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Oops … just as I was linking to a YouTube encoding of Edgar G. Ulmer’s Journey Beneath the Desert on Saturday, some (righteous) rights holder took it down … but do not despair. As a consolation prize, correspondent Jonathan Gluckman forwards another YouTube video, a single scene from the movie, albeit in not quite its full Technirama width:  Antinea, l’amante della città sepolta.

But you do get to see Jean-Louis Trintignant, Haya Harareet, Gian-Maria Volontè, Amedeo Nazzari and Giulia Rubini — and one of Edgar Ulmer’s impressive sets. The Carlo Rustichelli music is good, too.

We Wanna Go to the Mayfair and the RKO Palace!

And now, a little detour to discuss an NYC Times Square picture palace, just because it came up while reviewing Conquest of Space last Saturday. Being a California boy who visited Times Square just once in 1998, I had no idea that several of the iconic giant movie palaces we see in photos were once right there in the center of everything. I assume that some later became legit houses?

Correspondent and advisor “B” explained that

. . . the RKO Palace is absolutely in Times Square; it basically faces it, at 1564 Broadway (Seventh Avenue side) between 46th and 47th Street. If you were in the area in ’98, you may recall seeing the marquee for the Broadway production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast — it was playing at the Palace. The theatre has been undergoing extensive renovation for the past few years. The hotel next door is being expanded (and will now extend to a high-rise area above the theatre) and the theatre itself is being raised thirty feet. But the place will still be there, thankfully.

The position of the Palace made it a frequent ‘supporting star’ in movie scenes that show Times Square. It’s just to the right of the Mayfair Theater, the movie house with the giant billboard that reaches up eight or nine stories.  ←  Here in a screen shot from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Judy Garland is appearing at the Palace, performing live. The marquee often advertises, “8 Vaudeville Acts.”  I have no idea how long the average vaudeville act was, but that can’t have left much room for a second feature. (All images enlarge zoomed or in new window.)

“B” continues:

Yup, that’s the Palace back in the day. If you look at the pan of the Broadway area near the beginning of George Stevens’ Something to Live For, you can see a similar marquee set-up for the Palace… eight vaudeville acts, with Samuel Fuller’s The Baron of Arizona as the screen attraction. Gun Crazy played there in the late summer of 1950.

This appears to be the actual ad to go with the image just below. The Hilton Sisters — yes, from Tod Browning’s Freaks! get more attention than Joseph H. Lewis’s Gun Crazy:

The 1,700 seat Palace opened in 1913 as a vaudeville house, and quickly became the most well-known such venue in the United States. It began primarily showing movies in 1932 and would often show pictures in conjunction with vaudeville acts; in the latter ‘thirties, it became strictly a picture house for some years. In 1949, the theatre reinstituted its movie/vaudeville policy and continued with it into the mid-’50s. Occasionally during this period the Palace would house ambitious one-person shows — Judy Garland’s famous early ’50s comeback sold out the place for three or four months, and Danny Kaye and Jerry Lewis each had several very successful solo runs at the theatre in the ’60s.

After the mid-’50s the house was sometimes a roadshow house (Bridge on the River Kwai, The Roots of Heaven, The Diary of Anne Frank) and more frequently a first-run venue — The Birds was a smash at the Palace). In 1966, the Nederlanders began to convert the Palace into a legit house (Sweet Charity was a big hit there); it continued to show movies from time to time until 1970, when it permanently became an important B’way theatre. [We saw La Cage Aux Folles there in ’84.]

As the photo proves, the Palace also booked Invaders from Mars two years before Conquest of Space; I have a hard time imagining seeing Invaders with 1600 other people and then sitting through stage acts. The experts say that Conquest did not do well at the box office, but its initial run doesn’t seem to have been too shabby, as shown by “B”s research.

I’ll let “B” finish:

I am looking over issues of Variety from March and April of ’55, and in many cities I’m seeing Conquest playing either solo or as the lead film in a double-feature. It did $12,000 as a solo in at its opening stanza at Cincinnati’s Palace in mid-March, and perhaps $17,000 as a solo at Cleveland’s Loew’s State. That same week, it did $5,000 at the Fenway and $17,000 at the Paramount in Boston, playing with Roger Corman’s tiny Five Guns West for ARC in both situations; with AA’s The Bob Mathias Story as a second feature, Conquest did a ‘standout’ $18,000 at the Palms in Detroit, with Robert Lippert’s Silver Star, it did $12,000 at Buffalo’s Paramount. In April, paired with Republic’s Timberjack (at least this was a relatively strong color co-feature), Conquest did $21,000 at the Roosevelt, and was held over for a second week.

Conquest of Space did about $23,000 at its single week at NY’s RKO Palace, supported by those eight vaudeville acts; Variety called this gross ‘sturdy.’

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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A big positive response for the Buster Keaton documentary link last Tuesday, which is maybe why this time around I’m again leaning on links to online videos. First up is a full feature suggested by correspondent and old friend Malcolm Alcala, responding to our earlier Edgar G. Ulmer review.

It’s a rather good YouTube encoding of Ulmer’s 1961 L’amante della città sepolta with Jean-Louis Trintignant, Haya Harareet, George Riviére and Gian-Maria Volontè; it’s also called Journey Beneath the Desert and in this French iteration, L’Atlantide. It’s version number six or seven of the Benoit novel, L’Atlantide, which shares a lot in common with H. Rider Haggard’s She; this update keeps ‘Atlantis’ under the Sahara desert but adds an atom test subplot.

The version is in un-subtitled French but the good scan lets us imagine how beautiful original Technirama-Technicolor prints might have been — the movie reportedly had a 70mm release in Europe. The story is slow, talky and more than a little stiff overall — but Ulmer’s sets are really impressive, as is Carlo Rustichelli’s music score. Ariannè Ulmer Cipes receives screen credit for Assistant Direction — as ‘Ariannè Arden,’ the name she used when acting in Beyond the Time Barrier. The IMDB lists her as a dialogue coach, which may have been her own description of her duties on the movie.

Someone alert our friends Tom Weaver and Jeffrey Wells: according to an official Disney disc insert from 2004, widescreen formatting is a nefarious conspiracy to cheat you from seeing the ‘whole original image!’

The picture on the left is the insert from the old Disney DVD of Darby O’Gill and the Little People, and it made us wonder why Disney would feel the need to get defensive about a flat full frame transfer of their fine 1959 movie — in 2004, before widescreen TVs had taken over, most everybody’s ‘family’ films were routinely put out flat on home video.

We thought the text was amusing, as if an attorney were making a backwards argument — completely misrepresenting the concept of widescreen exhibition — and acting as if they’re doing us a favor.

The image at left can be made more legible: it zooms bigger or can be opened in a new window.

The Disney Club has released a new Blu-ray of Darby O’Gill and first reports are that the aspect ratio is 1:66 widescreen, which is fine by us at CineSavant, although the film’s special effects were fun to scrutinize full-frame as well. When I was 7, by myself in the Hickam Air Base theater, those banshees sure had me worried.

The Warner Archive Collection’s new Blu-ray of Kevin Reynolds’ Fandango prompted me to go searching for an online encoding of the USC film that was the basis for the show. It’s called Proof, and it is exactly what a smart film student of 1979 should concoct to get the attention of Steven Spielberg — a nicely crafted ‘crazy road trip’ movie about the challenge three beer-swizzling clowns set up for their nerdy friend to prove his courage — at the flakiest parachute jump school imaginable. Smart work, Kevin — just like Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis before you, you caught the brass ring and formed a solid (for quite a while) working relationship with Kevin Costner.

I remember Proof well because of its actor Marvin J. McIntyre, who is a hilarious original here: “ARCH!”  He repeated his character in Fandango and graced a number of good shows in the following years. Marvin was a good friend of a fellow editor in trailers and came by the shop often (quite a few years ago). Proof wasn’t Marvin’s first film role but it certainly got him going . . . Spielberg’s vote of approval had to help a little.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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A great find on the web. Readers frequently ask about this show — it’s Kevin Brownlow & David Gill’s superb documentary Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, from 1987 and narrated by Lindsay Anderson. It’s in three parts, at the Internet Archive.

There have been other docus on Keaton but this is by far the best, with more insight and more input via film of Keaton telling his own story. Everything seems fresh even if you’ve read the books or seen many of his pictures. I remember it being one of the few things I showed my father that he thoroughly enjoyed. Knowing that a news film camera is rolling, Keaton mimes an impromptu gag on a real railroad platform, and it’s just brilliant. Listening to the stories of movie adventures, you just fall in love with the guy.

And I haven’t seen this next movie, but it looks promising. Fun City Editions has already brought us great Blu-rays of Michael Ritchie’s Smile and Frank Perry’s Rancho Deluxe, so I’m curious about Born To Win, a comedy – drama (?) about a hustler-junkie played by George Segal, and also starring Paula Prentiss, Karen Black, Robert De Niro and Hector Elizondo. It’s a United Artists release, how come I’ve never heard of it?

It’s directed by Ivan Passer of Cutter’s Way so for me it’s something of a must-see. The Trailer looks promising too. It’s due out on April 26th, through Vinegar Syndrome.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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This information arrived very near April First, which on first glance made me very worried. But no, it’s real enough: an outfit called Ignite Films “Classics for the Future” has put up splashy announcement for a fancy restored disc of William Cameron Menzies’ 1953 Invaders from Mars, said to become a Fall 2022 release in Blu-ray, 4K UHD and DVD. I frankly wondered if the day would ever come.

The news is two days old, but still buzzing around; close associates are certainly pleased. I wish I could write Bill Warren with the good news.

The issue first arrived in the form of a listing for the schedule of this year’s TCM Film Fest, which listed a restored Invaders from Mars to be presented by John Sayles. What was this restoration, and from what source?

Gary Teetzel got on the trail looking for answers, and forwarded a quote from a 2016 Home Theater Forum post by Jan Willem Bosman Jansen, who owns a company called Ignite B.V.. Jansen claimed copyright through a purchase of 64 films owned by the late Richard Rosenfeld. Some of have already been released on Blu-ray (he mentioned Kino). Invaders from Mars was in that group of titles.

Then on Thursday morning, restoration specialist Scott McQeen posted on LinkedIn, saying he was involved with the restoration, and adding a trio of frame grabs. The restoration is not only genuine, it looks superb.

And finally, Gary intercepted a post on the Ignite Home Page officially announcing the disc for Fall 2022, with presales beginning on April 23. They have more frame grabs, and a sign-up link for their newsletter.

A restored 4k UHD of Invaders from Mars?  That’s certainly a welcome thing. With so much conflicting information about the movie’s ownership and disposition of film elements, I would not have been surprised to discover that the movie was lost, or incomplete, or otherwise ‘unserviceable’ for one reason or another. I’ve already heard from a different direction that Joe Dante has recorded a video piece for the disc release.

For reference, CineSavant’s old essay on the film The Ultimate Invaders from Mars , written twenty years ago (that’s how long we’ve officially been waiting) is Here.

Severin Films has announced a second Christopher Lee boxed set, The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee Collection 2 . As is their habit, they’ve even assembled a nifty promo trailer for it. It will be fun to catch up with a watch-able copy of the goofy Uncle Was A Vampire, in ‘Ultrascope’.

More info is available at the Severin Films page. Charlie Largent reviewed the first Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee collection back on July 10, 2021.

Next up, yet another installment of a funky fan cut from YouTube that many readers likely have already seen. It’s FredFlix’s Oct 5, 2018 chop ‘n’ channel of a vintage Roger Corman movie into a different form: What If Not Of This Earth Were A Twilight Zone Episode?

I think I liked this more as a cut-down than for the way it’s been integrated into the format of the TV show. Don’t expect elaborate graphics, but FredFlix has appointed it with vintage TV commercials. The real takeaway is a renewed desire to see Corman’s picture restored, in good quality.

And April’s new Milestone Newsletter has an anti-war, pro- Ukraine tone that we found pleasing, with some good links and video samples. The ’60s poster at left says it all.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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Today we’ve got a super fun link purloined from the generous David J. Schow.

It’s an 11-minute drive down Sunset Boulevard, from near Gower street all the way until about two or three blocks into the official Sunset strip. The view faces backwards and the pace is nice and slow, with the car stopping at several lights. The very stable, sharp image may have been intended as rear-projection for a car interior scene, and would certainly work as one now. It’s billed as ‘colorized, enhanced, frame interpolated and upscaled.’ You can zoom on the image above to see how sharp it is — reading street signs is no problem.

Because we can read those street signs, Angelenos familiar with the district will encounter a great many items of interest. Not a whole lot is in place yet but prominently on view are The Hollywood Athletic Club, Crossroads of the World, Hollywood High and the old Oriental Theater (pictured). Amazingly enough, the attraction on the marquee happens to be Singin’ in the Rain. That movie debuted in March of ’52 (a few weeks after I was born…) and went wide in April. The Oriental was a small ‘nabe house so this was some time later in the year.

Looking at the cars & trucks, pedestrians and advertising signs is a real Time Machine event, that’s for sure. I see a house at Genessee where I worked as an editor in 1989. Long-gone residential buildings are everywhere along the route. Billboards show up as we get close to the Sunset Strip, but not the glitzy kind that soon took over. Every intersection is now completely developed. We can see the spaces later occupied by the Hollywood In ‘n Out Burger, the Director’s Guild, etc.. Schwab’s Drugstore is plainly visible. It’s just an ordinary building; I never paid attention to it and it closed in 1983.

Here’s the link: Gower to the Sunset Strip – in 1952, posted on February 17 by Vivid History.

If you’re really hooked on Sunset Blvd., an additional two-minute video continues the trip from where the Vivid History take left off, only facing forward, and 12 years later in 1964. It’s nowhere near as sharp. We can’t read street signs as well, but if you know The Strip you’ll see some famed clubs and eateries. It begins right where Tower Records and Tower Video appeared several years later, looking straight at the building that is now the bookstore ‘Book Soup,’ at 8818 West Sunset. The shot almost ends in an accident, with our camera car runnng a red light. That’s too soon: Dead Man’s Curve is a couple of miles further on, on the other side of Beverly Hills.

The video is called Lost Los Angeles – Sunset Strip 1964 and it was posted in 2012 by ‘Pamela Greyson’s Lost Los Angeles Channel.’

I stumbled across this teaser for a Brit TV movie and include it because I had no idea it existed. It’s a 2010 version of H.G. Wells’ First Men in the Moon.

I’m not offended by a new take on a book already adapted rather well by Schneer & Harryhausen, but offhand this version seems more than a little derivative. The story is told by a codger in Little Big Man– type age makeup, reportedly at the time of Apollo 11. Is that fair?  That exact flashback wrinkle was reportedly dreamed up by the famed writer Nigel Kneale.

The few effects shots in the teaser trailer look familiar too. Otherwise the teaser isn’t much more than a pair of talking heads, with no good view of a Selenite or anything found on the Moon. A fuzzy Selenite photo I saw online doesn’t look too shabby, but it also isn’t very insect-like. Has anybody seen the show?  The only consistent impression left by the reviews on the IMDB is that it’s very talky.

And finally, here’s a Focus 20th Anniversary Reel of clips of films they’re proud of, perhaps cut too fast to recognize too many. Some quality work is there but I’d like to see all the smaller pictures identified. I’ll need to look again to see if Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning The Pianist is represented. Perhaps that’s because Focus just distributed it . . .

If you haven’t heard, the Oscars were two days ago. I spent Sunday night avoiding the Oscars and haven’t a single thing to say about them. How’s that for up-to-date coverage of show business events?

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson