By Hank Reineke

In November of 1980, Screen International announced The Beast Within as one of fourteen features in the United Artists production pipeline. The trade mag estimated UA was willing to invest some four to five million dollars on Beast, a bit of a gamble for the studio. UA’s senior VP of worldwide production conceded to Variety that the studio’s low budget films of the previous year had performed below expectation. Variety mused the era of the “small picture” was not only in “big trouble… but officially kaput at United Artists.” The VP explained the fourteen pics greenlit for 1981, were, “somewhat bigger pictures that are designed to capture a bigger share of the audience.”

It was Mony Productions and producer Gabriel Katzka that brought The Beast Within to the attention of United Artists. Katzka was intrigued by a book proposal written by the novelist Edward Levy. The Beast Within would be Levy’s second novel upon completion. Levy’s first novel, Came a Spider, had been published by Maryland’s Arbor House in late autumn of 1978. On some level the basic plotline of Levy’s debut novel appeared comic book in construction: some critics thought it a retooled mishmash that recycled the storylines of such 1950s sci-fi classics as Tarantula and Them! Others thought the book an intriguing effort. One critic would describe Came a Spider, as “A horror story in the class of Daphne Du Maurier’s The Birds.”

Whatever its merits, Levy’s novel brought him to the attention of Hollywood. Mony Productions proactively snatched up film rights to The Beast Within, the author’s as yet unwritten second novel. Novice screenwriter Tom Holland was challenged to bring Levy’s still-unpublished novel to the screen. Holland had once worked on television as an actor, but his interest turned to script-writing. Though he had only one television story-writing credit to his name, Holland had been shopping an original script written on spec, one coming to the attention of producer Katzka.

Katzka engaged to Holland to bring The Beast Within to the big screen, a difficult challenge. The producer was really asking Holland to write an almost complete original story as Katzka had only optioned a book proposal, not a full-fledged, fleshed-out work. Levy’s second novel had yet even been written, and his The Beast Within would not actually see publication until the spring of 1981… a full month following the wrapping of principal photography on Katzka’s film.

Regardless, the producer was excited about the general premise of Levy’s forthcoming work, assigning Holland to speculatively “write off” an original story based on a few items found in the book proposal. The producer was primarily interested in delivering a grisly human-to-monster transformation climax that would bring young horror film addicts to the cinemas. So, with little of Levy’s material available to work from, Holland composed a script he described as “Freudian” and “psycho-sexual” in its scope.

The monster as imagined in the script is essentially a man-sized, flesh-eating cicada. Holland was intrigued by the real life-cycle science of the seventeen-year periodical cicada. Upon hatching from its egg, a seventeen-year cicada nymph burrows into the soil and lays dormant for the first seventeen years of life. When it finally awakens it has only a few weeks of above-ground existence, spending its days mating, fertilizing, and laying eggs in a cycling process.

Holland’s script centers the periodical cicada as a “visual metaphor” of a male teenager’s rite of passage from child to post-pubescent – an hormone-enraged - sexual and emotional predator. Of course, this being a blood-saturated horror film of the early 1980s, as screenwriter, Holland also needed to create an exploitable script mixing in such disparate elements of young lust, cannibalism, spiritual possession, mysterious trapdoors and grave robbery. As his script differs wildly from Levy’s late-published novel, Holland is credited as contributing the “screen story” as well as the screenplay. The dust flap of Levy’s post-dated novel suggests the book’s author delivered an equally morbid if somewhat contrasting tale: "In this new novel comes a child, damned by satanic mischance, from the soul of the Ozark Plateau---a modern-day Jekyll and Hyde in the clothes of a werewolf".

In January of 1981 United Artists announced that Philippe Mora was to direct The Beast Within. Harvey Bernhard and Gabriel Katzka would act as supervising producers, Jack B. Bernstein to serve as executive producer. Mora was an interesting choice as his film background was mostly in documentary (Swastika (1973) and Brother, Can You Spare a Dime (1975) as well as short films. The one and only “Hollywood” film to his credit was an Australian nineteenth century outlaw-western Mad Dog Morgan (1976) featuring Dennis Hopper. Within a few weeks’ time, it was reported that actors Ronny Cox (Deliverance) was to “topline” The Beast Within alongside Bibi Besch (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), along with Kitty Ruth Moffat, Paul Clemens and Ron Soble.

Cameras were to begin rolling on 9 February 1981. Though Holland’s original script centered the action in areas surrounding Atlanta, Georgia, principal photography took place in Mississippi’s rural communities of Raymond, Bolton and Whitfield. Due to the cooperation of the Mississippi Film Bureau, The Beast Within was shot entirely on location in the Magnolia state, without benefit of a proper Hollywood sound stage. The city of Jackson, some twenty miles northeast of Raymond, would serve as the production’s home base as well as a shooting location. Casting director Ramsey King hired a number of local acting talent to fill vacant roles, confident the local players would “have little trouble shifting from the little theatre stage lights to the klieg lights.”

As production commenced in the grim month of February, cast and crew were immediately confronted by unpleasant weather: thunderstorms and an encroaching polar air mass that brought snow and freezing temperatures. This unwelcome situation was cinematically beneficial. The cold, the dampness, the misting fog and the dreary rural settings brought a layer of atmosphere to the production. Actor Clemens recalled the “isolated” town of Raymond as positively “Lovecraftian” in its remote-area oddness.

The setting of the film’s opening sequence is 1964. On a fog-shrouded night in the backwater town of Nioba, Mississippi (population 1267), the car of newlyweds Eli and Caroline MacCleary (Cox, Besch) is stranded in a mud bank. When Eli goes off to seek assistance, Caroline is sexually assaulted by a creature lurking about in the nearby woods. The film then moves ahead seventeen years in time. Seventeen-year-old Michael (Clemens), the son of Eli and Caroline, is ailing, his pituitary glands having “gone crazy.” Dr. Schoonmaker (R.G. Armstrong) is desperate to properly diagnose the boy’s medical issues, but is confused when a strain of Michael’s DNA does not appear to match either of his parents.

Michael isn’t, of course, Eli’s biological son - Caroline’s rapist is. In the hope of finding genetic-based medical records that might help cure their dying son, the desperate MacCleary’s return to Nioba to seek out Michael’s biological father. The problem is that few in Nioba are particularly welcoming to the couple. It soon becomes apparent to them that the town people are harboring a secret: neither the local judge, its newspaper editor nor mortician are cooperative. To compound problems, Michael has escaped from his hospital bed to begin his own scramble through Nioba.

Michael is obviously distraught, not well in mind nor body. The teen suffers mood swings and deadly violent when angered. On the other hand, he’s an otherwise pleasant-looking seventeen-year-old boy with raging hormones. Michael becomes infatuated with a sweet local girl, Amanda Platt (Moffat). Unfortunately, Amanda’s father, Horace (J.D. Johnston), is a quick-triggered, suspicious character, one physically and emotionally abusive to the girl. His daughter’s new-found relationship with Michael is unwelcomed. The new relationship fatefully short circuits when a romantic tryst in Black Pine Bog is grimly interrupted. Michael and Amanda discover they’re making out atop a secreted burying ground holding thirty-six or so mutilated corpses.

The already grim atmosphere of Nioba soon takes a further turn for the worse. Various members of the community are being terrorized and/or eviscerated by a strange creature that may – or may not – be a giant biped insect. The monster is, in fact, the cicada-man, a creature seeking vengeance on anyone connected to a long-standing family of the town. To wrap up this synopsis, let’s just say for all involved, the cicada monster’s bite is far worse than its rattle.

The timing of the blood-splattered The Beast Within was prescient. In August of 1981 a Variety headline ballyhooed, “Gore Perpetual Fave of Young Film Fans,” a pic’s make-up artist now deemed the true star of the modern horror film. The article recognized the imaginative work of such artists as Dick Smith, Tom Savini, Rob Bottin and Rick Baker. Though not all of the special effects team of Beast were acknowledged in the article, the writer praised Tom Burman as an “up-and-coming make-up specialist” recently “moved from the monsters of Prophecy and gore of Invasion of the Body Snatchers to more ambitious assignments on the in-progress The Beast Within and Cat People.” With CGI not yet in use and with a limited budget, the special-effects team of Beast managed to create an impressive transformation sequence with “primitive” use of air bladders, make-up, puppetry, foam rubber applications and mechanics.

Having served as producer on all three pictures of UA’s The Omen series and now on The Beast Within, Harvey Bernhard was looking to get out of the chiller trade. The latest entry in the series Omen III: The Final Conflict was making money, but was also taking a drubbing in the U.S. press. “I don’t think the critics understood the picture,” Bernhard sighed to Screen International. “Most of them said ‘Where’s the blood?” Bernhard allowed they could have shot a more repulsively graphic film for The Final Conflict but the team opted for a “higher plane” production. This decision cost the producers a loss at the box-office, as new audiences seemed disinterested in “higher plane” horror pics.

Accepting the times had changed, Bernhard promised the forthcoming gore fest of The Beast Within would deliver the morbid goods as a more prurient, special-effects laden chiller. “The Beast Within is going to be one of the most intense horror films,” Bernhard promised, the film’s ninety-three minutes to be bathed in blood-dripping excess. The producer also suggested that Beast would serve as his “horror film” swansong. It was time to move on from such horror fare.

In January of ’82 the reports came in that Les Baxter had completed his scoring of The Beast Within, with the picture scheduled to hit cinemas in February. Sadly, The Beast Within too was not a box-office success following release. Earliest box office reports indicated that the United Artists releases of Cannery Row and The Beast Within both had suffered “lukewarm debuts.” Variety thought the film “goofy” and was critical of the script, but acknowledged the film as “late but lively.” The review in Box Office was completely dismissive, arguing “Once again blood and gore and a truly stupid script combine to make a film with no appeal to anyone but that small profitable group who enjoy seeing decapitated heads and severed limbs.”

Such criticisms were hurtful to screenwriter Holland. On a doc included on this new set from Kino Cult, Holland agreed the script’s internal logic had been compromised. This, he mused was the result of Mora having chosen to eliminate several important exposition scenes. Other scenes had been awkwardly blended or compressed to help move the story line along – too often at the expense of logic. Holland also sighed the transformation scenes were not as he had imagined them to be, the special effects too “rudimentary” to bring his “vision” to the screen. Holland also believed the failure of Beast to catch fire at the box-office briefly sidelined his screenwriting career – his phone stopped ringing. If this was the case, his career quickly recovered. Holland would go on to write the scripts for such successful ‘80s horrors as Psycho II, Fright Night and Child’s Play.

The Beast Within might have been relegated to film oblivion had it not been for an unforeseen savior – the home video rental boom. A new generation of young – and gore and blood-thirsty horror film fans – discovered Beast on the shelves of their neighborhood rental stores. The film would ultimately become a much beloved VHS cult-film classic to such fans. In the early 1990s, the film was released on VHS in a clamshell box via both MGM/UA and Warner Home Video (1985) as well as a cardboard sleeve issue via MGM/UA (1993). The film would debut on DVD as both a standalone release in 2001 as part of MGM’s Midnite Movies series, as well as a 2007 pairing alongside The Bat People (1974).

This Kino Cult Blu-ray release of The Beast Within supersedes all previous versions, presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and DTS-audio, with removable English subtitles. There’s a number of Special Features included. One is director Calum Waddel’s forty-six minute featurette I was a Teenage Cicada: The Making of The Beast Within. The featurette include interviews with many of the actors (Clemens, Moffat, and Johnston et. al.), writer Holland and special effects tech Gary J. Elmendorf, all sharing vivid memories of the production and fellow players. The film’s casting agent is praised for bringing in such talent as Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch to act alongside the film’s lesser known troupe of players. Both are recalled for their professional, nurturing nature: well-respected by the cast and crew and wonderful to work with.

If one despairs that director Mora’s thoughts are not present in the featurette, one need only to listen to the first of three separate audio commentaries included. Mora shares his thoughts with Waddell on one such track. The director offers Beast as cinema’s first “Were-Cicada” movie, that “nightmare” sequences allow filmmaker’s total freedom due as a “no rules” policy allow experimentation and that tracking shots are well-suited for a Panavision-lensed film. The second commentary comes courtesy of Clemens, the cicada man himself, who shares detailed memories of his time on location. The third commentary comes courtesy of screenwriter Holland. Many of the points made by Clemens and Holland in the featurette doc are revisited here again, but sometimes at greater length.

A second thirteen- minute featurette, Storyboarding the Beast, is of particular interest. Director Mora pages through the detailed storyboard he created prior to filming. As Beast was among Mora’s earliest features, the boards were created to convince producers he actually knew what he was doing. Though he had never utilized storyboards before, Mora confessed he very much enjoyed doing them; they not only served as reference material but as comic art. Of particular interest is how the boards contrasted with the imagery seen on film. There were any number of instances where images – to Mora’s own uncertain remembrance - had either been cut from the film or not staged at all. This supports Holland’s contention that his script had undergone revisions which weakened the logic of his scenario. The set’s supplements generously conclude with additions of the film’s original theatrical trailer, a television spot and two radio spots.

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(Hank Reineke is the author of "Rising Son: The Life and Music of Arlo Guthrie. Click here to order from Amazon.) 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Yul Brynner had such a dynamic and commanding screen presence that he remained a viable leading man long after his boxoffice clout had diminished considerably. Brynner rose to fame and fortune in the mid-1950s with his Oscar-winning performance in "The King and I" as well as his portrayal of the villainous Ramses in Cecil B. DeMille's blockbuster "The Ten Commandments".  Many of his high profile films continued to perform well and he proved he could carry stories of a diverse nature including the classic 1960 film "The Magnificent Seven" despite conventional wisdom that he would be a bizarre choice for a leading man in a western. In fact, Brynner managed to avoid being upstaged on screen despite the presence of such up-and-coming major stars as Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn and James Coburn. After that film, Brynner would not enjoy a notable hit until his appearance as a seemingly indestructible and deadly robot in Michael Crichton's 1973 sci-fi film "Westworld". Perhaps a major reason for the film's success is that Brynner was basically recreating the look of his character Chris in "The Magnificent Seven". Brynner worked consistently throughout his career and never lost his status as a leading man. Occasionally, he would make a good film "("Taras Bulba", "Morituri") but more often than not this was not the case. By the late 1970s, Brynner eschewed motion pictures to launch a worldwide touring stage production of "The King and I" with Constance Towers as his leading lady. The show was an international smash and reaffirmed his status as an iconic leading man, as well as filled his coffers with considerable sums. Brynner was diagnosed with terminal cancer during the run of the play, but ever the professional, continued to perform after taking a leave of absence, culminating in the show's triumphant closing run on Broadway. Brynner died in 1985 at age 65.

Yul Brynner's final film was a rather inglorious one, a 1976 Italian crime flick, "Con la rabbia agli occhi", released in 1978 in the U.S. under the unimaginative title "Death Rage". Why? Simply because a few years earlier, director Michael Winner's "Death Wish" proved to be a major international hit, thus studios seemed to insert "Death" in every other film title. In fact, the title seems to be forecasting those films with bland, interchangeable names made by the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal. A UK title (one among several used) was even worse: "Anger in His Eyes". The film was directed by Antonio Margheriti under the name Anthony M. Dawson. The pseudonym caused some fans to believe the film was directed by British actor Anthony Dawson, who famously played the villain Professor Dent in "Dr. No". If all this is confusing, wait until you get to the movie itself. Brynner plays retired hit man Peter Marciani. When we first see him, he's idly fishing on a bank on New York's East River. Given the pollution of the river back in the day, devouring his catch would probably be more dangerous than any assassination mission he ever undertook. A member of the Italian mob approaches him and informs him that he has an opportunity to take revenge on those who killed his brother, a fellow mobster. It seems the same mob boss who killed his brother has also assassinated a lieutenant in their mob. Marciani is offered the job to avenge the killing and, in doing so, taking revenge on the same man responsible for killing his brother. Suffice it to say that Marciani is suitably inspired to fly to Italy where he visits the horse race track where the mobster was killed. Here he meets Angelo (Massimo Ranieri), a young wanna-be mobster who idolizes Manciani based on his legendary reputation in mob circles. Marciani takes the young man under his wing as a henchman. The two escape death and deal out murderous fates to their would-be killers in the quest of killing their ultimate target, Genarre Gallo (Giancarlo Sbragia.) Oh, and along the way, Marciani has a fling with Anny (Barbara Bouchet), a local stripper who emulates Marlene Dietrich on stage, albeit sans any encumbering articles of clothing. Martin Balsam is seen in a rare action role as a Naples police chief who is desperately trying to stop Marciani's trail of murder as he works his way to Gallo.

"Death Rage" is like many other entries in the Italian crime genre of the era in that it is rather crudely made and often looks like it was edited with a meat cleaver. The film also suffers from bad English language dubbing, though Brynner and Balsam retain their real voices. Despite pointing out these criticisms, I actually liked "Death Rage" despite the fact that it borrows heavily from "Death Wish" as well as another Michael Winner crime film of the era, "The Mechanic". Brynner may be in a second-rate thriller but he still gives a first-rate performance as an emotionless killer whose assassination skills are almost supernatural in their effectiveness. Barbara Bouchet is cast mostly as eye candy and to provide a bedroom romp with Brynner. and Massimo Ranieri, who was (and is) a very popular singer in Italy, acquits himself well as Brynner's eager-to-learn student. The movie has some very inventive action sequences including a dazzling car chase through the streets of Naples that clearly scared the hell out of bystanders caught on film. 

One would have hoped that Yul Brynner's final movie would have been more prestigious. However, taken on its own, "Death Rage" is actually quite enjoyable.

The film is presently streaming on Amazon Prime.

“FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE”

By Raymond Benson

The voice of the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, informs us at the beginning of Mark Cousins’ fascinating documentary, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock, that he will tell us one lie in the picture—but that the rest of it is true, more or less. The lie, of course, is that Hitchcock himself is speaking to us from beyond the grave and is following a script that he wrote. Instead, the voice, which indeed uncannily sounds like Hitch’s, belongs to actor/comedian Alistair McGowan, reading from a script written by Cousins. The opening credits cheekily informs us that the film was written and narrated by Hitchcock. The closing credits corrects this falsehood.

Cousins is well known in the cinematic world as an award winning writer and filmmaker, often responsible for documentaries about film itself. His excellent series, The Story of Film, is a landmark study of cinema history and its evolution in terms of innovation. Here, Cousins acknowledges that Hitchcock’s works have been analyzed to death, but with his inimitable and unique eye, the filmmaker forces us to look at the master’s movies in a new way. New angles. Different takes.

“In his own words” (not really), Hitchcock narrates the journey as he points out six different themes that he claims to be important in his work.

Escape is fairly obvious, as characters are often running away from something—danger and romance, for instance. The crop dusting sequence in North by Northwest immediately comes to mind here, but the theme could be applied to a character attempting to escape an unhappy existence—Marnie, for example, in the film of that title, wants to flee her past.

Desire is all over the place in Hitchcock’s movies. Attraction to someone, the need for sexual contact—actually the opposite of “escape” in that characters are running to what they desire.

Loneliness, as in how characters’ motivations are determined by despair. Joan Fontaine in Rebecca or James Stewart in Vertigo.

Time is played with throughout his oeuvre. A race against time. Time stopping (Ray Milland in Dial M for Murder has a watch that fails, forcing him to make his alibi call from a pay phone).

Fulfilment moves away from Hitchcock’s films and into his personal life with wife Alma and daughter Patricia. How he moved from England to Hollywood in pursuit of career fulfilment, for example.

Height examines how the director often used spatial birds’-eye views on his characters and the world. He loved his crane shots (Notorious), his characters falling from above (Norman Lloyd in Saboteur), and literal omniscient views in The Birds.

All of this material is presented along with beautifully remastered film clips to illustrate the talking points. As such, the documentary is full of insight, moments that will make you think, “Gee, I never thought of that,” and intriguing examinations of these movies that film buffs know well and love.

The problem is that the movie is painfully slow and one-note in dynamics. The real Alfred Hitchcock spoke very slowly. Mimicking him quite faithfully, McGowan’s speech and pace is just as meticulous. As a result, the approximately two-hour film itself moves ponderously. At the halfway mark, I thought I’d been watching for much longer.

So… it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The documentary is audacious in its conception of having “Hitch” speak to us from beyond the grave, but that sort of works. It’s just that this construct informs the entire production with its detrimental pacing.

Cohen Media Group’s new Blu-ray release is certainly gorgeous to look at. It comes with a few Supplements: An alternate trailer voiced by Mark Cousins; McGowan’s voice/narration test; a 30-minute Q&A over Zoom with Cousins and critic/journalist Chuck Rose; a graphics animation test (for several animations used in the movie); the original theatrical trailer; and a piece with Cousins introducing the films Notorious, Saboteur, and Rope.

If you’re a devoted fan of Alfred Hitchcock, you’ll assuredly enjoy the film. Others might become bored with it rather quickly. Perhaps it would have worked better in four 30-minute segments of a limited series. Nevertheless, the content—over presentation—is excellent.

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By Lee Pfeiffer

The entertainment site Deadline is reporting that it took quite an incentive for Amazon to convince James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson to turn control of the James Bond film franchise over to them- namely $1 billion. Until now, the Bond producers and Amazon have had a strained relationship in terms of how to proceed with future Bond movies. According to Deadline, Amazon may want to develop ancillary aspects of the franchise that could be exploited, such as projects based on Bond villains. Broccoli and Wilson were not in sync with Amazon's plans and industry scuttlebutt indicated the relationship between Amazon and Eon Productions was tense. Consequently, there has been no movement on bringing a new Bond film to the big screen since the 2021 release of "No Time to Die", which marked Daniel Craig's final appearance in the role and the death of agent 007. Details are hazy regarding the $1 billion deal in terms of how the payment is structured and whether it includes stock options. For more, click here.

By Lee Pfeiffer

In a stunning announcement, James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson say that they have made an agreement with Amazon, which co-owns the rights to the legendary film franchise, to have Amazon assume creative control of future Bond films. Broccoli and Wilson will retain co-ownership of the franchise but will retire from being involved in the production of new 007 films. Bond fans have anxiously awaited news of a new Bond movie but none has been forthcoming. The most recent film in the franchise, "No Time to Die"" was released in 2021, after having delayed its premiere in 2020 due to the onset of the Covid virus. That film marked the end of Daniel Craig's successful reign as the sixth actor to portray 007. The film grossed almost $800 million despite the fact that many of the world's theaters were still closed when the movie was released. The film also featured the stunning demise of James Bond, who died during the course of his latest mission. Since then, Amazon acquired co-ownership of the franchise and progress toward another film has remained stagnant. Industry reports indicated that there may have been tensions between the producers and Amazon regarding the future of the franchise. However, statements made by Amazon and Eon Productions, which is owned by Broccoli and Wilson, were politely worded and mutually supportive with Broccoli and Wilson stating they want to concentrate on their own individual non-Bond projects.

The bombshell announcement would seem to indicate that Amazon will take steps to develop the next film, which would have to be a reintroduction of the character, given Bond's demise in the last movie. In recent years, Bond fans have expressed reservations about a scenario in which Amazon takes creative control of the series, making an analogy to Disney's acquisition of the "Star Wars" franchise which many fans thought led to an over-saturation of projects relating to the series. Eon has always maintained that Bond would remain primarily a big screen franchise but since the release of "No Time to Die" the dynamics of the movie business have changed considerably with theatrical releases often done in a cursory manner with the bulk of revenues derived from streaming services. One thing is indisputable: once Broccoli and Wilson took over the franchise after the retirement of Cubby Broccoli, who produced the original series with Harry Saltzman, they have kept the series socially relevant and a major moneymaker beginning with "GoldenEye" in 1995. What lies ahead for 007 is now up to executives at Amazon.

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By  Lee Pfeiffer

Throughout motion picture history, there have always been "disaster" movies. From Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy facing the great earthquake in "San Francisco" to John Wayne trying to rescue an airliner in distress in "The High and the Mighty". However, the disaster movie didn't emerge as a genre until the 1970s. Most people credit "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) with being the first major entry among these kinds of films during that era, but arguably the genre began two years earlier with "Airport". That blockbuster flick set the standard for all of the disaster movies to follow:

• An all-star cast ranging from top boxoffice attractions to respected veteran stars and popular character actors
• Big production values
• State-of-the-art special effects
• Majestic musical score (and, if possible, a Top 40 hit shoe-horned into the proceedings) 
• A well-regarded director at the helm to preside over the mayhem

For the most part the formula worked fairly well. "Poseidon" was a major boxoffice smash and that film begat the short-lived genre's best year, 1974, which saw the virtual back-to-back release of "Gold", "Earthquake" and "The Towering Inferno", the latter being the "Citizen Kane" of disaster movies. However, the genre was to burn brightly but briefly. In the wake of "Inferno", there was nowhere else to go. The 1977 film "Black Sunday" was excellent, but despite a blimp crashing into the Superbowl stadium, it is not a "disaster movie" in the traditional sense. Most of those films that were, flopped badly. Producer Irwin Allen, who struck pay dirt as the producer of "Poseidon" and "Inferno" found the formula had grown stale by the late 1970s. His 1978 release "The Swarm" is generally referred to as the worst "Bee" movie ever made. His 1980 anemic attempt to blend cast members with elements of "Poseidon" and "Inferno" was released as "When Time Ran Out", an appropriate enough title for the flop that ended his big screen career. Another costly casualty of the disaster genre ebb was "Meteor", a 1979 production that top-lined an impressive cast: Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Brian Keith, Karl Malden, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard and Henry Fonda. It was produced by Gabe Gatzka and Sandy Howard (among others), two veterans with very respected backgrounds in the film industry. The film was directed by another highly respected individual, Ronald Neame, the man who had helmed "The Poseidon Adventure". On paper, the project must have looked like a "can't lose" proposition. Yet, "Meteor" turned out to be a major flop at the boxoffice as well as a critical disaster. What went wrong? To start with, it was probably ill-advised to entrust the production to American-International Pictures which specialized in making low-budget horror and teeny bopper exploitation films. The AIP association branded "Meteor" with a "cheesy" stigma even before cameras rolled.

Connery stars as a cynical, world-respected scientist whose warnings about the possibility of earth being hit by a destructive meteor have largely been ignored. When the film opens, he is summoned to Washington by government officials who tell him the top secret bombshell disclosure that his worst nightmare is about to come true. A gigantic meteor is racing towards earth and there is only one way to stop it: by having the USA and Soviet Union join forces to synchronize their nuclear missiles in the hopes of blasting the meteor out of the sky. Brian Keith plays the Soviet foreign minister who meets up with Connery and his colleagues at a secret underground New York City command center located adjacent to the subway system (!) Natalie Wood is his gorgeous interpreter, which allows for some mildly suggestive byplay between Connery and her. There's little time for romance, however, as advance particles from the meteor are already hitting earth and causing widespread damage. With time running out, the U.S, and Soviet technicians scramble to employ their nuclear arsenals in a last ditch attempt to save earth. This scenario might seem stale today, but it was a relatively fresh concept back in '79. However, the film was undermined by the apparent shortage of production funds for use in the special effects. The sets are elaborate and impressive but the key sequences showing the missiles in action are laughably poor. Equally bad are the shots of the presumably menacing meteor hurtling towards earth. No matter how much the filmmakers try, it never looks much more terrifying than a large rock you might encounter in your garden. (Sean Connery once referred to the meteor special effects as making the titular objects resemble "little balls of shit".) The screenplay is a scattershot affair. Apparently concerned that concentrating on the key characters who are locked into an underground command center might prove to be too claustrophobic, the decision was made to "open up" the scenario by showing various international locations being destroyed by meteor fragments. In doing so, the screenwriters cram in completely extraneous characters who are given approximately ten seconds each to develop personalities in the hope we can sympathize with them when they are pulverized. Thus, we see a young father in Hong Kong scrambling to save his child before a tidal wave engulfs the city. People in a ski resort in Switzerland are given equal opportunity for brief character development before they are buried under an avalanche. The sin of it all is that the production company really did film on location in these places but, aside from a few impressive snippets of crowds running frantically through the streets of Hong Kong, there is limited to value to the expenses incurred in shooting in such disparate areas of the globe.  

(Above: about half-way through this interview, Sean Connery discusses "Meteor".)

Yet, for all its cheesiness, "Meteor" somehow plays better today than it did at the time of its initial release. This is primarily due to the fact that we can appreciate seeing the great cast members interacting on the big screen. Connery, middle-aged and handsome, makes for a fine leading man. Natalie Wood is given little of substance to do here but, given this was one of her last films, it gives us a precious opportunity to at least see her natural beauty. Brian Keith, long underrated as a leading man in feature films, steals the show, playing against type as a witty and funny Soviet diplomat. Only poor Martin Landau comes across awful in an unintentionally funny performance as a fussy U.S. general who refuses to trust his Soviet counterparts (Fritz Weaver played essentially the same role very well in "Fail Safe" fifteen years earlier.) The finale of the film is truly impressive as a sea of mud descends upon the underground command center. The sequence was a challenge to film and, if it looks like it was dangerous for the actors, it indeed was: several cast members were injured during this elaborate sequence. 

"Meteor" isn't the bottom of the barrel of disaster movies. In fact, it is quite entertaining in its own way. If you don't compare it to "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno" you very well may end up liking it. 

The film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. 

By Todd Garbarini

The quintessential and politically incorrect New York movie The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) is an adaptation of John Godey’s novel of the same name and is brilliantly directed by Joseph Sargent with loads of smile-inducing and laugh-out-loud humor. This is the not the reaction one would associate with a film that is marketed as a taut exercise in suspense, but one needs to understand and appreciate the era in which the film was made. New York City was in financial distress fifty years ago, with crime, violence and drug use running rampant. Subway cars were blanketed in graffiti, and it was a dangerous time to be walking the streets.

Pelham is the first and best of three filmed versions of the novel and concerns four heavily armed men, all sporting moustaches and machine guns. They are named after colors to mask their identities (this idea was lifted by Quentin Tarantino and used to great effect in his 1992 film Reservoir Dogs). They commandeer an Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) train from the subway system and hold eighteen passengers hostage. They demand one million dollars in cash for their release within one hour – a mere pittance in 2025’s dollars – and will shoot one passenger per minute should the police fail to provide the money by the ascribed deadline. Robert Shaw shines as the lead baddy and heads the superb cast which also features Martin Balsam as a sneezing confederate; Walter Matthau is the Transit Authority lieutenant who negotiates with Shaw and lives on his wits, making a last-minute snap decision that buys them time; Hector Elizondo is virtually unrecognizable as the monkey-in-the-wrench who causes problems for Shaw with his own sense of bravado; and Kenneth MacMillian is the Borough Commander. Among the film’s highlights are Matthau’s off-handed and embarrassing treatment of the representatives of the Tokyo Metropolitan Subway System who are visiting; Tom Pedi’s role as Caz Dalowicz whose no-B.S. approach to the hijackers results in a shootout in the tunnel; Lieutenant Rico Patrone (Jerry Stiller) who reads the newspaper and is annoyed that he is being “interrupted” by the Japanese reps touring the facility; Lee Wallace’s turn as the Mayor (he is a near dead ringer for Mayor Ed Koch who became the New York Mayor four years after the film’s release) and his inefficacy in dealing with the situation at hand, including his Deputy Mayor, played brilliantly by Tony Roberts; and Robert Weil as a transit worker – he’s a character actor who appeared in dozens of great New York films. It also has one of the best endings to any film of recent memory.

Pelham manages to juggle suspense and outright human hilarity in a way that few films that I have seen are able to. Bob Clark’s Black Christmas, released the same year, also walks a tightrope of laugh out-loud jokes on the one hand and intense fright on the other. While the idea of a group of men “hijacking” a subway car might seem farfetched and implausible, how about the city’s departments co-operating collectively to achieve a peaceful outcome to the scenario at hand? There’s one for the books!

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was released on Wednesday, October 2, 1974 in New York City. What the film captures perfectly is the sense that working people have about themselves and their jobs, a “another day at the office” mentality as they go about their routines. The sentiments of the film are timeless and ring true in a city where corruption and racism run behind-the-scenes and are perfectly sized-up by Doris Roberts’s turn as the mayor’s wife when she tells him what he will receive in return for paying out the ransom: eighteen sure votes, exposing the expendability of the passengers.

Pelham was also lensed in 1998 for television by Felix Enriquez Alcala, starring Lorraine Bracco, Edward James-Olmos, and Louis Del Grande. This version posits Vincent D’Onofrio taking the place of Robert Shaw and updates the times with a $5 million dollar ransom. Despite the film’s star power, the lack of profanity in the New York setting, the use of archaic train cars betrayed by the presence of oversized ceiling fans, and a lack of tension all combined to make the film unrealistic, filling the audience with a yen to revisit the original.

Tony Scott made a version in 2009 with John Travolta and Denzel Washington, this time stylizing the title with Pelham 123 as numerical numbers and upping the ransom to $10 million dollars. Gotta love inflation. It is a well-made version with less emphasis on humor and more on action and it is a film that stands on its own, and one of the few times that Mr. Washington portrays a modern day Everyman just trying to get along.

A movie-only edition of Pelham was issued on Blu-ray in 2011, and that transfer appeared to be derived from the same master that was used on the standard definition DVD released in 2000. A new 4K restoration was performed in 2022 by Kino Lorber and the film was released as a two-disc set on 4K UHD and standard Blu-ray with a much-improved image. There were a host of extras added, which can be found on this standard Blu-ray release now available following the 50^th anniversary of the film’s release:

First up is an audio commentary by film historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson which runs the entire length of the film. They are informative and highly engaging and are an example of what I love about commentaries. They give a fair amount of information on the background of the cast, discuss the film’s themes, and how the film’s overall look was achieved, among many others. I am a sucker for these 1970’s gritty New York films, and this one fits the bill.

There is a second audio commentary by actor and filmmaker Pat Healy and film programmer/historian Jim Healy and is equally informative and entertaining.

The Making of Pelham One Two Three is a cleverly-titled piece that runs 6:08 and features the actual shooting of the film during November 1973 through April 1974. It is told from the perspective of a transit policeman, Carmine Foresta, who was hired as a technical consultant on the film. He has a small role in the film also while appearing briefly in Francis Coppola’s The Godfather Part II (1974) and Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (1975). My only complaint is the short running time. I would have loved to have seen more behind-the-scenes (BTS) footage and hear input from cinematographer Owen Roizman, who shot The French Connection three years earlier for William Friedkin and has managed to capture New York City in a way that I have not seen from any other director of photography.

12 Minutes with Mr. Grey features a 2016 interview with actor Hector Elizondo who recalls getting the role and enjoying his time working with the late director Joseph Sargent. He points out how the station that they shot in was fairly clean as it was unused (there was no way to interrupt actual daily subway traffic) and therefore free of graffiti.

Cutting on Action runs 9:09 and features a 2016 interview with film editor Gerald B. Greenberg, who won an Oscar for cutting The French Connection. That film is highly lauded for its memorable subway/car chase through Brooklyn, NY. In Pelham, there is an action sequence featuring police cars racing to the subway station to get the money to the henchmen. Mr. Greenberg gives insight into his work on the film. Again, I would have loved a longer piece. He discusses the editing process and being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of footage he had to work with. He brought in another editor, Robert Q. Lovett, to help him cut the film and help create tension and suspense.

The Sound of the City runs 9:07 and features input from composer David Shire. He began composing music for television shows back in the 1960’s, such as CBS Playhouse and The Sixth Sense before creating the amazing score for Francis Coppola’s The Conversation (1974). His theme to Pelham is no less brilliant. He recalls how the music originally sounded like a “dissonant Lalo Schifrin.” He would later score Martin Ritt’s Norma Rae (1979) and win an Oscar for his collaboration with Norman Gimbel for the song It Goes Like It Goes.

Trailers from Hell with Josh Olson runs just over two minutes and he comments on the film, rightly praising it for its accomplishments as a great New York movie. Interestingly, the film did not make money at the box office. I suppose that New York humor does not go over well in Montana…

There is an Image and Poster Gallery that runs 2:20 which features artwork and black and white snapshots of scenes from the film.

There are two radio spots, and this is something that I truly miss from the past. I loved hearing these spots for movies on the radio, especially the ones created for horror films. These spots are a fun listen.

The TV spot for the film is included here.

There are also theatrical trailers for Pelham; Don Siegel’s Charlie Varrick (1973) and Stuart Rosenberg’s The Laughing Policeman, both from 1973 and both with Walter Matthau; Guy Hamilton’s Force 10 From Navarone (1979); Joseph Sargent’s White Lightning (1973) with Burt Reynolds; John Frankenheimer’s The Train (1964) with Burt Lancaster; Tom Griers’s Breakheart Pass (1975) with Charles Bronson; and Andrei Konchalosky’s Runaway Train (1985) with Jon Voight and Eric Roberts.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is one of the best films made during the American cinema's most riveting decade.

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By Ernie Magnotta

“A question of honor becomes a mission of vengeance!” Martial arts champion and action movie icon Sho Kosugi returns in the explosive ‘80s cult classic Rage of Honor; a Bond-like film which has just been released to Blu-ray.

Written by Robert Short and Wallace C. Bennett, and directed by Gordon Hessler (who had previously helmed Sho’s delightful 1985 hit Pray for Death), Rage of Honor finds our hero—undercover narcotics agent Shiro Tanaka (Kosugi)—on a vengeance-fueled mission after his partner is sadistically murdered by ruthless drug runners. Shiro’s single-minded quest eventually gets the love of his life kidnapped, so now he must summon all of his skills in order to save her and put an end to the cold-blooded criminals once and for all.

Filmed on location in Argentina and released in February of 1987 by Trans World Entertainment, Rage of Honor is a very enjoyable piece of action cinema. Director Hessler expertly handles the movie’s many top-notch and exciting action sequences while once again leaving the martial arts choreography to the great Sho Kosugi (who also designed the special weapons featured in the film). Kosugi is amazing to watch and it’s no wonder why he became such a beloved 80s action hero. Also starring Robin Evans and Chip Lucia with a memorable score by Stelvio Cipriani.

Rage of Honor has been released on a region one Blu-ray and is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The movie looks and sounds fantastic and the special features include a wonderful audio commentary by action film historian Mike Leeder and UK cult movie director Ross Boyask; the informative featurettes: Sho and Tell Part 2 (interview with Show Kosugi), Honorable Mentions (interview with composer Stelvio Cipriani), and American Ninjas (video essay by Chris Poggiali on the rise of the ninja film in the 1980s) as well as the original theatrical trailer. The Blu-ray also comes with an eye-catching slipcover. More than worth a look.

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The Australian video label ViaVision/Imprint has released a second boxed set of Blu-ray special editions devoted to Marlon Brando. The region-free set cover six films released between the years 1969-1989.  The films are:

• "The Night of the Following Day"
• "Last Tango in Paris"
• "The Nightcomers"
• "The Missouri Breaks" 
• "A Dry White Season"
• "Listen to Me Marlon" documentary

By Todd Garbarini

I cannot imagine working and living in a submarine. The confined spaces and claustrophobic nature of the layout and the seemingly never-ending levels and twists and turns make for a nerve-wracking experience. I have been a fan of underwater movies since my youth. The first one I recall watching is David Greene’s Gray Lady Down (1978) when it aired on NBC-TV in October 1979. Richard Fleischer’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Kevin O’Connor’s Goliath Awaits (1981), and Wolfgang Petersen’s Das Boot (1982) followed in the years hence. James Cameron’s The Abyss (1989) is by far the finest underwater tale I have seen, weaving a modern-day morality tale and admonishment akin to Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) to say nothing of the dissolution and eventual rebirth of the love between a divorced couple. George P. Cosmatos’s Leviathan (1989) and Sean S. Cunningham’s Deep Star Six (1989) are interesting though nowhere-nearly-as-good companions. Tony Scott’s Crimson Tide (1995) brought great actors into the depths with an edge-of-your-seat thriller.

David Twohy’s Below, filmed in 2001 and released on October 18, 2002, came and went during a brief theatrical run. An underwater thriller that takes place in 1943 aboard the fictitious submarine USS Tiger Shark, Below is a story involving secrets, frayed nerves and ghosts. Bruce Greenwood, who has been phenomenal in his work for Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, is Lieutenant Brice, the commanding officer of the sub whose men pick up the survivors of the British hospital ship Fort James: Claire (Olivia Williams, best known as Bruce Willis’s wife in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense (1999), who plays the only woman in the film), and two men, one of whom is a German whom Brice shoots and kills following an altercation. The presence of a female on the sub historically infers bad luck, and this crew begins to experience their own taste of it. Strange things begin to happen – voices are heard in the halls, a record player loudly calls attention to itself at the most unfortunate of times, and confusion mounts in the ranks. Depth charges dropped by the Germans result in exterior damage that requires outside repair. More deaths follow, and the crew begin to question the validity of how Brice inherited the mantle from Lieutenant Commander Winters. After all, they are only getting Brice’s account of it. The situation begins to spiral: the periscope and control tower have sustained damage from the German destroyer looking to sink the sub; oxygen is being depleted, and hydrogen is slowly replacing it; a ghost is haunting the premises. Is this true, or can we chalk it up to hallucinations precipitated by oxygen deprivation?

This all sounds great on paper, but unfortunately there is very little in the way of actual suspense, which is surprising considering the film’s most obvious character, the sub itself, and its imposing atmosphere. It becomes obvious that Brice is hiding a secret, and when it is revealed, there is little in the way of astonishment at his actions. The performances are all quite good. You will find some recognizable faces in this cast.

Below began life in the summer of 1998 in the form of an historical sci-fi thriller but soon morphed into a ghost story following the theatrical success of David Twohy’s Pitch Black (2000) with Vin Diesel. While that film has enjoyed near cult status and has been followed up with several sequels, Below simply did not have the interest from the audience that it required to be successful.

Kino Lorber has released the film on both 4K UHD Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray and the results are quite nice indeed. The former has a very sharp transfer, and an audio commentary recorded in 2002 for the DVD at the time. It features director David Twohy and actors Matt Davis, Bruce Greenwood, Holt McCallany, Zach Galifianakis, and Nick Chinlund. They talk about the challenges of making the film, and their conversation is spirited and amusing to listen to as they rib one another. Missing is actress Olivia Williams who was away shooting P.J. Hogan’s Peter Pan (2003) and was unable to join in on the fun. This is a shame as I would have liked to have gotten her perspective on playing the film’s sole female character.

The standard Blu-ray also boasts a nice transfer, although in addition to the running commentary it has other extras that are exclusive to this disc:

The Process: Featurette runs 12:24 and is a piece that looks at the making of the film. My only complaint about it is the short running time. I love behind-the-scenes (BTS) pieces, and this one includes excerpts from the shooting script, storyboards, previsualization of scenes, and uncompleted scenes. These documentaries are important as all the people who work BTS deserve to be recognized for their hard work.

Deleted Scenes (8:19) – this section gives you the option of playing the scenes individually or all together with the Play All option. There is an Optional Audio Commentary by the director, and he explains why the scenes were removed and what the original ending consisted of. These scenes appear to have been ported over from the DVD edition and are presented in standard definition. Perhaps they were unable to find these scenes and rescan them in HD? These are the titles of the three omitted scenes and their running times:

Creepy Comic (1:36)

Hot Fish (3:39)

Red Flare Ending (3:03)

The last features are trailers for the following films:

Below from 2002

Sean S. Cunningham’s Deep Star Six from 1989

William Friedkin’s Bug from 2006

E. Elias Merhige’s Suspect Zero from 2004

Park Chan-wook’s Thirst from 2009

Last of all is the cover art. The original key art for the movie poster features the same imagery that appears on this 4K and Blu-ray release, including the stylization of the film’s title. The standard DVD release, by contrast, reversed the image of the sinking sub and added Bruce Greenwood’s frightened face in the sub’s vapor trail, which I found more effective (the film’s title, however, is stylized differently).

If you’re a fan of Below, this upgrade is a nice step up from the standard DVD.

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Here's one of those marvelous vintage "making of" production shorts that took viewers behind the scenes on a forthcoming film, in this case, the 1967 blockbuster "The Dirty Dozen". If you can tolerate the hokey narration, the featurette affords some great candid footage of the cast at work and play in London. The movie was shot at the now defunct MGM British Studios Borehamwood. Curiously, although the featurette depicts or at least mentions the major names in the cast, Donald Sutherland is not identified. He was not well known at the time but the film would help elevate his profile in international cinema and major stardom would follow.

UPDATE: THIS ISSUE IS EXPECTED TO SHIP IN THE U.K. IN LATE FEBRUARY. IT IS EXPECTED TO BE SHIPPED TO ALL OTHER LOCATIONS FROM THE U.S. OFFICE IN LATE MARCH, DEPENDING ON IMPORT/EXPORT SCHEDULES. 

By popular demand, Cinema Retro presents a special edition issue devoted to director John Sturges' 1960 Western classic, "The Magnificent Seven" starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, Horst Bucholz and Brad Dexter.

• Adapted from Brian Hannan's book "The Making of the Magnificent" with an abundance of new material.
• Packed with rare production photos and scene stills.
  
• The comparisons between "The Magnificent Seven" and the film that inspired it, Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai".
• Foreword by Sir Christopher Frayling
• An abundance of rare international movie posters and marketing materials.
  
• Coverage of the film's big screen sequels.
  

NOTE: IF YOU LIVE IN SOUTHERN IRELAND, PLEASE USE THE "REST OF THE WORLD" ORDER OPTION.

In honor of Valentine's Day, let's look back at one of film industry's greatest love stories: director David Lean's 1945 classics, "Brief Encounter" starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. It's a masterpiece of post-war British cinema and it's emotional impact has remained undiminished over the decades.

Click here to order Criterion Blu-ray special edition.

By Ernie Magnotta

No disrespect to Mike Stone, Franco Nero, Lee Van Cleef or Michael Dudikoff (I love ‘em all), but the true 1980s ninja is, without a doubt, Sho Kosugi. After completing Cannon Films’ very popular and now classic “Ninja Trilogy” (“Enter the Ninja” (1981) “Revenge of the Ninja” (1983) and “Ninja III: The Domination (1984), martial arts legend Kosugi went right back to work, starring in the thoroughly entertaining Pray for Death. Luckily for us, the film has just been released on Blu-ray.

Written by the movie’s co-star James Booth and directed by veteran British filmmaker Gordon Hessler (who also helmed Sho’s next feature, 1987’s Rage of Honor), Pray for Death tells the tale of master ninja Akira Saito (Kosugi) who moves to America with his family, but inadvertently becomes involved with vicious mobsters who murder his wife and threaten his children. With the local police powerless against the gangsters, the peaceful (except when provoked) Akira becomes the ultimate vigilante and he warns his enemies, “Stay away from the Saito family. If you don’t, I promise you, you will pray for death.”

Released in August of 1985 by Trans World Entertainment, Pray for Death is a highly enjoyable 80s action film with an exciting, if somewhat familiar story (similar to Sho’s Revenge of the Ninja), and awe-inspiring martial arts sequences choreographed by All Japan Karate Champion Kosugi. The kick-ass movie also features an excellent cast including Norman Burton, Michael Constantine, Parley Baer, Robert Ito, and Sho’s real-life sons Kane and Shane Kosugi; not to mention expert editing by Academy Award nominee Bill Butler.

If you’re a fan of action movies from this era then Pray for Death is definitely for you. Although I enjoy all of Kosugi’s films, this one is my absolute favorite. What we have here is 92 minutes of 80s fun culminating with Sho all decked out in his bulletproof ninja garb (which includes a very cool helmet, deadly sword, bow and arrows, ninja stars and other assorted weapons), doling out ninjitsu justice to the scum of the earth! You gotta love it.

Pray for Death has been released on a region one Blu-ray. It is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and the film looks and sounds terrific. The special features include an entertaining and informative audio commentary by action film historian Mike Leeder and UK cult movie director Ross Boyask as well as the first part of a great two-part interview with Sho Kosugi, and the original theatrical trailer. This release is a two-disc special edition which contains both the rated and unrated versions of the film and it also comes with an attractive slipcover. Check it out!

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Between now and Valentine's Day, ViaVision/Imprint, the popular Australian video label, is having a 25% off sale. Click here to visit the site. (Most of their Blu-rays are region-free). Prices are in Australian dollars. Use a currency converter for your local pricing.

“SHE BOUGHT IT.”

By Raymond Benson

Finally, after many years of the title being available only as a DVD, the Woody Allen classic comedy that’s not a Woody Allen film, Play It Again, Sam, is on Blu-ray, thanks to Kino Lorber.

What did you say? you ask. That’s right. Woody Allen did not direct Play It Again, Sam. Herbert Ross, a renowned Broadway theatre dancer and choreographer who graduated to stage directing before moving into film, helmed the movie. Ross had previously directed the musical remake of Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) and The Owl and the Pussycat (1970) prior to landing the job to direct Sam. Ross went on to direct such notable pictures as The Sunshine Boys (1975), The Turning Point (1977, an Oscar nominee), and The Goodbye Girl (1977, also an Oscar nominee).

But Woody Allen wrote it and stars in the film. It’s Allen’s sensibility all over it. It’s co-produced by Allen’s Rollins-Jaffe managerial production company. It’s a Woody Allen film in all but directorial credit. That’s not to say Ross didn’t do an excellent job adapting Allen’s stage play into a successful, popular film.

Yes, first it was a hit Broadway play in 1969. Its stars—Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, and Jerry Lacy—all moved over to the film’s cast. While much of the story’s action takes place in interiors (mostly apartments), director Ross managed to “open up” the material to include outdoor scenes and other locations such as bars and restaurants. Interestingly, the story takes place in San Francisco, not Allen’s familiar New York City!

The story focuses on Allan Felix (Allen), whose wife, Nancy (Susan Anspach), abruptly decides to leave him. Grieving and insecure, Allan leans on his friends Dick and Linda Christie (Roberts and Keaton) for emotional and social support. They are happy to help him, especially Linda. They try to fix him up with blind dates that don’t go too well (the one with Sharon (Jennifer Salt) is a particularly funny and memorable example). All Allan really wants is to “score” again to boost his fragile, shattered ego, and maybe—just maybe—fall in love with perhaps some reciprocity. A huge film buff, Allan gets advice from none other than a fantasy Humphrey Bogart (Lacy), who appears at various times to nudge him along. Bogart is one of Allan’s heroes (the movie begins with Allan rapturously viewing Casablanca in a cinema). As time goes on, though, (see what I did there?), Dick and Linda’s own marriage begins to show signs of fracturing due to Dick’s busy career and his tendency to put his job before his wife. Ultimately, Allan and Linda are drawn to each other. When they’re finally on the couch together in his apartment, Bogart insists that Allan deliver a corny, mushy line to her. He resists at first but finally he does… and she reacts favorably. “She bought it!” Allan deliriously exclaims to the audience. You can guess what happens next.

Play It Again, Sam was the first screen collaboration between Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, and we can already see that this is a match made in heaven. The real-life actors began dating during the run of the Broadway play in 1969 and they were a couple in the early ‘70s up to and including the making of this film. Afterwards, they split up but remained the closest of friends for the rest of their careers. The late Tony Roberts was also an integral part of this screen duo in these early years, appearing in several of Allen’s other pictures. It is the chemistry between these three actors that makes Play It Again, Sam such a delightful—and funny—motion picture.

(Photo: Cinema Retro Archives.)

Allen had directed two features prior to starring in this one, and he had already created for himself a screen persona best described as a Jewish, nebbish neurotic. His Allan Felix here solidifies that character, and one can argue that the actor/director played this character for the remainder of his career. While he delivers extremely witty and funny lines and displays priceless facial expressions, it’s notable that Allen engages in a great deal of slapstick—pratfalls and clumsy maneuvers that wreak havoc on his and others’ apartments. It’s easily one of Allen’s funnier performances.

Diane Keaton, a fairly new face on the screen at the time (it was the same year she appeared, virtually unknown, in The Godfather), is marvelous. She is so endearing, honest, gorgeous, and luminous, that it is no wonder that she became a star. Again, the rapport between Keaton and Allen is perfect. Of course, she would go on to make seven more films with Allen under his direction including the Oscar-winning 1977 classic Annie Hall.

Tony Roberts is also hilarious, constantly having to phone the office to let them know where he is at a given time. “This is Mr. Christie. I’m no longer at 752-0420. I’ll be at 731-0711 for the next half hour, and then I’ll be at…” One might think this repetitive joke would get old, but it doesn’t. It becomes increasingly funnier as the movie goes on.

Being originally written as a play in 1969 and filmed in 1971 for release in 1972, yes, there are lines that some will consider inappropriate or politically incorrect today. But they are few and far between. For the most part, the dialogue is rich, intelligent, and very laugh-out-loud amusing. This is Allen’s writing at his best. And Ross’ direction isn’t bad at all.

Kino Lorber Studio Classics presents a new HD master of a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative—so the video quality is excellent. The only supplement is an audio commentary from screenwriter/producer Alan Spencer and author/film historian Justin Humphreys, adding context and history to the proceedings. Theatrical trailers to this and other KL releases round out the package.

Play It Again, Sam is for fans of Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, and early 1970s pictures that redefined the rom-com. Recommended

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Kino Lorber has released an acclaimed documentary about African-American director Oscar Micheaux. Here is the description of the DVD. 

"Oscar Micheaux was the most influential African American filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century, a self-taught artist who funded, produced, and released more than 40 films, all while completely excluded from the Hollywood systems of production and distribution. Francesco Zippel’s revealing documentary (which premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival) charts Micheaux’s incredible artistic journey, as he followed the urban migration to Chicago, abandoned city life to became a homesteader in South Dakota, and eventually became a resolute storyteller, writing six novels and producing dozens of feature films before his death in 1951. Regardless of the genre in which he was working, Micheaux’s provocative films served as a powerful rebuke to the ubiquitous racism of the times. In Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking, a chorus of experts and fans—from Chuck D to Melvin van Peebles—weigh in on the incredible legacy of the man whom cinema scholar Jacqueline Stewart describes as “the most important Black filmmaker who ever lived. Period.”"

Product Extras :

• Theatrical trailer
• Interview with screenwriter/director Kevin Wilmott (BlacKkKlansman, C.S.A: The Confederate States of America)
• Original trailers of four films by Oscar Micheaux: Veiled Aristocrats (1932), Harlem After Midnight (1934), Temptation (1936), and Birthright (1939)

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Click here to order "Oscar Micheaux: The Complete Collection" on Blu-ray from Amazon 

(Roberts in Woody Allen's 1982 film "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy". Photo: Cinema Retro Archives.)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actor Tony Roberts has passed away at age 85. The cause of death was lung cancer. He had a long career on stage and on screen and his face was familiar to even those who didn't know his name. Fittingly, his autobiography was titled "Do You Know Me?" Roberts was adept at playing dramatic roles and appeared in such esteemed dramatic films as "Serpico" and "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three". He is best known to movie fans for his roles in six Woody Allen films. The two old friends and native New Yorkers co-starred in five of them and Roberts appeared in "Radio Days" in which Allen directed did not appear on screen. Most memorably, he played Rob, the best friend of Allen's Alvy Singer in Allen's 1977 Best Picture Oscar winner "Annie Hall". In the movie, Rob plays a down-to-earth New Yorker who moves to Hollywood and finds great success, but becomes an insufferable snob in the process. The two first met when Roberts appeared in Allen's 1966 stage comedy "Don't Drink the Water" and later in Allen's 1969 stage production, "Play It Again, Sam" but it would be years before Allen was convinced that he had the ability to shine on the big screen. They're first cinematic collaboration was co-starring in the 1972 film "adaptation in which Roberts played a success-obsessed friend, who served as a foil for Allen's character who was obsessed with Humphrey Bogart. 

Roberts' musical talents were rarely seen on screen but he found great success starring in productions of such hits as "Sugar", "Arsenic and Old Lace", "They're Playing Our Song", "Cabaret", "Promises, Promises", "Follies", "Some Like It Hot", "Victor/Victoria" and "How Now, Dow Jones". He was twice nominated for Tony awards. 

On a personal note, I met Tony Roberts at a party in New York City about ten years ago and had a very amusing chat. Later, when we were leaving he said, “Let me give you my card”. I took it and placed it in my wallet. Sometime later, I actually looked at it and it read simply “My Card”. You had to admire anyone like that!

For more click here. 

"RETRO-ACTIVE: ARTICLES FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVE" 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Burt Lancaster fans can rejoice that his 1974 thriller "The Midnight Man" finally gets a home video release in America with Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release. Even better news is that this is a special edition with an informative commentary track. Lancaster co-wrote and co-directed (both with Roland Kibbee) the murder mystery that plays out like a TV movie-of-the-week from the era. That isn't meant as a knock, given how good so many of the TV crime productions were in the 1970s. The film is based on David Anthony's novel "The Midnight Lady and the Mourning Man" and, refreshingly, it has an offbeat quality about it due to its location filming in and around Clemson University in South Carolina, which was very much a sleepier locale than it is today. Lancaster is cast as Jim Slade, a once respected Chicago police officer who flew off the handle and shot his wife's lover (though it isn't clear if he killed him.) He's spent a lot of time in stir and when we first see him, he is arriving in a small southern town by bus to pick up the pieces of his life. He's broke with few prospects except a job offered to him by his old friend and police colleague Quartz (Cameron Mitchell), who is now retired from the police force and heading a security company that looks after the local university. Slade will be working in the seemingly boring job of night watchman on the midnight shift at the school, where crime isn't a major problem. However, his timing is right in terms of alleviating boredom. No sooner does Slade start the job than a psychiatric counselor for troubled students informs him that his office had been broken into and the only thing missing were several audio tapes in which students confessed the most troubling aspects of their lives. The highly confidential tapes had not been listened to but it becomes clear that one student in particular, Natalie (Catherine Bach) is particularly troubled. Slade befriends her and discovers she's an emotional wreck about the missing tape but she won't tell him what was so sensitive about the recording. When Natalie ends up dead in her dorm room, the local police captain, Casey (Harris Yulin) takes over the case and immediately arrests a local Peeping Tom who had an interest in the victim. Slade, however, voices his skepticism and starts his own ad-hoc investigation. Along the way he ends up romancing his parole officer, Linda Thorpe (Susan Clark), who has a big city mentality when it comes to sexual permissiveness.

"The Midnight Man" is a complex thriller with plenty of requisite false leads and red herrings. It's leisurely-paced and that's a good thing in the current era of shoot 'em up crime movies and TV series. There are some exciting action scenes in the film but it's primarily about following clues, which Slade doggedly does despite being targeted for murder and not being able to trust anyone, including Captain Casey, with whom he is in constant conflict. Lancaster provides one of his most low-key performances. Some critics said he was sleepwalking through the part but this isn't so. He's an ex-con with a lot to lose so it's appropriate that he would maintain a quiet, polite demeanor. Lancaster never gave a bad performance in his career and he's particularly good here. The film has a marvelous supporting cast and directors Lancaster and Kibbee use them well. It's great to see Lancaster teamed again with the ever-underrated Susan Clark after the two starred in "Valdez is Coming" a few years before. Clark has an important role here and she's excellent. So, too, is Cameron Mitchell as the only true friend Slade seems to have in an increasingly hostile and dangerous town. It's also good to see Robert Quarry in small, non-horror film (he's very good.) Lancaster's son Bill also has a supporting role and acquits himself well. The finale unloads an abundance of complex explanations in a voice-over by Lancaster as the mystery is solved. Your mind might end up reeling but if you stop and think about it all, the clues were provided throughout the film.

The Kino Lorber release has a typically fine transfer and the audio commentary by film historians Howard S. Berger and Nathaniel Thompson is highly engaging and their subdued manner fits with the mood of the film itself. They genuinely like the movie and provide an abundance of interesting facts and insights. There is a also a trailer gallery for other Lancaster films available through Kino Lorber. Highly recommended.

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount Home Video.

HOLY SCHNIKES!

Celebrate 30 years of gut-busting laughs with the 90s classic TOMMY BOY, arriving for the first time ever on 4K Ultra HD™ March 25, 2025 from Paramount Home Entertainment.

TOMMY BOY stars “Saturday Night Live” alumni Chris Farley and David Spade in one of cinema’s funniest on-screen pairings as two drastically different personalities on a hellish road trip to save a family business.  Produced by Lorne Michaels and directed by Peter Segal (50 First Dates, Get Smart), TOMMY BOY scored with audiences when it debuted in 1995 and continues to attract new fans three decades later.

Newly remastered under the supervision of director Peter Segal, TOMMY BOY is presented for the first time on 4K Ultra HD in a 4K/Blu-ray™ Combo or in a Limited-Edition SteelBook®, both of which include hours of legacy bonus content and access to a Digital copy of the film.

Bonus content on Blu-ray is detailed below:

• Commentary by director Peter Segal
• Featurettes:
• Tommy Boy: Behind the Laughter
• Stories from the Side of the Road
• Just the Two of Us
• Growing Up Farley
• Storyboard Comparisons
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Alternate Takes
• Gag Reel
• Photo Gallery
• TV Spots
• Theatrical Trailer

Synopsis

Celebrating 30 years of gut-busting laughs, Chris Farley and David Spade are two ne'er-do-well traveling salesmen who hit the road to save the Callahan family's auto parts business, resulting in one disastrously funny consequence after another. This larger-than-life comedy features Rob Lowe, Bo Derek, and Brian Dennehy. 

TOMMY BOY is rated PG-13 for sex-related humor, some drug content and nudity.

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In his Blu-ray review of "Smile 2", Cinema Retro's Todd Garbarini made a favorable reference to director Parker Finn's 10-minute horror film short "The Hidebehind" starring Robin Collins from 2018. We decided to check it out. Indeed, the low-budget project is unsettling and eventually unnerving. Don't take our word for it-watch it yourself. Sometimes good things do come in small packages! (There is a brief commercial early in this YouTube video but it doesn't ruin the atmosphere in terms of what follows.)

“LET’S ROCK!” (or “!KCOR S’TEL”)

By Raymond Benson

“Diane, I’m holding in my hand a box of chocolate bunnies.”

If you haven’t heard of Twin Peaks by now, well, you must have been trapped in the Red Room for the last 35 years. In tribute to the recent passing of filmmaker and artiste David Lynch, we are taking a look at the brand new release of one of the cornerstones of Lynch’s legacy: Twin Peaks.

Twin Peaks Z – A was a limited edition Blu-ray box set originally released in 2019 that contained everything available in the Twin Peaks franchise. It had 21 disks and an elaborate cube-shaped packaging with little “goodies” enclosed. That edition is now out of print, rare, and sells for big bucks in the second hand market.

Thankfully, CBS/Paramount made the decision to re-release the box set, only without the lavish packaging, which was cute and clever but ultimately a gimmick. What really counts are the disks, and now there are 22 disks: a new one has been added with 4K UHD presentations of the Pilot and Season Three’s Episode 8, the latter being one of Lynch’s most extraordinary creations.

At an affordable price, now you can own everything there is to Twin Peaks in one purchase.

Home Video releases of Twin Peaks over the years have usually been problematic. In the 1990s, the VHS releases were often flawed because the Pilot episode was owned by a different company and couldn’t be included in the packages with the regular Season One (and later Season Two) episodes. Instead, available separately, was the “International Pilot,” which was the original 90-minute pilot (two hours when commercials were inserted) but with a tacked on fifteen-minute non-canonical “ending” that included footage from what would be Season One, Episode Three (or Episode Two, if you’re not counting the Pilot as Episode One… and that’s another issue*). This International Pilot was released in some cinemas overseas in 1989-1990 as a stand-alone movie prior to the television broadcast of the series in the States.

(* Officially, the Pilot is just “the Pilot” and the first hour-episode is Episode 1, but really in terms of television, the Pilot would be Episode 1, the next Episode 2, and so on. Confusing, just like some of Twin Peaks!)

When DVDs came about, we finally got the real TV Pilot and the International Pilot released in a box set (“Definitive Gold Edition”) in 2007 with all of Seasons One and Two. It wasn’t until the Blu-ray release of 2014 (“The Complete Mystery”) that we got all of that plus the 1992 feature film prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, plus the legendary The Missing Pieces, which was 90-minutes of deleted footage from FWWM that Lynch himself edited into a separate feature film!

After the 2017 “Season Three” appeared on Showtime (also known as Twin Peaks: The Return and Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series) and released in its own Blu-ray box set… we got a box set with just the Pilot and Seasons One through Three (without Fire Walk With Me). Then, in 2019 came Twin Peaks Z – A, which had everything, as mentioned above. (And to muddy the waters even more, The Criterion Collection issued a Blu-ray of Fire Walk With Me and The Missing Pieces by themselves!)

Thus, the new repackaging of this wonderful set includes: The Pilot, International Pilot, Season One, Season Two, Fire Walk With Me, The Missing Pieces, Season Three, and hours and hours of Supplements. Easily over 50 hours’ worth of material.

Twin Peaks, created by Lynch and Mark Frost, began as a quirky murder mystery set in a small northwestern town near Seattle and close to the Canadian border. Popular high school cheerleader Laura Palmer’s body is found (“wrapped in plastic”) on a riverbank. Because of the murder’s similarities to a previous case, the FBI is called in. Enter Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan, in the role he was born to play). Cooper, with the aid of Twin Peaks Sheriff Harry Truman (Michael Ontkean), investigates the case and uncovers a world and other-world of mysteries upon mysteries, eccentric characters, and Lynchian surrealism that was startling content on American network television in 1990-1991. After Laura’s murder is solved, the series continued to explore the supernatural and alternate universes, establishing a Twin Peaks lore that spawned fan sites, conventions, books, and podcasts.

Other recurring roles were played by the likes of (in no particular order) Lara Flynn Boyle, Dana Ashbrook, James Marshall, Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Grace Zabriskie, Richard Beymer, Piper Laurie, Joan Chen, Jack Nance, Warren Frost, Madchen Amick, Peggy Lipton, Everett McGill, Eric Da Re, Kimmy Robertson, Michael Horse, Harry Goaz, Russ Tamblyn, Kenneth Welsh, David Patrick Kelly, Catherine Coulson, Heather Graham, Ian Buchanan, Michael Parks, Michael Anderson, Al Strobel, Carel Struycken, David Duchovny, Miguel Ferrer, David Lynch himself, and many others.

Season One was a huge hit and became a cultural phenomenon. Season Two began well but the network (ABC) forced Lynch and Frost to solve Laura Palmer’s murder shortly into the season (they had wanted to never solve it). After the revelation of the killer, the audience dwindled. ABC moved the show to Saturday, the one night young audiences wouldn’t watch it. The Gulf War pre-empted many episodes, and it became a challenge to keep up with the season. Lynch went off to do other projects and Season Two faltered in its subplots (however, there was still quite a bit of excellent material, especially with Cooper’s exploration of the Black Lodge/White Lodge puzzle). The season ended with a cliffhanger of Cooper trapped in the other-dimension’s Red Room, while his evil doppelganger escaped to roam free on earth. Then… boom. Canceled.

Lynch then made a prequel feature film with several of the television cast focusing on the week leading up to Laura’s murder; hence Laura (Sheryl Lee) is the protagonist. New cast members included Chris Isaak, Kiefer Sutherland, Harry Dean Stanton, and David Bowie (!). The studio, unfortunately, forced him to cut at least 90-minutes from his lengthy picture and thus it lost many of the television show’s quirky characters and humor. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, at the time, was a box office disaster and critically slammed. One issue was that the film never resolved the cliffhanger of Season Two. That was pretty much the nail in the coffin for Twin Peaks.

However, over the years, re-evaluation of Fire Walk With Me has occurred. It is now considered one of Lynch’s more personal and important works. With the release in 2014 of The Missing Pieces, which brought more context to the movie, interest in Twin Peaks rekindled. Lynch and Frost decided to have another go and do Season Three, which aired in 2017. New cast members to Season Three include Laura Dern, Naomi Watts, Robert Forster, Jim Belushi, Matthew Lillard, Tim Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and bunches more. The story takes place 25 years after the end of Season Two, with Cooper attempting to get out of the Red Room, and his doppelganger wreaking havoc and mayhem on Earth. Locations expand beyond the town of Twin Peaks as far as New York City, Las Vegas, and South Dakota. The story then becomes something of a retelling of the Orpheus myth with Cooper finding a way to change the past—but with tragic results.

Did it resolve all the mysteries? Did it end satisfactorily? Hell, no! It’s Lynch! Season Three gave us even more mysteries to ponder and debate what it all means. But that’s what makes Twin Peaks so compelling and fun.

The video and audio quality of the Blu-ray disks are all beautiful. Superb. Twin Peaks never looked and sounded so good.

Supplements include everything that has been presented before in previous box sets, which includes hours of behind the scenes material of Lynch working on Season Three; a lengthy conversation between MacLachlan, Lee, and author/journalist Kristine McKenna, who co-wrote with Lynch his autobiography, Room to Dream; a conversation with Kimmy Robertson and Harry Goaz; and the especially welcome stand-alone full-length Roadhouse performances of all the musical artists that appeared in Season Three.

Twin Peaks was a mind-blowing, controversial, groundbreaking entertainment phenomenon that went from television to cinema and back to television… and while many talented artists, writers, producers, and directors all contributed to the television series (and feature film)—especially Mark Frost—this franchise will always and forever be associated with the late, great David Lynch. Cinema Retro can’t recommend this box set highly enough.

(At the moment it appears as if Amazon is sold out and can be obtained only by third party dealers or Barnes and Noble. We expect Amazon to restock, as it is a brand new release.)

Click here to see buying options available on Amazon.

By Todd Garbarini

Parker Finn is a director who made a short film called Laura Hasn’t Slept (2020), starring Caitlin Stasey and Lew Temple as her somnologist. It is the second short he made after his impressive and creepy The Hidebehind (2018), a nearly ten-minute now-you-see-me, now-you-don’t bit of computer trickery that will make you think twice about trekking solo in a forest. In Laura Hasn’t Slept, which runs under twelve minutes, Laura tells her therapist that she has a recurring nightmare wherein a frightening man is constantly smiling at her. While I appreciated the effort of this film and experienced no difficulty in determining the ending, the prospect of sitting through the theatrical version entitled Smile (2022) simply did not sit well with me. To my surprise, Smile is every bit as terrifying as its marketing campaign has professed. Like The Blair Witch Project (1999), Smile feels like the sort of film that would emotionally bifurcate the audience into those who love it and those who hate it (I am zealously ensconced in the first camp). In terms of genre tropes, the film’s most obvious cinematic antecedent is David Robert Mitchell’s superb It Follows (2014), and a nod to Smile’s title can be further traced back to the malevolent chauffeur, played with icy stillness by the late Anthony James, in Dan Curtis’s Burnt Offerings (1976). The basic premise of Smile concerns an evil entity that exists in a human being, or “host,” and survives by transferring itself from one victim to another, albeit invisibly, not unlike the monster in John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), by essentially “infecting” a new host through trauma, specifically when someone witnesses the horrific death of a previously infected person; this new witness then becomes the next target, perpetuating a cycle of terror and suicide.

Smile’s box office success, both critically and financially, virtually ensured a sequel. In many ways Smile 2, which was released on Friday, October 18, 2024, and was also written and directed by Parker Finn, reminds me of Jon Harris’s The Descent: Part 2 (2009), the pedestrian follow-up to Neil Marshall’s The Descent (2005), which was one of the most effective and most terrifying horror films of recent memory, in that the original and sequel are worlds apart in terms of their effectiveness. I wanted to love Smile 2 just as much as its superior original, however following two viewings of the film I have decided that it simply is not meant to be.

To follow Smile 2, it is imperative that the audience view the first film. The sequel begins six days after the ending of Smile. Joel (Kyle Gallner of 2022’s Scream remake), the ex-husband of Smile’s heroine, is now infected with the Smile Entity, and is desperate to pass it on to another person. In a bravura opening sequence that is nearly completed in one take, he attempts to pass the Smile Entity on by stabbing one drug dealer in front of a second dealer. Unfortunately, during the mayhem, Joel inadvertently kills the second dealer, which thwarts his plan. Lewis Fregoli (Lukas Gage of HBO’s The White Lotus), a drug addict, stumbles upon the action and “inherits” the Smile Entity instead. When Joel attempts to run from more dealers who arrive unexpectedly, he races from the house and is killed by a truck, his blood and entrails made to form a smile on the asphalt.

Skye Riley (Naomi Scott of Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin and Elizabeth Banks’s Charlie’s Angels, both from 2019) is a pop singer coming off the heels of a personal traumatic event. In an effort to stage a return to the spotlight following her substance abuse issues and car accident which killed her boyfriend Paul (Ray Nicholson of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza (2021)) as she embarks on her comeback tour, she revisits high school friend Lewis in need of drugs to calm her and unwittingly becomes the next victim of the Smile Entity as it is transferred from him to her. Skye’s life becomes a downward spiral into confusion, fright and madness as she begins to question the validity of everything before her eyes. A reconnection with her old friend Gemma (Dylan Gelula) has an unfortunate, if predictable, outcome. Her mother and personal manager Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt) suffers a horrible fate – but does she? The lines between fantasy and reality become blurred and we are left with more questions than answers – and an ending that left yours truly with an upside-down smile, indubitably paving the way for Smile 3.

If you have seen Smile, you have seen Smile 2. In the first film, I was actually convinced that these characters were possessed by the Smile Entity, which essentially sold the film. That conviction is somehow missing from the sequel. Why? I am unsure. Perhaps because we know what to expect now?

Watching Smile 2, I am reminded of Gene Siskel’s take on Richard Franklin’s 1983 film Psycho II (a film which I actually liked a lot at the time) which he referred to as a film that “does nothing extra than the original film did. What I like about sequels that are good…is that they take the characters into new places. This is basically a retread with sort of a wink at the audience…I don’t think it was anything special. We don’t need this movie.”

Smile 2 is now available on 4K UHD Blu-ray limited edition steelbook (which this review pertains to) and standard Blu-ray and both formats come in the same package from Paramount Home Video. I watched both discs on a 43” TLC television and the visual image differences are indecipherable to me. The 4K disc contains the director’s audio commentary wherein he describes the difficulties in mounting the film’s opening shot and the enthusiasm he felt in following up his successful original with even more crazy kills. The standard Blu-ray contains this also in addition to the following extras:

Ear to Ear runs 5:17 and is a brief look at the making of the film.

The Rise and Fall of Skye Riley runs 5:33 and features input from actress/singer Naomi Scott, director Finn, costume designer Alexis Forte, actress Rosemarie DeWitt and how they created a persona for the artificial Skye Riley.

Behind the Music runs 4:44 and interviews songwriter Alexis Idarose Kesselman and choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall on how they created the music, and dance moves that Skye sings and performs, respectively. These songs are very well done and the “mega pop star” persona is convincing.

A New Smile runs 5:37 and introduces us to production designer Lester Cohen and prosthetic makeup designer Jeremy Selenfriend who school us on the practical effects used to represent the Smile Entity.

Smiler: A New Monster runs 5:44 and provides comments from animatronics designer Zachary Teller Trevor Newlin, creator of “The Monstrosity,” and costume designer Alexis Forte.

Turn That Frown Upside Down runs 5:25 and features actor Lukas Gage as Lewis and prosthetic makeup designer Jeremy Selenfriend.

Show Me Your Teeth runs 5:11. This features Ray Nicholson (who is a spitting image of his father, Jack) as Paul and Charlie Sarroff, the director of photography, and the ingenious method that was devised to create the car crash sequence.

Deleted and Extended Scenes – this consists of three scenes that wisely runs 6:54

The package also includes a digital code for an additional viewing option.

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By Doug Oswald

The story of the Battle of Bastogne is told on screen for the first time in “Battleground,” available on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive Collection. The film begins with the arrival of replacement soldiers in France to join other members of the 101st Airborne Division’s glider infantry in December 1944. We meet several members of “I” Company as they prepare to head out for the town of Bastogne, Belgium, and anyone familiar with the Battle of Bastogne knows what’s in store for them. The German Army soon surrounds the American soldiers as one of the coldest winters on record sets in as they endure the severe conditions in the Ardennes Forrest.

Those familiar with the HBO series “Band of Brothers” saw another version of this story in several episodes of that show. Fans of the 1965 big screen Cinerama epic “Battle of the Bulge” will be familiar with incidents in “Battleground” such as German soldiers pretending to be American soldiers to misdirect the Americans, the constant German artillery bombardment, the extreme cold temperatures experienced by the Americans ill-equipped for the winter, battle fatigue and the response “Nuts!” by Brig. General Anthony McAuliffe to German surrender demands.

“Battleground” stars Van Johnson as Private Holley, but the film is a who’s who of recognizable and up and coming actors. James Whitmore is Sergeant Kinnie who chews and spits tobacco literally and figuratively in every scene he appears in. Ricardo Montalban is Roderigues, Richard Jaeckel is Bettis, James Arness is Garby, John Hodiak is Jarvess, Marshal Thompson is Jim Layton, Don Taylor is Standiferd, George Murphy is “Pop” Stozak and too many others to list here. The only woman member of the cast is Denise Darcel as Denise, the owner of a Bastogne residence who takes in some of the soldiers for some respite away from the front lines.

Known as the Battered Bastards of Bastogne, the various infantry units who defended and fought in the Battle of the Bulge take umbrage when they hear they were rescued by General Patton. The supply air drop at the end as the men of the 101st are resupplied with food and ammo is followed by the finale with Sergeant Kinnie marching his platoon in close order drill with a wink and a nod twist by Kinnie.

Directed by William A. Wellman, “Battleground” wasn’t his first effort depicting the infantry soldier in WWII and it wouldn’t be his last. Wellman, known as “Wild Bill” from his WWI days as a pilot serving in the French Foreign Legion, directed the 1943 classic WWII film, “The Story of G.I. Joe,” released in 1943 and based on the exploits of war reporter Ernie Pyle and his coverage of the North Africa and Italian campaigns and the soldiers he journeyed with.

Along with the 1946 release “A Walk in the Sun,” “Battleground” shares the common soldier’s view of war also seen in “The Story of G.I. Joe” and all three films give a very realistic depiction of the war. “Battleground” was filmed on two large MGM sound stages and cinematographer Paul Vogel won an Oscar for his realistic lighting of the sets which made them look like they were exterior shots.

The screenplay was by Robert Pirosh who was also made associate producer on the film. He wrote the screenplay for over a dozen films including “A Day at the Races” with the Marx Brothers, “Up in Arms” with Danny Kay and “I Married a Witch.” Later, he would go on to also direct five movies including “Go for Broke” and “Valley of the Kings.” Master Sergeant Pirosh was a veteran of the Battle of Bastogne where he served as a combat infantryman with the 35th Infantry Division.

“Battleground” became Pirosh’s pet project which he first brought to RKO with the help of Dore Schary who was head of production and shared Pirosh’s enthusiasm for the project. After returning from a research trip to Bastogne in 1947 (where he found his old foxhole), new RKO head Howard Hughes cancelled the project under the belief that American’s were no longer interested in military combat movies. Pirosh and Schary quit RKO and Schary was hired as head of production at MGM where he purchased “Battleground” and hired Pirosh as executive producer. It became the first major studio military combat movie made after the end of WWII.

MGM head Louis B. Mayer also thought Americans were no longer interested in war films and thought the film would fail, but boy was he wrong. “Battleground” became a huge hit for MGM and was their largest grossing film in five years, ushering in a renewed interest in military themed movies for decades to come. The movie also won an Oscar for Pirosh’s screenplay. I’d say Pirosh and Schary had the last laugh.

“Battleground” had its premiere on 9 November, 1949 in Washington D.C. The film was nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Whitmore, Best Film Editing for John D. Dunning and wins for Robert Pirosh for his screenplay and Paul Vogel for black and white cinematography. The black and white image looks terrific on this Warner Archive release and is presented in the pre-scope flat aspect ratio. The film clocks in at 118 minutes and sounds great with a score by Lennie Hayton who was the musical director for MGM from 1940-1953 and who was married to singer Lena Horne.

Extras on the Warner Archives Blu-ray disc includes the Tex Avery animated classic “Little Rural Riding Hood,” the Pete Smith short film “Have You Ever Wondered No.2: Let’s Cogitate” and the “Battleground” trailer. The release would have benefitted greatly from an audio commentary by Steven Jay Rubin, the author of “Combat Films: American Realism, 1945-2010,” McFarland & Company, 2011 (second edition). The book is an excellent reference and the chapter on “Battleground” was helpful in both my enjoyment of the movie and in writing this review. “Battleground” is highly recommended for fans of military combat movies.

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Joe Dante's Trailers from Hell site presents screenwriter/producer Larry Karaszewski's insightful appreciation of the little-seen and long-forgotten film "The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker" from 1971. Based on the novel by Charles Webb, who also wrote "The Graduate" (and who also directed this film), "Stockbroker" stars Richard Benjamin as a young man who is successful in business but no so successful in his personal life.  He's got a beautiful wife (Joanna Shimkus) but he suffers from a psychological obsession with voyeurism. The film looks at his dilemma from a comedic standpoint but the underrated movie also provides plenty of insights into the human psyche and the way we deal with relationships. Benjamin is terrific as the every day guy whose obsession causes him quite a few problems. There are fine turns by Elizabeth Ashley and Adam West, whose amusing performance reminds us of how foolish Hollywood was to alienate him after "Batman". Sadly, the movie was only released on video in the early days of VHS and has not resurfaced since except for an occasional showing on Turner Classic Movies. Hopefully, this will be rectified and we'll get a Blu-ray release at some point. 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actress and singer Marianne Faithfull has passed away at age 78. Faithfull was discovered in 1964 and quickly became one of the so-called "It Girls" who helped define the emerging mod movement in London. Faithfull gained fame with her recording of  "As Tears Go By", which was written by Mick Jagger and fellow Rolling Stone member Keith Richard. Although the song was envisioned to be sung by a much older person reflecting on their life, Faithfull was only 17 years-old at the time. Neither Faithfull or Jagger had much enthusiasm for the sober ballad but the song became a major hit and the Stones would record their own version of it the following year, which would also resonate with the public in a major way. Faithfull capitalized on her fame to become an actress, though her involvement with the film industry would be sporadic. Perhaps her most popular film was director Jack Cardiff's 1968 production of "The Girl on a Motorcycle" (also known as "Naked Under Leather".)

(Marianne Faithfull graced on the cover of Cinema Retro issue #14.)

Faithfull ultimately left her husband, with whom she had a son, and began a high profile love affair with Jagger. After they broke up in 1970, Faithfull's life and career began to deteriorate with her ultimately becoming addicted to drugs, sex and alcohol. She would attempt periodic comebacks as a singer with some success and married two more times but was still plagued by serious health problems including Hepatitis, breast cancer and COVID-19. Faithfull never blamed anyone but herself for her destructive excesses and in a 2021 interview admitted she had never expected to live a long life. Undeniably, it was a life of triumph and tragedy. For more, click here.

By Fred Blosser

“The Carpetbaggers,” directed by Edward Dmytryk from Harold Robbins’ 1961 novel, opened on July 1, 1964, with a massive publicity campaign from its producer, Joseph E. Levine. The film was savagely attacked by old-fogey critics who were offended by Robbins’ salacious story and characters, elements emphasised in Levine’s marketing and advertising as “adult entertainment.” This backlash cancelled the picture’s chances for any prestigious Academy Award nominations in a highly competitive year of family-friendly entertainment, but I’m certain Levine and Robbins cried all the way to the bank. The implied threat that anyone under 21 would be unceremoniously turned away at the box office only enhanced the lure for audiences avid for material spicier than the standard TV fare of the time like “Ozzie & Harriet” and “The Andy Griffith Show.” “The Carpetbaggers” earned a hefty return on its production investment of $3 million and placed fourth in box-office returns for the year. In the law of diminishing returns, it fuelled many imitations and spinoffs, including several more pictures produced by Levine from other novels by Robbins, but none were as successful or influential as “The Carpetbaggers.” Its most lasting impact may be the template it offered for every glossy TV soap opera and “reality” show about greed, bad behaviour, and tawdry backstabbing that followed, from 1980s’ “Dallas” and “Dynasty” to today’s “Deal or No Deal Island.”

It’s well-known by the dwindling generation of Robbins fans that the story’s protagonist, Jonas Cord Jr., was modelled on the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. Or at least, on the tabloid version of Howard Hughes that still loomed then in the popular imagination, the Hughes of the 1930s and 1940s who was routinely linked with Hollywood’s most beautiful starlets. As the movie opens, Jonas is still the restless heir to his father’s small chemical company but already notorious as a high-living playboy who now faces the threat of a costly breach-of-promise lawsuit and nasty newspaper headlines. Summoned by his angry father for rebuke over the scandal, the meeting turns into a shouting match in which both men vent their longstanding disdain for each other. Jonas (George Peppard) asserts that dad (veteran actor Leif Erickson in a brief but juicy role) is jealous of Jonas’ sexual prowess because he’s an “impotent old man.” The clash drives the older man to a fatal stroke, and before the coroner even has time to arrive and take away the body, Jonas has summoned his father’s staff and taken control of the company. He uses his capital to diversify into aviation and movie-making, building a vast fortune and creating plenty of enemies along the way with his ruthless methods. Only a few associates, notably his corporate attorney McAllister (Lew Ayres) and his longtime minder Nevada Smith (Alan Ladd), remain loyal to him as he makes risky investments and runs roughshod over Hollywood. Eventually, even their patience for his hard-charging arrogance wears out. The picture’s sexual elements are tame by today’s standards, displayed mostly in seductive outfits worn by Carroll Baker and Martha Hyer as hyperbolic versions of Jean Harlow and Jane Russell. The two actresses look spectacular, even if Baker’s filmy peignoir and Hyer’s peekaboo mink coat would barely qualify as provocative now; you can see more nudity in a TV ad for body wash. In a denouement to help the film skirt Hollywood’s restrictive Production Code, Jonas reforms after his personal demons—the toxic childhood residue that shaped his cutthroat instincts—are exorcised in a furniture-smashing fistfight with Nevada Smith. The tough-love cure of the showdown is similar to the medical advice routinely dispensed in old movies, where amnesia caused by a blow to the head could be reversed by another blow to the head. As usual in a story when an unrepentant louse transforms into a softie, the kinder, gentler Jonas in the movie’s final two-minute scene hardly registers; it’s the bad boy image that sticks, thanks to Peppard’s career-defining ferocity on the 148 minutes up to then.

“The Carpetbaggers” is available from Kino Lorber Studio Classics in a Blu-ray edition from a new 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative. If like me, you first saw the movie in a terrible TV print, the hi-def transfer with its sharp definition and color is doubly impressive. Special features include two informative audio commentaries, one by Julie Kirgo that studies the movie’s cultural place in the social ferment of 1964, and the other by David Del Valle and David DeCouteau that delves into everything from the careers of the moviemakers to the sociological implications of the garish red wallpaper in the Cord mansion, glimpsed in a couple of scenes.

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(Fred Blosser is the author of "Focus on the Spaghetti Western #1:The Films of Tony Kendall". Click here to order from Amazon.)

Lately, the on-line communities of movie lovers have seen plenty of concerns raised over the announcement by Sony that it is going to stop manufacturing Blu-rays. The term "fake news" has been used far too flippantly in recent years, especially since stories that are derided as fake news are often legitimate and vice-versa. In fact, these rumors are "real" fake news, if that makes sense. Sony has announced that it is going to stop manufacturing blank, recordable Blu-rays. The company has every intention to continue to release Blu-ray and 4K editions from its vast movie library. Watch YouTuber Jeff Rauseo's video to get the full story.  (Lee Pfeiffer)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Largely forgotten by the general public, Hickey & Boggs, a 1972 crime thriller, is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. The film's primary merit is that it reunited I Spy co-stars Bill Cosby and Robert Culp (though by this time, Cosby's fame had eclipsed Culp's, thus resulting in his receiving top billing). In their classic TV show, Culp and Cosby played a tennis pro and his trainer who were actually secret agents. The glitz of the tennis world allowed them to live Bondian lifestyles while they thwarted bad guys. Intriguingly, Hickey & Boggs goes in a very different direction. Resisting the temptation to revive their wise-cracking I Spy personalities, Culp and Cos are seen as down-and-out private investigators in Los Angeles. Both are divorced but pine away for their ex's; they can't pay the office phone bill and they ride around in cars that look like they barely survived a demolition derby. As the TV spots for the film said at the time, "They have to reach up to touch bottom." On the brink of financial disaster, the men finally get a case: they are hired by a mysterious man to find an equally mysterious woman he wants to locate. The money is good, but the seemingly mundane case soon turns deadly with Hickey and Boggs dodging mob hit men, Black Power radicals and unfriendly police brass.

Although the film boasts a screenplay by the noted Walter Hill, this is the weakest aspect of the production. The story becomes completely incomprehensible within minutes and, in terms of confusing aspects of the plot, makes The Big Sleep play like a Pink Panther movie. So many characters and relationships are introduced that the viewer is never sure who is doing what to whom and why. What the film does have is atmosphere, and Culp, who also directed, takes pains to distance the two lead characters from their I Spy counterparts. They still have terrific screen chemistry, however, even as they play against type as two rusty private eyes who can't hit the broad side of a barn even with their .357 Magnums blazing. The film features a number of exciting action sequences and an excellent supporting cast including Rosalind Cash, Vincent Gardenia, Ed Lauter, Bill Hickman (the legendary stunt driver) and, in early career roles, James Woods and Michael Moriarty. It would have helped immensely if the downbeat script was at least decipherable, but as it stands there is still plenty to recommend about Hickey & Boggs.

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By Lee Pfeiffer

The western "Cattle Annie and Little Britches" wasn't released, it escaped, as the old Hollywood joke goes. The film was unceremoniously dumped at a smattering of theaters by Universal in 1981 and then largely faded into obscurity. The general implication of such treatment is that the movie was a dog. In fact, it's a charming, well-made (if traditional) lighthearted adventure with much to recommend about it. Universal's disdain for the title is rather inexplicable especially since the movie represented Burt Lancaster's first starring role since his triumphant, Oscar-nominated performance in Louis Malle's "Atlantic City" (although he made the movie before shooting the Malle production). Lancaster, in a marvelously wry peformance, stars as legendary outlaw Bill Doolin in a tale that is loosely based on actual people and events. Doolin ran the infamous Doolin-Dalton gang with his late partner Bill Dalton but when we first see the notorious outlaw band, they are a mere shadow of their former selves. Most of the gang has either been arrested or killed (including Dalton himself) and the remnants are desperately trying to survive by outwitting Sheriff Tilghman (Rod Steiger), the lawman who relentlessly pursues them. The focus of the script, however, is the journey of two plucky runaway teenage girls, Annie (Amanda Plummer) and her younger friend Jenny (Diane Lane). The two free spirits have been drawn to Oklahoma from the east, having been weened on largely exaggerated tales by Ned Buntline about the exploits of famed outlaws. The girls are determined to meet these legendary figures in the flesh and join a gang. A chance meeting with Doolin and his dwindling fellow misfits allows them to do just that. Doolin admires their courage, especially when they help the gang escape a bloody ambush by Tilghman. They earn the nicknames Cattle Annie and Little Britches. The script follows their adventures as their ingratiate themselves into the gang. Both girls are virgins but the feisty and fearless tomboy Annie is determined to fix that and manages to do so when she catches the eye of Bittercreek (John Savage), a hunky gang member who is part Indian and whose indulgence in mysticism and love of nature appeals to her. (The family-friendly nature of the movie ensures that all sex occurs off screen.) Ultimately, the impressionable Jenny develops a crush on Bill Doolin, but fortunately he recognizes she simply yearns for a father figure and gently finds a way to rebuff her advances while leaving her with her dignity intact.

The movie, ably directed by Lamont Johnson, is a leisurely-paced tale with a fine script by David Eyre and Robert Ward, based on the latter's novel. Apparently, the book was based on two real life young women who did travel with the gang. The performances are uniformly marvelous, with Lancaster giving a charming performance as the world-weary outlaw who finds new inspiration from his young female admirers. Rod Steiger, who was often guilty of chewing the scenery, gives an unusually understated performance, and it's all for the better. I loved the byplay between Lancaster and Steiger's characters. They are old warriors, determined to take each other down but they've also grown to admire each other in the process. Even when Tilghman finally captures his man and prepares him for his execution, he seems genuinely depressed by the prospect of losing an adversary who has become almost a friend. The most impressive performance is by Amanda Plummer, who made her screen debut with this film. She's pure dynamite as the fearless young female who refuses to be intimidated by any man. Had the film been more widely seen, she might have been a contender for an Oscar nomination. In a rave review for the film, New York Times critic Vincent Canby called Plummer's performance "smashing". Another hard-to-please critic, Pauline Kael of the New Yorker, was also charmed by the movie and Plummer's performance. Plummer may have emerged as the only winner from the film, though it has developed an appreciation among retro movie lovers who will be delighted by the fact that it is streaming on Amazon Prime. (The Kino Lorber Blu-ray of a few years ago is now out of print.) "Cattle Annie and Little Britches" is a highly enjoyable western that will hopefully find a wider audience through streaming.

By Hank Reineke

One of the best features of George McCowan’s Frogs (1972) is the fantastic art created for the film’s poster and advertising campaign: a giant-sized frog with a human arm hanging limply from its mouth. The grisly art sort of bears a resemblance to a harvest cornucopia, a disembodied arm displacing the usual spillage of autumnal gourds and seasonal vegetables.

The poster and ad mats for Frogs was certain to attract interest with the horror-film freaks who simply couldn’t get enough of this stuff, no matter how weird. Still, one can’t help but wonder today if moviegoers of 1972 left the theater slightly disappointed. The poster seemingly promises expectations of a giant human-eating frog, the sort of creature as seen in all of those atomic-era Roger Corman or Bert I. Gordon films.

McCowan’s Frogs doesn’t treat us to anything as cool and retro as that. Though there may be hundreds of frogs on screen – ostensibly - on “cerebral” attack, they’re all disappointingly of regular proportion. They’re not terribly seen as threatening either, truth be told. Yes, I imagine opening a door to find an army of croaking frogs crawling about would startle. It would certainly illicit uncomfortable, cringing reactions… but not necessarily fatal ones. Let’s face it. If a potential victim manages to assess the situation with measured, reasonable composure, a safe extrication would be simple. It wouldn’t take great bravery to clear a straight walking path through the frog horde with a mere lateral sweep of one’s work boots.

The only frog that I call recall as malicious in disposition, was the derby-topped, cigar-smoking villain of the old Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse cartoon series. Yes, I suppose if one subscribes to aged folklore beliefs, the worst consequence of engaging with a frog is, perhaps, having a wart developed on point-of-contact… or his becoming a Prince. The filmmakers of Frogs seemed to have recognized early on that such amphibians are hardly fearsome, creatures lacking shiver-inducing adversarial characteristics. This would task the film’s screenwriters to somehow make sure the titular frog(s) would be abetted in their vengeful attacks on humankind.

Indeed, they did. The frogs telepathically summon a multitude of swampland friends to assist in their scorching revenge: their army includes snakes, spiders, scorpions, insects, lizards, alligators, leeches, turtles, Spanish moss entanglements, tarantulas and Gila monsters. (Let’s not quibble why such Southwestern desert dwellers as tarantulas and Gila monsters have made U.S. Southeast swamp country their habitat). Though the frogs get top billing in the film and are featured on the nifty poster, they mainly serve throughout as cheerleaders, beckoning their swampland mates to annihilate these inconsiderate, pesky, eco-insensitive humans.

In early October of 1971, Variety announced that Frogs would be AIP’s next horror film effort, a co-production with Peter Thomas Productions. Thomas and George Edwards would co-produce, with Norman T. Herman to serve as executive producer. The screenplay would be co-written by Robert Hutchinson (from his own original story) and Robert Blees. Though location shooting in New Orleans was suggested early on, the city would not ultimately play host in the film’s production. By October’s end three of film’s primary cast were announced: Ray Milland, Judy Pace and Lynn Borden.

Frogs would mark Milland’s fourth appearance (of five total) in an AIP horror/sci-fi flick. Like other aging film stars of the 1940s (Basil Rathbone, Peter Lorre e.g.), the actor found autumnal employment in a stream of macabre exploitation films for AIP and others. His previous films for AIP included roles in The Premature Burial (1962), Panic in Year Zero! (which he also directed) and The Man with X-Ray Eyes (1963) – all well-made and reasonably good films for the most part. Judy Pace had recently graduated from television roles to big screen features in such films as Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) and Brian’s Song (1971). Frogs would be Borden’s first credited feature film role, though she too was already a familiar fresh-face seen on television.

By mid-November, there was news that actor William Smith (best known for such motorcycle pictures as Angels Die Hard (1970), C.C. & Company (1970), and Chrome and Hot Leather (1971)) was reportedly cast as well but – for whatever reason – he ultimately would not appear in the film. For the most part the on-screen talent had been selected from a pool of actors whose primary resumes had been compiled from television work.

In one of this set’s special features, ultra-slim actress Joan Van Ark (Karen Crockett), recalls Frogs as her first true feature film role. She was especially excited to work with the great Ray Milland, a favorite actor of her father’s generation. Twenty-seven year-old actor, Sam Elliott, whose previous experience was also primarily tethered to the medium of television, was cast as the film’s hero, Pickett Smith. This too was Elliott’s first “big” break into feature films, though he was somewhat familiar to fans of the small screen through a recent reoccurring role as “Doug Robert” on TV’s popular Mission Impossible series. Van Ark recalled Elliott, even back then, as a complete “class act” and “gentleman” throughout.

Pre-production of Frogs would kick off on the “warm, white sands of Panama City Beach” during the first week of November 1971. The cast and crew had arrived in the resort town of Florida’s Panama City only days earlier. Everyone gathered was enjoying the respite of warm water and plentiful sunshine. Milland in particular would describe the beach as resplendent as any in Hawaii. Milland was tired upon arriving in Panama City, having only recently returned from South Africa for his aging scientist role in Robert Day’s The Big Game (1973). He’d later concede the breakneck, four-week production of Frogs was simply an opportunistic, open timetable gig, a quick pre-holiday season paycheck.

On Monday, 1 November, AIP would host a “welcoming dinner” at a nearby Holiday Inn so local press and city officials could meet and hobnob with Hollywood glitterati. One crew member sheepishly allowed to a reporter that the film was, partly, conceived to coast on the box-office coattails of Daniel Mann’s Willard (1971), Bruce Davison’s rat-loving psychopath. The shooting of Frogs was quick and strenuous as filming often went late into the wee hours. On 8 December, barely a month since production had commenced, Variety reported that principal photography of Frogs had wrapped.

Despite the hectic schedule, Van Ark recalled director George McCowan as easygoing and completely “unflappable,” a helmsman who encouraged a “family atmosphere.” This was no small trick as the actress recalled that due to the tight shooting schedule, there were many “stressful and tedious” long hours of work expected from cast and crew. But since McCowan’s directorial resume also bristled with television assignments, he was used to work expediently under deadline pressures.

On the morning following the press dinner, the unit would move to its primary location of “the old Eden estate,” forty miles north of Panama City. Production manager Elliot Schick told the press the area had been chosen due to its proximity to the Eden State Park mansion and historical museum, a location one hundred miles east of Pensacola. “We had looked at houses in Louisiana and Georgia,” he informed, “but this one was best and it was available.” He added, it was helpful that production would take place entirely in Florida as the state offered a more “pleasant climate” in which to shoot. Schick conceded that while AIP was choosing to invest in, as ever, another “low budget” production, he cautioned, “you’ll notice I didn’t say ‘cheap.’”

The film’s scenario takes no time in establishing its ecological premise. Opening credits are imposed over some footage of freelance photographer Pickett Smith (Elliott) canoeing through a dismal swamp. The only sound we hear are rustling wildlife noises and Smith’s quiet snapping of evidential photos. The images were to document the trash and pollution threatening the habitat. Actor Elliott plays Smith as a reserved outdoorsy-type: his personality rests somewhere between the strong-and-silent-type and brooding loner. His canoe ride is soon upended by a speedboat driven by a nervy Clint Crockett (Roarke) with his sister Karen in tow (Van Ark). With apologies, the two rescue Smith from the lake and take him to the island mansion home of their grandfather, Jason Crockett (Milland).

Old man Crockett is a rather surly, curmudgeonly fellow. Wheelchair-bound for fifteen years, the wealthy and privileged Jason is bitter man, controlling of both staff and family. He’s gathered his family together (children, grandchildren, nephews etc.) for a combo celebration of his upcoming birthday and the 4^th of July holiday. When introduced to the still-soaked Smith, Jason suspiciously asks why the photographer has chosen to ignore his No Trespassing signage. He learns that Smith is on an assignment to create “a pollution layout for an ecology magazine,” an explanation that doesn’t put the shutterbug in a positive light with the old man. However, Jason asks Smith (in Milland’s not entirely convincing Southern drawl) to stick around. He explains the peaceful idyll of his mansion estate is being ruined by the sounds of armies of croaking frogs – creatures of which he soon intends to put an end to.

Smith learns Crockett’s intended frog genocide is to be done by dousing the surrounding swamp with poisons, pesticides and oil slicks. Smith cautions such a plan would not only be devastating to the frogs but to all area wildlife. But the crusty, cigar-smoking patriarch of the Crockett family cares not one whit. He admonishes Smith, declaring “Man is master of the world.” Of course, this is completely the wrong attitude to take. It isn’t long until nearly all in the Crockett family circle are attacked and killed by an assortment of slimy, slithering creatures. The frogs are (apparently) communicating to their swampland brethren to carry out the brutal attacks since… well, they’re frogs and can’t do it themselves. With most of the family missing and/or dead, the beleaguered Smith advises survivors, “We got to get off this damn island!” Which, all things considered, sounds an entirely reasonable position to take.

Frogs would have its world premiere screening on Thursday, 23 March 1972 at Martin’s Florida Theatre in Panama City. The earliest newspaper adverts read, “Frogs Lay Millions and Millions of Eggs Each Year.” It then asks ominously, “What if They ALL Hatched?” The ad tag was soon tweaked to the more concise and memorable, “Today – The Pond, Tomorrow – The World!” Sam Elliott, Adam Roarke and Lynn Borden were all scheduled to attend the premiere. Conspicuously missing was Ray Milland. The actor could not attend as he was already at work on yet another exploitation picture for AIP, The Thing with Two Heads. AIP had pre-arranged another “press junket” to help with the premiere’s exploitation, bringing in Debbie Callaway, the “Miss Panama City” beauty pageant contestant, to attract salacious attention to the event.

No one attending could have predicted the future box-office success of Frogs, least of all the actors. Adam Roarke had been looking forward to expanding his roles beyond those in such hippie-biker films as Hell’s Angels on Wheels (1967) and The Savage Seven (1968). He had recently auditioned for the role of Michael Corleone in Coppola’s runaway box-office smash The Godfather. He disappointedly lost out, of course, the part going to Al Pacino. Still looking for his first big break, Roarke conceded that Frogs was unlikely the ticket. Though pleased with the film’s “strong ecology message,” Roarke candidly admitted Frogs simply wasn’t Gone with the Wind.

Milland too wasn’t terribly boastful of his involvement in the film. As reported in the James Robert Parish and Don E. Stanke book The Debonairs (Arlington House, 1975), Milland sighed reflectively, “I just did that film in a hurry, so I could get out of town for Thanksgiving. I thought it was so awful that it would never be released – now it’s making a lot of dough.” Joan Van Ark, on the other hand, shared mostly good memories of the film. She was not only “not embarrassed” by her participation in Frogs, but actually “grateful” to be cast.

Upon the film’s release, much was made in the press of the film’s comparison to Willard and other ecology-based, animal-attack horror flicks in current vogue. Some thought the recent spate of pro-environmentalism films were outright vehicles of propaganda, movies with an agenda. One AIP rep summarily dismissed that charge, telling the press unapologetically, “We don’t make pictures to deliver messages. Western Union takes care of that.” What was certain is that film critics were clearly divided in their opinions of the film. Perhaps choosing to highlight the film’s potential marketability over its artful staging, Variety thought the pic “slickly produced.” In their opinion, the film was “a tale of mounting danger and suspense,” one of “which has every element to keep audience on the edge of their seats.”

A contrarian view was offered by critic Howell Raines of the Atlanta Constitution. He thought the film, “a movie of stultifying stupidity, distinguished only by the total lack of wit which it delivers the message.” Terry Kay of the Atlanta Journal likewise thought the pic’s scripting both implausible and “inane,” suggesting most of the film’s frogs were, at present, “gracing the tables of Panama City’s finer restaurants.” The Detroit Free Press - obviously not holding back in acid opinion - described Frogs as, “the absolute worst film ever made.” The critic asked how an actor of Milland’s status could have involved himself in this, “piece of ecological garbage.” The critic did concede the picture, no matter how awful, would likely bring in “a couple million bucks.”

He was mostly right about that; horror movie fans were seemingly enthralled with the film. The pic would bring in a “lively” take of some seven and a half thousand dollars in its first week in its Motor City run, twelve thousand dollars each on both of its second and third week of play. In Houston, Frogs brought in fifteen thousand dollars in a four cinema opening, with Washington D.C. reporting a healthy twenty-thousand in receipts. When it was becoming clear that Frogs was going to score big bucks with the right promotional push, AIP ramped up the ballyhoo by mid-April. Prior to the film’s opening in Lafayette, LA, AIP would furnish local television and radio stations with plastic frog giveaways. The area’s cinema employees were outfitted with “frog patterned hot pants and ties” in which to greet patrons.

Cinema Retro Editor-in-Chief Lee Pfeiffer was recently a guest on film music historian Frank Wilson's podcast, "What's the Score". Here is the official episode description:

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The Oscar nominations for films released in 2024 have been announced. Click here to read the entire list.

There is no progress to report on plans for the next James Bond movie. Industry sources say there is some tension between Eon Productions and Amazon MGM Studios. (The two companies are rights owners to the franchise.) However, it seems that the two entities have agreed to launch a remake of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". The film was originally brought to the screen in 1968 as a big budget production from Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli in between making "You Only Live Twice" and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". The classic children's story was the brainchild of Bond author Ian Fleming and it was the only children's novel he wrote. The film under-performed at the boxoffice when originally released but over the decades it has become beloved by a generation that first saw it on British T.V. broadcasts and on home video. Indeed, enthusiasm for the movie is far greater in Great Britain than anywhere else. In 2002, Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli premiered a high profile stage production on the West End. A Broadway engagement followed. Since then, the production has proven to be very profitable through tours. At this time, no specific details are available about the new screen version. Stay Tuned. For more, click here. (Lee Pfeiffer)

By John M. Whalen

If you made a list of movies about men returning home injured from a war you most likely include “The Men” starring Marlon Brando in his first screen role or “Coming Home” (1978) with Jon Voight or “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946) with Dana Andrews and Frederic March. They’re all very good. But another that should be on the list but probably wouldn’t make it because there’s no big star topping the cast is “Bright Victory” (1951) with Arthur Kennedy as a soldier from Florida who was blinded in combat in North Africa. It’s a sensitive, realistic film, with a screenplay by Robert Buckner based on a novel by Baynard Kendrick and directed by Mark Robson (“Home of the Brave” (1947) (Peyton Place (1957)). Kino Lorber has just released this under-appreciated gem on Blu-ray.

Larry Nevins (Arthur Kennedy) catches a bullet in the head that permanently blinds him. He’s sent to an Army hospital in Valley Forge, PA. for rehabilitation. Robson shot the movie on location, actually using patients and soldiers as extras, giving the film a realism that couldn’t be duplicated on a soundstage. Kennedy gives a solid, no frills performance as the blinded veteran-- at first full of self-pity but then filled with a new desire to live when he makes a discovery in one of his therapy sessions. In what’s called an Obstacle Perception Test, the doctors take him outside and tell him to walk until he senses something blocking his way. He’s actually standing in the middle of an obstacle course consisting of brick walls and wooden barricades. He’s doubtful of the outcome but he follows the doctor’s orders and starts walking. Suddenly he stops—just short of one of the barricades. “It’s like I can sense something is there!” he says. The doctors tell him that all humans have this sense of the presence of things immediately in front of them. “It’s a kind of radar,” the doctor explains. People with eyesight don’t need it, he’s told, so they never develop it the way certain blind people can. For the first time, Larry’s excited…excited enough to phone his parents down in Florida, who at first he had even refused to tell that he was blind.

While he’s in the hospital, Larry meets two people who become part of his new life. First is Judy Greene (Peggy Dow) whom he meets in a club where all the GI’s hang out. At first, still cynical and sorry for himself, he brushes her off, thinking she’s a hooker. But the bartender tells him he’s got her all wrong. When he meets her again later, he apologizes and they strike up a friendship. Judy falls for him, but he tells her there’s a girl back home in Florida waiting for him. She’s disappointed but remains his friend.

The other significant person he encounters is Joe Morgan (James Edwards). They accidentally bump into each other in one of the hospitals long hallways, and both being from the South, strike up an immediate friendship. Things go well between them for a while until one day in the bunk room with the other guys Larry casually uses the N-word and the room is suddenly locked in frozen silence. He’s stunned to learn that all along his new friend was a Black man. Joe gets himself transferred to another hospital.

Larry then goes home on a pass, where his family and the girl he left behind are waiting. Chris (Julie Adams) is happy to see him at first, but there’s a nervous strain between them. After talking to her father, who very simply expresses his doubts Larry will ever be able to support his daughter unless he gives him a job in his company, Larry tells Chris they need to leave their hometown and find a life of their own. Chris can’t make the change and they part.

There’s more to the story that involves Larry facing his racism, reuniting with Judy, and finding a suitable career path. What makes “Bright Victory” unusual is the way Larry’s racism is presented. I haven’t seen many films where the protagonist is presented with a character flaw like that. His racism is presented as a result of his upbringing in the South. The “victory” that Larry achieves is seeing that his only chance at a full life is to leave behind the past and its prejudices.

It’s a thoughtful film, partly due to Robson’s involvement. He did another film with racism as it theme, “Home of the Brave” in which James Edwards also had a part. But the characters and plot of “Bright Victory” all come from the Baynard Kendricks novel, ”Lights Out,” according to the audio commentary by screenwriter Gary Gerani. Gerani says that Kendricks actually met the person who became the Larry Nevins character in his book.

Kendricks wrote a lot about blind people, including a series of books featuring blind detective Duncan MacClain, who was played by Edward Arnold in the film adaptation “Eyes in the Night” (1942). The MacClain character lived on into the Seventies under another name, when Oscar-winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant gave full credit to Kendrick as the inspiration for his blind insurance investigator played by James Franciscus in the “Longstreet” television series on ABC television.

Kino Lorber transferred “Bright Victory” from a brand new 2K Master and it looks very good. The picture is crisp and clear and William H. Daniels black and white cinematography presents this dramatic story in realistic detail and reminds you that human drama has no need of digital effects. Also included as extras are half a dozen trailers for other Universal films including “Bend of the River,” “Fixed Bayonets,” and “Boomerang.”

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(John M. Whalen is the author of "This Ray Gun for Hire...and Other Tales". Click here to order from Amazon.)

By Doug Oswald

John Wayne made three movies with Marlene Dietrich between 1940 and 1942: “Seven Sinners” (1940), “The Spoilers” (1942) and “Pittsburgh” (1942); the latter two also featured Randolph Scott. The years between 1940 and the end of World War II were interesting for all three stars. The Duke and Scott’s star status was rising, while Dietrich reached the peak of her star power. Dietrich was already a superstar, having left Germany for Hollywood in 1930 and rising to become the highest paid actress in Hollywood. During this period the Duke often received second or third billing after bigger names like Dietrich and Scott which was the case in these three releases by Universal Pictures available on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber.

First up is “Seven Sinners” from 1940 which is, in my opinion, the best of the three films. It opens with the classic Universal logo followed by a bar fight playing out behind the opening credits. Dietrich plays Bijou, a sexy cabaret singer traveling from island to island in the south Pacific on the eve of America’s involvement in WWII. She gets deported by the ruling governor general for suspicion of prostitution and ends up on a ship heading out to a new island. There she is joined by an assortment of riffraff, grifters and con artists.

Bijou ends up on the fictional island of Boni Komba and finds work at a bar named Seven Sinners. A U.S. Navy Lieutenant named Dan, played by the Duke, catches her eye while she performs a spicey cabaret number in which she’s wearing a tailored U.S. Navy style dress jacket, trousers and hat while singing to a crowd of sailors. Samuel S. Hinds plays the American island Governor who warns Dan of the dangers of romancing Bijou. She’s followed around by Little Ned, played by Broderick Crawford, and con artist/magician Tony, played by Billy Gilbert. Bijou also has a rival for her affection, Antro, played by Oscar Homolka. “Seven Sinners” is clearly Dietrich’s film and she’s terrific in it.

Marlene Dietrich had a very successful movie career in both Germany and in the United States. Born on 27 December 1901 in what is now Berlin, Germany, she got her start as a cabaret singer in the 1920s which soon led to parts in silent movies. Her breakthrough was in Josef Von Sternberg’s “The Blue Angel” where she played a seductive cabaret singer. Von Sternberg brought her to Hollywood where she rose to become the biggest female star in Hollywood. She co-starred with James Stewart in one of her greatest roles, “Destry Rides Again” in 1939. She became a United States citizen and supported the troops throughout WWII touring with the USO. Her entertainment career peaked during the war and she made just a few movies in the 50s and 60s until her death on 6 May 1992 in Paris.

While she remained married to Rudolf Sieber until her death, it was a marriage in name only as she became notorious for her very public affairs including speculation that The Duke became one of her romantic partners. Known for playing cabaret singers and saloon girls, Dietrich’s film highlights include “The Blue Angel” and “Morocco” (with Gary Cooper), both directed by Von Sternberg, “No Highway in the Sky” again with Stewart, Billy Wilder’s “A Foreign Affair” and “Witness for the Prosecution,” Alfred Hitchcock’s “Stage Fright,” Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil” with Charlton Heston, and Stanley Kramer’s “Judgment at Nuremberg.” She also appeared in a cameo role along with many Hollywood stars of the era in “Around the World in 80 Days.” Her final two films were “Paris When it Sizzles” in 1964 and “Just a Gigolo” in 1978.

The film was directed by Tay Garnet, a World War I aviator who started working in Hollywood in 1920 as a writer, directed many films including “My Favorite Spy” with Bob Hope, “Bataan” with Robert Taylor, “The Postman Always Rings Twice” with Lana Turner and John Garfield, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” with Bing Crosby and dozens of television episodes throughout the 50s and 60s, returning to feature films in the early 70s. He also appeared uncredited in several of his movies including this one.

The Universal release made its way to theaters in October of 1940. The movie is a light comedy playing out over 87 breezy minutes. The movie looks very nice indeed on this Blu-ray edition by Kino Lorber on a disc which includes an informative and entertaining audio commentary track by David Del Valle and C. Courtney Joyner. While there has been much speculation over the years over whether Dietrich and the Duke had a fling, Del Valle downplays this as speculation and doubts the rumors were true. The disc also includes the trailer for “Seven Sinners” and seven other Kino Lorber releases. Highly recommended.

Next up is “The Spoilers”, which finds Dietrich and the Duke in Nome, Alaska during the gold rush of 1900. This time they’re joined by Randolph Scott in a rare bad guy role in a tale where most everyone in the movie is bad except for Duke, Harry Cary and Dietrich. Based on the bestselling novel by Rex Beach, the Duke plays Roy Glennister, a gold mining prospector. He and his partner, Dextry (Harry Carey), team up with saloon girl Cherry Malotte (Marlene Dietrich). They’re forced to protect their claim against the crooked commissioner Alexander McNamara, played by Randolph Scott.

“The Spoilers” is a pseudo western taking place in the Klondike and it comes with all the trappings of a traditional western such as saloon fights, gun fights, horses, saloon girls and cowboys. “The Spoilers” has the distinction of being the only John Wayne movie where the Duke is dressed in women’s clothes and also the only time he appears in black face. It also has one of the longest fight scenes ever filmed at almost four minutes between the Duke and Scott.

Familiar faces on hand include Samuel S. Hinds as Judge Horace Stillman, Russell Simpson as Flapjack Sims and Margaret Lindsay as Helen Chester. The movie was directed by Ray Enright, who started work in Hollywood as a teenager in 1913, served in the Signal Corps during WWI, and working his way up as an editor, writer and director making dozens of feature films through the mid-1950s.

Randolph Scott was born on 23 January 1898 in Orange County, Virginia, and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. He served as an aviator during WWI in France, later played college football and after graduating, caught the acting bug and moved to California where he eventually received a contract at Paramount in 1929. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Scott appeared in everything from comedies to dramas and adventure movies. In the late 1940s he cemented his status as one of the most popular stars of westerns, a genre he worked in almost exclusively starting in the late 1940s. He especially shined in the seven westerns directed by Budd Boetticher starting with “7 Men from Now” in 1956. Becoming one of the biggest box office draws of the 1950s and early 60s, Scott retired from acting after the 1962 release of the classic, “Ride the High Country” directed by Sam Peckinpah. A multimillionaire due to his skilled investments, he lived in retirement with his second wife until his death in 1987.

Released in June of 1942, the Universal release has an 87-minute running time. The film looks and sounds very nice on this Blu-ray release. Extras include an image gallery, trailers for this movie and seven other Kino Lorber releases as well as an informative audio commentary by Toby Roan where he shares lots of information about the production, such as this being the fourth movie version of the Beach novel with another made in 1955 all titled, what else, “The Spoilers.” A popular story indeed. The movie is the least of the three Wayne and Dietrich films, but it’s a good rainy afternoon flick. For my money, a better movie with a similar setting and subject is “North to Alaska” also featuring the Duke.

The third Wayne and Dietrich pairing is “Pittsburgh” which is not only the nickname of the Duke, but also the location of this 1942 release which takes place in the years leading up to WWII. The contemporary drama (at the time) tells the story of two friends and the woman who comes between them. The film opens at the start of America’s entry into WWII with coal and iron works tycoons rallying the civilian workforce as military fighter aircraft fly overhead. The movie flashes back to the two leads pushing a coal cart in a mine shaft. The story follows the rise, fall and rise again of Pittsburgh and his friendship with Scott and Dietrich.

Marlene Dietrich is Josie Winters who is known by her nickname Hunky because she was raised in the Pennsylvania coal mining region where the movie takes place. She meets up with Cash Evens (Randolph Scott) and Pittsburgh Markham (Duke) while out on the town. Cash and Pittsburgh head into a theater advertising a $100 in gold prize (about $1800 in today’s dollars) to anyone able to knock out “Killer Kane.” A fight breaks out in the theater with Cash and Pittsburgh making a getaway. The movie takes a turn away from the comedy of the first act to more serious drama as a coal mining cave in results in Josie joining Cash and Pittsburgh in rescuing their friend, “Doc” Powers (Frank Craven).

The Doc is a genius when it comes to finding different uses for coal from plastics to life saving medical applications. Teaming up with Doc Powers, Cash and Pittsburgh form a corporation and with Josie they start their rise to the top. Their main investor is the wealthy steel magnet Morgan Prentis (Samuel S. Hinds) who also happens to have a pretty daughter, Shannon Prentiss (Louis Allbritton), who catches the eye of Pittsburgh. He marries Shannon for upward mobility rather than love and forgets his friends and the many promises he made along the way.

Pittsburgh’s rise, fall and rise again are the core of the story as we follow him in his journey. Pittsburgh becomes a better man as the film comes to its hopeful conclusion assisting with the war effort. Walking arm in arm with Scott and Dietrich, Pittsburgh provides the final line, “I love you Cash. So help me, I love you.”

The Duke is the lead here and he acquits himself quite well in a role that moves from comedy to drama. Marion Morrison was born on 26 May 1907 in Winterset Iowa. Known as “Duke” Morrison, his family moved to Southern California where Duke entered college on a football scholarship from 1925 to 1927. Tom Mix helped get Duke a summer job as a prop man in Hollywood where he eventually met John Ford. The Duke appeared in over 70 low budget movies in the 1930s, mostly westerns billed as John Wayne, until his breakthrough role in the 1939 classic “Stagecoach.” His star rose in the 1940s where he remained a top box office star into the 1970s and he remains a legend to this day.

The film was directed by Lewis Seiler, who helmed dozens of movies from the silent era until he retired in 1959. He is best remembered for his gangster movies and one of the best war movies made during the WWII, “Guadalcanal Diary” in 1943.

The Universal release comes in at 92-minutes and was released in December 1942, a full year into America’s entry into WWII. The movie contains the typical propaganda of the time, specifically in the American steel and coal industries, and veers from straight drama to comedy. Shemp Howard of The Three Stooges fame makes a cameo as a tailor in the first part of the movie. The Kino Lorber release looks very good and the movie has an impresive performance by The Duke. The disc includes an image gallery and the trailers for this and seven other Kino Lorber releases.

All three Kino Lorber releases are in black and white and offer The Duke in three films pairing him with Marlene Dietrich. The Duke is second and third billed here, but is a standout in all three. While not the classics like many John Wayne films that followed, these three movies are enjoyable and recommended, with “Seven Sinners” being the best of the three.

Click here to order "Seven Sinners" from Amazon.

Click here to order "The Spoilers" from Amazon

Click here to order "Pittsburgh" from Amazon

We return to the realm of movies that were announced with fenthusiasm but never materialized...at least not in the version originally envisioned. This movie trade magazine article from May, 1964 announces that Robert Mitchum would be among a cast of 31 major stars to appear in 20th Century-Fox's "The Day Custer Fell". Custer would play Major Frederick Benteen. You will note that this was intended to be the studio's most ambitious American film production. Alas, for some reason it fizzled and died despite the preliminary ballyhoo (a quaint industry term for "fanfare".) Ultimately, an expensive Custer movie made it to the big screen through Cinerama Releasing's ill-fated 1968 production of "Custer of the West" starring Robert Shaw. (Lee Pfeiffer)

FROM ACCLAIMED DIRECTOR MILOS FORMAN, 

THE WINNER OF 8 ACADEMY AWARDS WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 4K RESOLUTION WITH HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR)

THE REMASTERED THEATRICAL VERSION OF THE FILM WILL BE AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL AND 4K UHD DISC ON FEBRUARY 25, 2025

The 1984 period biographical drama film stars Academy Award Winner F. Murray Abraham and Academy Award Nominee Tom Hulce

Burbank, Calif., January 8, 2025 – Celebrating the 40^th anniversary of the epic historical film’s 8 Academy Awards,  Amadeus, from acclaimed director Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), will be available for the first time Digitally in 4K Ultra HD and on 4K UHD Blu-ray Disc on February 25.

One of the most celebrated films in cinematic history, the theatrical version of Amadeus will be available to purchase on Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc online and in-store at major retailers and available Digitally from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Fandango at Home and more.

Directed by two-time Academy Award winner Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) from a screenplay by Academy Award winner Peter Shaffer, the film is based on the play Amadeus by Shaffer and Mozart and Salieri by Alexander Pushkin. Amadeus stars Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham as Antonio Salieri, Academy Award nominee Tom Hulce as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Elizabeth Berridge as Constanze Mozart, Simon Callow as Emanuel Schikaneder, Roy Dotrice as Leopold Mozart, Christine Ebersole as Katerina Cavalieri, Jeffrey Jones as Emperor Joseph II and Charles Kay as Count Orsini-Rosenberg.

Amadeus was produced by three-time Academy Award winner and Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award recipient Saul Zaentz.

Amadeus received eleven Academy Award nominations and won eight Oscars - Best Picture, Best Directing Best Actor (F. Murray Abraham), Best Screenplay based on Material from Another Medium, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and Best Sound.

In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

The restoration and mastering of the Amadeus original theatrical cut was completed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with the participation of Paul Zaentz.

About the Film

Disciplined Italian composer becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Viennese composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Amadeus Digital release and Ultra HD Blu-ray disc contain the following new and previously released special features:

The Making of Amadeus (New)

Amadeus: The Making of a Masterpiece

Thanks to the Internet Archive, here's your chance to listen to Lalo Schifrin's score for the 1968 crime thriller "Sol Madrid" (aka "The Heroin Gang"). The film was directed by Brian G. Hutton and featured an impressive cast: David McCallum, Stella Stevens, Telly Savalas, Rip Torn, Ricardo Montalban, Paul Lukas and Pat Hingle. The film and soundtrack album were released by MGM. Click on the Play button below, left. Use the forward arrow button to advance to the next track.

David Lynch, the internationally acclaimed director of such diverse films as "Eraserhead", "Blue Velvet", "The Elephant Man" , "Mulholland Drive" and the creative force behind the classic T.V. series "Twin Peaks", has passed away at age 78.

Click here for details.

If you haven't had the opportunity to attend a screening of a classic movie accompanied by a live orchestra providing the original musical score, you don't know what you're missing. It's a truly thrilling experience, as this CBS News segment illustrates.

By Doug Gerbino

Laurel and Hardy first teamed up in early 1927 and quickly became a sensation, finishing the year at the height of their success. Their achievements in 1928 motivated the staff at Hal Roach Studios, including acclaimed director Leo McCarey, to enhance their efforts in support of the duo’s comedic brilliance. Whether creating chaos as a two-man band, feuding as a millionaire and his butler, or playing grave robbers for a mad scientist, Laurel and Hardy proved in their second year that they could capture audiences in the twilight of the silent era while building momentum for their seamless transition into “talkies” by 1929.

Although they are now synonymous with comedy, much of Laurel and Hardy’s early silent work exists only in fragments, with original negatives scattered worldwide and often in less-than-ideal condition. The Blackhawk Films restoration team devoted four years to assembling and meticulously comparing every surviving film element, frame by frame, to produce the highest-quality digital restorations possible. Today, these beloved shorts look as vibrant as they did nearly a century ago.

This impressive collection includes newly restored versions of their ten 1928 team films, along with additional works from Hal Roach Studios that highlight their final solo performances and the transition from silent films to synchronized sound and music.

Special Materials:

· Audio Commentary Tracks – For each film by historians and authors Randy Skretvedt & Richard W. Bann

· Exclusive, Rare Audio - Featuring Anita Garvin, Thomas Benton Roberts, and Hal Roach

· Additional Musical Scores – including original 1928 Vitaphone tracks on Habeas Corpus & We Faw Down

· Laurel & Hardy On-Location in Year Two – Video essay by John Bengtson on selected location exteriors

· Eve’s Love Letters (1927) – One of Stan Laurel’s final solo films

· Galloping Ghosts (1928) – Two surviving fragments of a rare solo Oliver Hardy comedy

· A Pair of Tights (1928) – A short starring Anita Garvin and Marion Byron

· George Mann’s Home Movies – From behind the scenes of Hal Roach Studios

Shorts on the Laurel & Hardy: Year Two set include:

Leave 'em Laughing, The Finishing Touch, From Soup to Nuts, You're Darn Tootin', Their Purple Moment, Should Married Men Go Home?, Early to Bed, Two Tars, Habeas Corpus, and We Faw Down

Each film includes a newly recorded score by some of today’s leading silent film composers, such as Andreas Benz, Neil Brand, Robert Israel, and Jean-François Zygel. This release has been curated by renowned film historians and Laurel and Hardy experts Randy Skretvedt, Richard W. Bann, Serge Bromberg, and Eric Lange.

As the "Grand Sheik Emeritus" of the founding chapter (or “tent”) of The Sons of the Desert, the International Laurel & Hardy Appreciation Society, I consider this collection—and its predecessor from last year covering 1927—a true treasure. These films have never looked as exceptional as they do in these Flicker Alley releases.

What fascinates me most is the transitional period in cinema history. The final two films in this collection originally premiered with sound-on-disc music and effects scores, designed for theaters equipped with the “Vitaphone” system. Their restored scores bring these silent films to life and offer a perfect bridge to 1929, which is expected to be next year’s release—marking the end of the silent era and the dawn of sound.

By Adrian Smith

A young, impoverished scholar is saved from a gang of thugs by a beautiful, thoughtful woman with fantastical powers who then takes him home and offers to help look after him. Little does he know that she is in fact an immortal vixen who, along with her two equally beautiful sisters (although given what the pair of them get up to together when they think she’s not looking, I hope they’re not actually sisters), is trying to attain human form after a thousand years of spiritual meditation. Once her sisters find out about the scholar, they get extremely jealous and before you can say “love square”, there’s a whole lot of sex going on between all four of them, and this naive young man is going to struggle to get any studying done for quite some time.

Taking its inspiration from The Witches of Eastwick (1987) and the ‘Liaozhai,’ or ‘Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio,’ a large collection of supernatural stories published in the 1700s, where ghosts and foxes regularly interfere with the ordinary world, Erotic Ghost Story (1990) was one of the many adult-oriented films made possible by the introduction of the Category III rating in Hong Kong in 1988. Known as Cat III, this rating was the equivalent of the NC-17 in the States or the 18 in the UK and created a lucrative market for filmmakers who saw exploitation potential. Hong Kong audiences would eagerly attend midnight screenings of Cat III films to see nudity, softcore sex and graphic violence, often in the same film, usually held together with goofy comedy. A prime example, Erotic Ghost Story is a film in three acts; it begins with comedy, keeps audiences sitting up straight in their cinema seats with lots of sex and gorgeous leading ladies, and ends with an Evil Dead 2-style explosion of horror and supernatural madness.

Of the three sisters, Amy Yip is probably the best known to audiences in the West. Famed for her stunning looks, large chest (she was forever denying rumours that anything had been implanted) and sense of humour, she was a very popular star, appearing in just a few key Cat III classics like this film and then Sex and Zen, Robotrix and Erotic Ghost Story 2 (all 1991) before effectively retiring to become a business owner. There really was no other star quite like her, and it’s great to see her breakthrough role here, where shines above the rest of the cast, in part thanks to her contract clause that would not allow full nudity. The lengths the camera goes to show the audience almost everything without actually showing us anything is quite remarkable.

Erotic Ghost Story is hugely entertaining, and its popularity ensured two sequels in quick succession. They are thematic sequels with no actual plot connection, drawing again on ancient Chinese tales as well as eighties special effects horror cinema. In the first sequel Anthony Wong, another Cat III star, plays a virgin sacrifice-demanding demon who looks like a member of KISS, and features tons of dry ice, sexy women, bonkers horror freakouts and underwater kung fu. The second sequel, from just a year later, is about a man who enters a painting and finds himself in the afterlife where he must contend with yet another demon whilst also having copious amounts of sex. It’s a hard life for some.

This new Erotic Ghost Story Trilogy boxset from Imprint, limited to just 1500 copies, is a must have for any serious fan of Hong Kong cinema, or of unpredictable horror films, or of gorgeous naked women (or any combination of the three). The restorations for each film look terrific, with fabulous colours and pin-sharp imagery. It is pleasing to see that the negatives for these films, now over thirty years old (good grief, do I feel old), have been well taken care of. Each film comes with new commentaries from critics and historians, alongside a collection of exclusive new interviews with crew members and genre historians. Included on one disc is the 2018 documentary Category III: The Untold Story of Hong Kong Exploitation Cinema, which is an interesting introduction to this world of slightly unhinged Hong Kong film history. Aside from a couple of actors and Hong Kong directors however, most of the talking heads in the doc are middle-aged male white film critics and academics (and I say this as a middle-aged male white academic myself), and it is a shame that more people involved in making the films themselves, or at least more Hong Kongers, could not have been included. Despite that caveat, it is still recommended viewing if you want to put Erotic Ghost Story into context.

So, if you are looking for a spooky, funny, sexy time from an era when studios made films for grownups, you really should check out the Erotic Ghost Story Trilogy. And, in the meantime, if a beautiful, otherworldly woman in revealing attire floats towards you surrounded by dry ice, just be careful...

The Erotic Ghost Story Trilogy Blu-ray Region B boxset is available from Imprint. Click here to order.

Here's a rarity: original 1969 behind-the-scenes production featurette for "Paint Your Wagon". The quality is pretty lousy but it's still fun to watch and hear comments from the stars. Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg starred in the mega-budget musical that went down in flames at the boxoffice, but there's still plenty to like in the film including production designer John Truscott's amazing sets and Marvin's unexpectedly effective warbling of "Wanderin' Star".

By John M. Whalen

In 1958, Esther Williams was struggling to save her career. The era of the Technicolor “aquatic musical,” that had made her a big star at Metro Goldwyn Mayer for so many years, was over. After MGM let her go, she signed up with Universal-International to make more dramatic films sans water ballet. Her first outing with UI was “The Unguarded Moment” (1955), co-starring George Nader. It told the story of a high school teacher sexually assaulted by a student. It had nary a swimming pool in sight, but flopped, for various other reasons too numerous to mention here. (See my review of that film here on Cinema Retro). For her next film she put a toe back in the water with “Raw Wind in Eden” (1958), which was shot on location on an island off the Tuscan Coast. It had a swimming scene (without musical choreography), but it was another box office disaster. NY Times movie critic Bosley Crowther said it looked like “the producers lost the script and went right on shooting without it, making it up as they went along.” It was the end of her relationship with Universal.

“Raw Wind in Eden”’s script was written by the husband/wife team of Richard and Elizabeth Wilson (“Invitation to a Gunfighter” (1964)) and follows the misadventures of a fashion model named Laura. I have to stop here and note that after a thorough screening of the film and an AI search of the internet I can’t find any mention of Laura’s last name. Apparently, the screenwriters didn’t bother to give her one. Anyway, what we do know about her is that besides being a fashion model she’s also having an affair with some rich married guy, who seems reluctant to ask his wife for a divorce. So, fed up with him, she decides to fly off with one of her boyfriend’s playboy friends, a guy named Wally Drucker (Carlos Thompson), who owns a plane. Their intention is to fly to where there is a big party being held on a yacht owned by one of Wally’s friends. Instead they crash into an island in the Mediterranean where three people live by themselves: a mysterious man named Michael Moore (Jeff Chandler), an older man named Urbano Verno (Eduardo de Felippo), and his daughter, Costanza Verano (Rosanna Podesto). Laura is unhurt in the crash, but Wally is injured. Moore, a former World War II medic, patches him up.

Moore tells the new arrivals that it could take as long as five weeks before any help arrives to take them off the island. Of course, during that time various romantic relationships develop. Drucker gets interested in Costanza, and Laura finds the reclusive Moore of interest. In a strange development it turns out that there’s another guy on a nearby island, Gavino (Nik Battaglia), who wants to marry Costanza. Every so often he rides his power boat to the island and fires a few shots, then turns around when Moore fires back at him. Believe me, it’s all pretty lame.

There is a mystery at the core of this goofiness. Who is Michael Moore and why is he living in seclusion on a Mediterranean island? And why did he scuttle the yacht that brought him here? The solution is provided at the end, but you’ll be unlikely to care much by then.

This is not to say that there isn’t entertainment to be found on Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray edition of “Raw Wind in Eden.” First, of course, there is Esther wearing outfits suitable for the tropical climate and having a last cinematic swim. She was still in great shape. But the real gems are to be found in the audio commentary provided on a separate audio channel by film historian David Del Valle and movie historian/filmmaker Daniel Kremer. Perhaps the highlight of their conversation is their discussion of Esther Williams’ claim in her autobiography that her co-star Jeff Chandler was a cross-dresser. She had an affair with him during the filming of “Raw Wind in Eden” and claimed that he liked to wear her dresses. Del Valle and Kremer strongly doubted there was any truth to that accusation. Del Valle says he thought it was very cruel of her to put that in her book, even if it was true. He said that Jane Russell who had costarred with Chandler in “Foxfire” (1955) said she had never heard anything about that. But according to Del Valle, Williams’ autobiography contains many such accusations against the men she worked with on and off the screen— including Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan of the Apes! What? Come on, now! Cheetah never said anything about that.

There are a lot of other insights and stories about what happened behind the scenes during filming that you’ll probably enjoy more than the film itself—especially if your one of the many surviving Esther Williams fans out there. Restored from a 2K Master, the movie looks good in vibrant Technicolor and widescreen. Also included are over half a dozen previews for other Williams and Chandler films. If you’re looking for a film with a good plot and believable characters, this one is probably not for you. But if you want to relax and enjoy the sheer nuttiness of it all, and at the same time experience a period of time when one kind of moviemaking was fading and another kind was moving in, you could do worse.

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(John M. Whalen is the author of "This Ray Gun for Hire...and Other Tales". Click here to order from Amazon.)

By  John M. Whalen

In 1955, Esther Williams, the star of films like “Million Dollar Mermaid,” and “Dangerous When Wet”, suddenly found herself out of work when MGM ended her contract. The era of the “aquatic musical,” which she was famous for, was over. So, Esther went to work at Universal-International and focused on more dramatic roles. It wasn’t a successful move. She made only two films for them. The first, “The Unguarded Moment,”(1956), was a noirish tale about a high school teacher sexually harassed by a student. “Raw Wind in Eden (1958)” was about a fashion model who crash lands on a Mediterranean island. I’ll be reviewing that one separately.

In “The Unguarded Moment”, Esther plays school teacher Lois Conway, who starts working in Ogden High School, which is in a typical 1950s “Leave It to Beaver” neighborhood- with the slight caveat that there’s a serial killer in the vicinity. She starts receiving mash notes from an anonymous student on the first day of school. Lois, who frankly, seems not very bright in light of the dumb things she does during the course of the story, first accuses a perfectly innocent boy of writing the note, which results in embarrassment to both her and the student. The notes continue until she receives one that asks her to meet the mystery stalker in stadium locker room that night at nine. Of course, she never considers calling the cops and decides to show up at the rendezvous in order to confront him. Things get nutty in the dark of the gymnasium but she manages to fight him off and her attacker runs out into the headlights of an oncoming car. We see it is a student named Leonard Bennett (John Saxon in his first major role)—the school’s most popular student and star athlete. Esther recognizes him but still fails to identify him to the cops who find her coming out of the stadium all disheveled and with a torn dress. She doesn’t want to turn Leonard in. After all he’s just a kid, not a criminal. Maybe she can help him. Naturally, they’re more suspicious of her than anyone else and she becomes topic number one at the school.

Now the police are involved and the cop in charge of the investigation is Mr. Bland of the 1950s himself, George Nader, playing Lieutenant Harry Graham. He’s frankly annoyed by Lois’s seeming naiveté and lack of cooperation in regards helping identify the suspect, especially since there’s already been one murder. But he is also aware that she’s a pretty good-looking babe, and that body! Also in the cast in a key pivotal role is an actor who probably appeared in at least 10,000 TV shows and films back in the Fifties and Sixties. Edward Andrews plays Leonard Bennet’s father, in one of the weirdest portrayals of a father ever given--even by Universal-International standards. In one creep-out scene, for instance, he enters his son’s bedroom and tells him for the 500^th time how his mother left them years ago and he has made sure that every trace of her was scrubbed out of the house. He keeps Leonard on a tight leash and forbids him to go out with girls. He reminds Leonard they don’t need women in their lives, and tells him: “We’ve built something really good here. If you do anything to hurt it I’ll break every bone in your body.” Not exactly Father of the Year.

“The Unguarded Moment” was directed by Harry Essex (“Tammy and the Doctor,” and a lot of TV work), and written by Herb Meadow (“Have Gun-Will Travel),” Lawrence B. Marcus (“The Stunt Man,” 1980), and Rosalind Russell (“Auntie Mame”). Yes, Auntie Mame herself dreamed up this weird tale and got Marcus and Meadow to write the script, which is surprising because Marcus had written some dynamite scripts for the “Route 66” and “Naked City” TV series back in the day. And Meadows’ “Have Gun-Will Travel” scripts were well-written as well. Their involvement in “The Unguarded Moment” should have resulted in something better.

Kino Lorber says the transfer to Blu-ray was made from a brand new 2K Master. The Technicolor comes through very effectively, but honestly, I thought the picture looked a little worn and grainy. I shouldn’t complain, though. This is the first availability of this feature on home video ever. It’s never even been on video cassette before. So overall I’d have to say this is a Blu-ray that will not only speak to the surviving fans of Esther Williams, but also those who appreciate being able to see movies that have almost been lost forever.

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(John M. Whalen is the author of "This Ray Gun for Hire...and Other Tales". Click here to order from Amazon.)

Hammer Film’s first ever 4K restoration, 
Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter,
 is released at UK cinemas!

LONDON, UK (07/01/25): Happy New Fear! To celebrate its 50th anniversary, a new 4K restoration of Hammer Film’s swashbuckling horror classic, Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter, will be released at UK cinemas nationwide for one night only.

From 18th January 2025, the cult film will be screened at selected cinemas in major cities across the UK including Cambridge, Liverpool, Sheffield, Belfast, Glasgow and Edinburgh (full list below). 

Legendary creator Brian Clemens (TV’s The Avengers, TV’s The Professionals) writes and directs this stylish, revisionist Hammer Horror pitting a swashbuckling hero, his trusty assistant and a feisty young ingenue against a cunning and malevolent vampire. 

Starring Horst Janson (Shout At The Devil, To Catch A King), John Carson (Doomsday, TV’s Poirot), Shane Briant (Hawk The Slayer, TV’s The Naked Civil Servant), Caroline Munro (The Spy Who Loved Me, The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad), John Cater (The Abominable Dr. Phibes), Lois Dane (Cash On Demand), William Hobbs (Willow, The Avengers) with Ian Hendry (TV’s The New Avengers, Get Carter) and Wanda Ventham (TV’s Sherlock, TV’s UFO), Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter makes its worldwide debut as a brand-new 4K restoration from the original negative film elements.

Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter shifted the paradigm on cinematic horror, creating a film for which appreciation has only grown over the decades – its post-modern script, stylish direction, memorable performances and folk horror mise en scène make it both of and ahead of its time. Its influence is hard to over-estimate. Fifty years after its initial theatrical exhibition, this new restoration of Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter celebrates an absolute classic of British horror whose time has very definitely come. 

Synopsis
A rash of mysterious deaths due to accelerated ageing compels Dr Marcus to summon his brother-in-arms, Captain Kronos – once a soldier but now a professional vampire hunter. As the deaths continue, however, Kronos realises that this is no ordinary vampire he’s hunting.

The Restoration
This brand-new 4K restoration was scanned from vaulted 35mm original negative elements, the resultant scans painstakingly restored to remove dirt and defects. Other issues like density or colour fluctuations were corrected and the film was then graded for High Dynamic Range to show off the full range of colour and the detail in the dark and light areas of the image. Original three-track mono audio elements were used to create a new 5.1 sound mix for theatrical presentation.

Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter has a running time of 91 minutes a 15 certificate.

Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter is released at UK cinemas from 18th January 2025 for one night only!

Full list of screenings:

18th January:
•    BELFAST Queens Film Theatre

20th January:
•    DUNDEE DCA

22nd January:
•    FINSBURY PARK Picturehouse 
•    CAMBRIDGE Picturehouse 
•    CAMBRIDGE The Light 
•    BIRMINGHAM Mockingbird Cinema
•    WALSALL The Light 
•    BOLTON The Light 
•    SHEFFIELD The Light 
•    STOCKPORT The Light 
•    NEW BRIGHTON The Light 
•    LIVERPOOL Picturehouse 
•    NEWCASTLE Tyneside
•    EDINBURGH Cameo 
•    GLASGOW Film Theatre
•    NORTHAMPTON Film House 

24th January:
•    BRISTOL Cube

27th January:
•    DUNDEE DCA

28th January:
•    MANCHESTER Home

Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter Limited Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray will be released from 27th January 2025
Pre-order now from Hammer Films, Amazon, HMV