Hello!

The disc companies have apparently spent their quiet Covid days negotiating for desirable titles. I listed some attention-grabbers last time around, only to be sent another stack of exciting announcements this week.

First up, Severin Films has remastered Barbara Steele’s final Eurohorror film An Angel for Satan, a moody B&W show in which she again plays two personalities. This is the movie that James Ursini and I first saw on a totally mangled Italian VHS tape with no subtitles … and barely understood what was going on. It will be good to have it in both languages — and its arrival augurs well for ALL vintage Italo horror and fantasy to be remastered. Severin’s promo trailer demonstrates the transfer quality. It’s due right before Halloween, on October 26.

Then, Kino Lorber Studio Classics has released their full schedule of Blu-rays for the last two months of 2021. Almost all are new remasters, most by Kino itself. All I can do is name twenty or so titles that immediately appeal, that I’ll definitely want to review:

November:

The Secret of the Blue Room (1933), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), The Mad Doctor (1941), The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946), Homebodies (Larry Yust, 1974), The Old Fashioned Way (W.C. Fields, 1934), It’s a Gift (W.C. Fields, 1934), The Bank Dick W.C. Fields, (1940), The Accused (William Dieterle, 1949), Night Has a Thousand Eyes (John Farrow, 1948), Among the Living (Stuart Heisler, 1941), Deported (Robert Siodmak, 1950), Invasion of the Body Snatchers 4K (Philip Kaufman, 1978), To Hell and Back (Audie Murphy, 1955), Jet Pilot (Josef von Sternberg, 1957), Freud aka The Secret Passion (John Huston, 1962).

December:

Get Crazy Special Edition (Allan Arkush!, 1983), Rich and Strange (Hitchcock, 1931), Number Seventeen (Hitchcock, 1932), Broken Lullaby (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932), Violent City aka The Family (Sergio Sollima, 1970), The Brass Bottle (Harry Keller, 1964), The Long Goodbye remaster (Robert Altman, 1973).

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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We’re experiencing a 4K Ultra HD avalanche of desirable titles: in addition to The Criterion Collection’s announcement last week of Citizen Kane, The Red Shoes, Mulholland Dr. and A Hard Day’s Night, new promotional material has arrived from several companies for 4K Ultra HD features of interest. Universal has Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (October 12) and a new 4K Icons of Horror Collection with Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Wolf Man (October 5). Paramount Pictures is sneaking up on us with a 25th Anniversary 4K of Scream (October 19), which it so happens I’ve never seen, and the Barry Sonnenfeld The Addams Family (November 9). Add those to the just-around-the-corner Arrow 4K Ultra HD disc of Lynch’s Dune, and it’s time to make sure my 4K player is running well.

I thought it might be just a recap of a home video executive’s career, but Tim Millard’s hour-long podcast George Feltenstein: A Career in Classic Film Marketing covers material that I have almost forgotten myself, even though I shared a few years of it working for MGM/UA Home Video. Like the YouTube lecture I linked to last week, this talk with George Feltenstein also covers all the dates and companies for the main developments in home video, from $70 meant-for-rental VHS tapes in 1979 all the way to today’s high-performance 5″ video discs. It’s quite detailed, and all from an executive who entered the field just in time for laserdiscs, special added-value items, the production of ‘Ultimate Editions’ and the invention of branded lines, like “Forbidden Hollywood” disc sets. George credits Criterion and Fox for the first letterboxed home video releases, and names the titles that helped each new format take off.

A little help here please — in the photo above, is George Feltenstein on the left, or the right?

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Big disc release news today … most of which has already circulated but is definitely worth repeating. First up is the announcement that Criterion is going 4K Ultra HD, initially on a select handful of prestige titles. The new line rolls out in November, and the first six titles include something for everyone: Citizen Kane, Menace II Society, The Piano, Mulholland Dr., The Red Shoes and A Hard Day’s Night.

The initial announcement says that a Blu-ray with the special features will be included as well, and that some films will be presented in Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos.

←  Kino Lorber recently released a series of Mae West features on Blu, so a selection of the best of the ‘Belle of pre-Code Innuendo’ is already fully available here. But UK’s Powerhouse Indicator label Will be coming out with a lavishly appointed Mae West in Hollywood 1932-1943 collection in November. The boxed set will likely be Region-B limited, but PI is known for their extensive extras.

The titles in question are Night After Night, She Done Him Wrong, I’m No Angel, Belle of the Nineties, Goin’ to Town, Klondike Annie, Go West Young Man, Every Day’s a Holiday, My Little Chickadee and The Heat’s On. It’s ten titles on six discs.

→  The Warner Archive is going all odd on us… we love that they continue to release Blu-rays of vintage titles, even if we’re given odd items like Humphrey Bogart in Chain Lightning. We were thrilled by Errol Flynn in a slick restoration of The Sea Hawk and a fine remaster of Objective, Burma!, discs that encouraged us to eagerly anticipate maybe Captain Blood, The Charge of the Light Brigage or Gentleman Jim. We instead find ourselves with the odd Public Domain item Santa Fe Trail, a beautifully directed Michael Curtiz film that’s nobody’s idea of a great picture. The best thing about this odd historical pastiche is Raymond Massey as John Brown; Massey is even better as a religious maniac than he is as Abraham Lincoln. And I like somewhat shaky films about the civil war era.

Some fans have already jumped to the conclusion that the Archive will now unveil sparkling new editions of other Public Domain favorites like Life with Father, which is not at all likely. In what I’ve observed, there’s been no way to predict what’s next on the Archive’s list. For a while it seemed as if they had a moratorium on vintage Technicolor musicals, and then last year produced an impressive string of classics.

We’re of course concerned about the future of The Warner Archive Collection, and in the absence of any concrete news can only hope that the powers that be are swayed by the label’s financial success — a great manuy loyal, enthusiastic Blu-ray customers out there don’t want to be left high and dry.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

A couple of disc announcements today — Cohen media is releasing the vintage 1948 English drama Corridor of Mirrors. It’s the first film directed by Terence Young and the first film appearance for Christopher Lee, which should raise some interest even though he reportedly only gets two lines in one scene. The semi-fantastic story is said to be fine art- oriented and on the precious side — yet most reviews I’ve read were enthusiastic. It’s due on October 19, through Kino Lorber.

Then there’s the surprise announcement of a Director’s Cut for Francis Ford Coppola’s Dementia 13, from Lionsgate. The re-edit reportedly removes a scene or two. The best news is that it is sourced from the original negative — all other disc copies of this Public Domain picture have been derived from prints. An Official Restoration Trailer is viewable online.

The IMDB states that American Zoetrope produced this new 4K restoration of Dementia 13 in 2018. It will have an intro and audio commentary from Francis Ford Coppola. In a separate menu item will be the original opening called the ‘D-13 prologue.” It was a test administered to viewers to see if they were sane enough to watch Dementia 13 without going stark raving mad. Coppola reportedly culled five or six minutes of scenes to make his ‘Director’s Cut,’ and we’re not sure if those outs will be on the disc. And what’s the story with the famous axe murder, the film’s most notorious scene?   We’ve read that it was an add-on directed by Jack Hill, but I’m not sure if that’s accurate.

The restoration is billed as ‘Francis Ford Coppola’s First Movie’ … does that mean we won’t be seeing Director’s Cuts of Tonight for Sure and Battle Beyond the Sun?

The lineup of expected new reviews (after this brief August slowdown) looks very exciting. Charlie Largent will have the fabulous Arrow Daimajin box and the Viavision Hammer Four Gothic Horror Films box, while I’m tackling the Viavision Silver Screams Cinema box. We’re also got Criterion’s Ashes and Diamonds and FunCity Editions’ Rancho Deluxe.

I’m looking forward to Arrow’s 4K of David Lynch’s Dune, their Moju / The Blind Beast and Kino Lorber’s Peter Ibbetson. If that Gary Cooper show looks good it ought to be a revelation: full-on surrealism from Paramount in 1934. Didn’t know Henry Hathaway had it in him.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Hey, I’m one review short today: just a single review for the next two outings or so. There’s nothing wrong here, I’ll explain later. But hey, we have interesting links… interesting to me anyway. Thanks for all the great messages & responses in the last few days…. (smile emoji goes here).

I met correspondent Steve Iverson and through him secured links to his model-building websites. I have a brother who’s into radio control planes and a couple of associates that make terrific models from scratch. I’m a model fan myself, a former high-powered ‘miniature coordinator’ (cough) who could assemble old plastic models, you know, when they were cheap. And hey, there’s some old Aurora monster models in this mix, so these links are CineSavant-friendly. No apologies.

For the curious, and for modelers with glue-sticky fingers, here are Steve’s pages:
CultTVman’s Fantastic Modeling is his blog.
CultTVman Hobby Shop is the full sales site with news of upcoming product and conventions.
CultTVman CarModelsUSA concentrates on that specialty, not mine, normally.

Why does this sound like fun to me?  I still have intriguing models for an SS Seaview and a When Worlds Collide Space Ark sitting atop a shelf, unbuilt. (↑) If only I were as talented as Todd Stribich.

New terms no-one needs to learn but are interesting anyway: “MUSE” and “DANCE.” Correspondent Foxx Nolte points us to a pair of great YouTube videos by Techmoan. It’s essentially a lecture called HD Laserdisc – HD in ’93, but it covers the entire spectrum of home video after the VHS craze, laying down a timeline for many DVD milestones and every laserdisc innovation including one called ‘Muse’ that played HD video before any other format.

It’s a good refresher on much I had forgotten. Did you know that laserdisc players were sold until 2009?  That Japan called Laser HD ‘Hi-Vision?’  I know curious disc & home video fans that will eat this up. The video has an equally enthusiastic Part Two. That Laserdisc HD system was ridiculously complicated and expensive, and it’s highly entertaining to see him try to replace a circuit board in a player.

The first of many takeaway nuggets: Techmoan says that DVD was the catalyst for the changeover from analog to digital video, even broadcast TV.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

This is a lean week for Column Items and also a pressing one for free time — next week the whole site may go lean for a couple of days. I’ve been thinking about the CineSavant page, and want to mention some issues that are probably redundant, but that I get asked about in my mail.

1.  The large images that I put on top of the page twice a week are just my way of linking to older reviews that might be of interest. I no longer write ‘CLICK on it’ as a link prompt, but take my word for it, they’re links. I’ve put an extra image here, from The Night of the Hunter, just to give the column something visual. Also, my review text is usually packed with links, mostly for movie titles. They lead to other reviews and anything else I think might be interesting. On my browser the links just show up in red, and not underlined. They won’t take you to scammers or anything, honest. I know this sounds elemental, but I don’t want any of my readers to miss out — if the review you’re reading is no good, maybe the one at the link will be better.

2.  At the right side of the CineSavant front page is an invite to write me — the email is direct. It doesn’t put you on any kind of mailing list or anything. The most fun I derive from this page is corresponding with fellow movie fans, many of whom are better informed than I am.

3.  The reader comments below my reviews at Trailers from Hell are more complicated. I get great comments but also have some followers that enjoy the ability to anonymously give me grief. It comes with the territory. Responding would just make things ugly, and their remarks are a form of entertainment too. And it’s not like I don’t make errors — my advisers save me every week. I read my comments daily. Positive remarks really bolster the morale around CineSavant Central.

4.   I know my review index is a mess — they’re the three links in the right-hand column with the ‘flying saucer’ images from when I had more hair. The index is kept up to date, even if I’ve screwed up the WordPress formatting and the entries jump up and down in size. This is the place to search, here on CineSavant. The Search function at Trailers from Hell will only find reviews that were posted at Trailers from Hell. My 6500+ reviews go back to 1998 at three other pages. If you can’t find a review or an old article, feel free to write.

5.  Finally, I haven’t changed the format of my reviews for ages, and I realize that not all of it makes great sense. The ‘ratings’ at the bottom are definitely old-school and not particularly relevant, but readers want them. Since I pick and choose what I review most reviews get an Excellent or a Very Good anyway. Ranked judgments become silly when I give a Z-picture sci-fi groaner high marks, just because I find it entertaining.

6.  I welcome suggestions — especially ones that might make posting easier. I maintain several logs every week covering my posting work at CineSavant and Trailers from Hell, which I guess all comes under the heading of ‘keeping mischievous hands busy.’ Sorry I’ve no fun/silly links for you today … will run some down for next time, if I can.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson