal days Tuesday and Saturday. It’s just that they won’t be promoted here or on my Facebook page for a couple of spins of the wheel.

The place to check on Tuesday and Thursday will be my CineSavant Archives Page at Trailers from Hell. Every new review posted shows up there instanfry . . . indstilly . . . right away. In other words, a new review should be up some time tomorrow, Tuesday the 16th.

Sorry for the break. DVD Savant and CineSavant have been up for 25 years and 4 months without a whole lotta interruptions. Not that we can’t be tempted away . . .

Watch this space too. The CineSavant Column will be back very soon.

Our custom for these breaks is to invite our old friend Sierra Charriba  ↗ to step in and say a few friendly, reassuring words. He’s too busy burning and pillaging right now to make a personal appearance, but he did say I could convey a message to all readers that dare set foot on his land, which he reminds us is 3 times the size of Texas.

Charriba was again fairly aggressive, confrontational:

“CineSavant will be back!   Who you send against me now?”

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson