DIRTY
HARRY, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES AND PALE RIDER
NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 4K RESOLUTION WITH
HIGH
DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR)
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment.
Three films from
legendary filmmaker Clint Eastwood – Dirty Harry, The Outlaw Josey
Wales and Pale Rider (40th anniversary), will be
released for the first time on 4K Ultra HD and Digital on April 29.
2021 marked the 50th year of Clint Eastwood’s
partnership with Warner Bros., which began in 1971 with the release of Dirty
Harry. Over the course of his remarkable career, Eastwood, a 4-time Academy
Award winner, has received a number of lifetime and career achievement honors,
including the Motion Picture Academy’s Irving Thalberg Memorial Award and the
Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Cecil B. DeMille Award. He has also
garnered tributes from the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of
America, the Screen Actors Guild, the American Film Institute, the Film Society
of Lincoln Center, the French Film Society, the National Board of Review, and
the Henry Mancini Institute. He is also the recipient of a Kennedy Center
Honor, the California Governor’s Award for the Arts, and France’s Commandeur de
la Legion d’honneur.
About the films:
DIRTY HARRY - 1971
Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood stars as
no-holds-barred San Francisco cop Dirty Harry Callahan in this action thriller
that began an action franchise. When detective Harry Callahan is assigned to
pay extortion money to a serial murderer, the payoff goes wrong. Now with the
life of a 14-year-old girl at stake, Callahan refuses to allow
anything--including the law--to keep him from stopping the killer.
The film is directed by Don Siegel. The screenplay is by
Harry Julian Fink, R.M. Fink, and Dean Riesner from a story by Harry Julian
Fink and R.M. Fink. The film is produced by Don Siegel. Dirty Harry
stars Clint Eastwood, Andy Robinson, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, and John
Vernon.
Dirty Harry was selected in 2008 by Empire as
one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. The film was ranked No. 41 on
the American Film Institute’s 100 Years ... 100 Thrills, a list of
America's most heart-pounding movies, and Harry Callahan was selected as the
17th greatest movie hero on 100 Years ... 100 Heroes & Villains. The
movie's famous quote "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel
lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" was ranked 51st on 100 Years ... 100
Movie Quotes.
In February 2025, the 4K remaster of the film premiered
at the Berlinale Film Festival as part of the Berlinale Classics program
which showcases digitally restored film classics.
Dirty Harry 4K UHD contains the following new and
previously released special features:
Commentary by Richard Schickel
“Generations and Dirty Harry” - NEW
Lensing Justice: The Cinematography of Dirty Harry - NEW
American Masters Career Retrospective: “Clint Eastwood:
Out of the Shadows”
“Clint Eastwood: The Man from Malpaso”
“Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy – Fighting for
Justice”
Interview Gallery: Patricia Clarkson, Joel Cox, Clint
Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, Evan Kim, John Milius, Ted Post, Andy Robinson’ Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Robert Urich.
Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood stars in and directs
this fast-paced Western about the fight for vengeance by a Missouri farmer
whose family is murdered in the last days of the United States' Civil War.
The film is directed by Clint Eastwood. The screenplay is
by Phil Kaufman and Sonia Chernus and is based on the novel “Gone to Texas” by
Forrest Carter. The film is produced by Robert Daly. The Outlaw
Josey Wales stars Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Bill
McKinney, and John Vernon.
The Outlaw Josey Wales was nominated for
the Academy Award for Original Music Score. In 1996, it was deemed
"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the
United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in
the National Film Registry.
The Outlaw Josey Wales 4K UHD contains the following
new and previously released special features:
Commentary by Richard Schickel
“An Outlaw and an Antihero” - NEW
“The Cinematography of and Outlaw: Crafting Josie Wales”
- NEW
“Clint Eastwood’s West”
“Eastwood in Action”
“Hell Hath No Fury: The Making of The Outlaw Josey Wales”
“Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy – Reinventing the
West”
With 1985's Pale Rider, Clint Eastwood returned to the
western genre with a vengeance as the movie became the highest grossing western
of that decade. Eastwood, who also directed the hit film, plays a nameless
stranger who rides into a small California gold rush town (and becomes known as
the "Preacher") where he finds himself in the middle of a feud
between a mining syndicate and a group of independent prospectors.
The film is produced and directed by Clint Eastwood and
written by Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack. The film stars Clint
Eastwood, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Christopher Penn, Richard Dysart,
Sydney Penny, Richard Kiel, Doug McGrath, and John Russell.
Pale Rider 4K UHD contains the following new and
previously released special features:
“The Diary of Sydney Penny: Lessons from the Set” - NEW
“Painting the Preacher: Bruce Surtees and Pale Rider” -
NEW
“Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy – Reinventing
Westerns”
In the estimation of many film scholars the 1970s was the most
adventurous and liberating period in the history of the medium. The new
freedoms in regard to sex, violence and adult themes that had exploded
in the mid-1960s became even more pronounced in the '70s. Among the most
daring studios to take advantage of this trend was United Artists. The
studio had been conceived by iconic actors in the silent era with the
intent of affording artists as much creative control over their
productions as possible. UA had continued to fulfill that promise,
producing a jaw-dropping number of box-office hits and successful film
franchises. The studio also disdained censorship and pushed the envelope
with high profile movie productions. The daring decision to fund the
X-rated "Midnight Cowboy" paid off handsomely. The 1969 production had
not only been a commercial success but also won the Best Picture Oscar. A
few years later UA went even further out on a limb by distributing
"Last Tango in Paris". The studio fully capitalized on the worldwide
sensation the movie had made and the many attempts to restrict it from
being shown at all in certain areas of the globe. Like "Midnight
Cowboy", "Tango" was an important film by an important director that
used graphic images of sexual activity for dramatic intensity.
Unfortunately, not every filmmaker who was inspired by these new
freedoms succeeded in the attempt to mainstream X-rated fare during
those years that the rating wasn't only synonymous with low-budget porno
productions. Case in point: screenwriter John Byrum, who made his
directorial debut with "Inserts", a bizarre film that UA released in
1975 that became a legendary bomb. The movie had previously been released as a limited edition Blu-ray by the late, great boutique label Twilight Time and has been out of print for years. Now, the Warner Archive has released their own Blu-ray edition.
The claustrophobic tale resembles a filmed stage production. It is
set primarily in one large living room in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
The time period is the 1930s, shortly after the introduction of sound to
the movie industry resulted in the collapse of silent pictures (Charlie
Chaplin being the notable exception.) The central character, played by
Richard Dreyfuss, is not named but is referred to as "The Boy Wonder".
From our first glimpse of him we know we are seeing a man in trouble. He
is unkempt, dressed in a bathrobe and swizzling booze directly from the
bottle. We will soon learn that he was once a respected mainstream
director of major studio films and was revered by Hollywood royalty. Now
he is a has-been who has resorted to making porn movies in 16mm in his
own home. (Yes, Virginia, people liked to watch dirty movies even way
back then.) He is entertaining a visitor, Harlene (Veronica Cartwright),
a perpetually cheery, bubble-headed young woman who was once a
respected actress but who, like Boy Wonder, has fallen on hard times.
She is now a heroin addict who earns a living by "starring" in Boy
Wonder's porn productions. They make small talk and some names from the
current movie business are bandied about. Harlene tells Boy Wonder that a
rising star named Clark Gable is said to be an admirer of his and wants
to meet him. Instead of responding favorably to this news, Boy Wonder
seems unnerved by it. The implication is that he is locked in a
self-imposed downward spiral and lacks the self-confidence to attempt a
real comeback. Harlene also needles him about his sexual prowess. It
turns out that the king of porn films has long been impotent for reasons
never explained. As they prepare to film some scenes Harlene's male
"co-star" (Stephen Davies) arrives. He is nicknamed Rex, The Wonder Dog,
which seems to bother him especially when the Wonder Boy uses it to
intentionally disparage him. Like Harlene, Rex is short on brains but is
physically attractive. Boy Wonder seems to have a real resentment
towards him, perhaps because Rex is a powerhouse in bed while he can't
get anything going despite directing naked people in sex scenes. It
becomes clear that Boy Wonder and Rex don't like each other. Boy
Wonder ridicules Rex for performing sex acts on male studio executives
who he naively believes will help him become a star. However, their
relationship looks downright friendly compared to the interaction
between Harlene and Rex. When Rex is a little slow in becoming
physically aroused, Harlene mocks him mercilessly. This results in him
essentially subjecting her to a violent rape which thrills Boy Wonder,
who captures it all on film. Harlene doesn't appear to be any worse for
the wear, however, and blithely says she's going off to a bedroom to
rest.
The household is next visited by mobster Big Mac (Bob Hoskins), the
man who finances Boy Wonder's film productions. He is accompanied by his
financee Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper), a pretty young woman who seems to
have a particular interest in the forbidden world of pornography. Big
Mac and Boy Wonder also hate each other. Big Mac berates Boy Wonder for
making his porn flicks too esoteric and artistic for their intended
audiences who just want a cheap thrill. However, for Boy Wonder the porn
films represent the last opportunity he has to demonstrate the
cinematic style and camera angles that once impressed critics and the
public. In the midst of their arguing, it is discovered that a tragedy
has occurred: Harlene has died from a heroin overdose. Everyone seems
nonplussed by the news and Big Mac's only concern is to ditch the body
somewhere quickly. Turns out Rex has a part time job in a funeral parlor
and can arrange for a gruesome plan in which they dump her body inside a
grave that is being prepared for another person's funeral the next day.
The plan is to dig a bit deeper, bury Harlene, then place a layer of
dirt over her and have the "new" body placed on top of hers. As Big Mac
and Rex leave to "undertake" this sordid task, Boy Wonder finds himself
alone with Cathy Cake. She wants to use the time to have Boy Wonder film
her in her own personal porn movie since Big Mac would never let his
"fiancee" do so with his knowledge. She finds the idea of sex on film to
be a stimulant but Boy Wonder won't have any of it. He knows that Big
Mac's volatile temper and ever-present bodyguard could result in him
being the next corpse in the house. Cathy Cake tries another tactic and
feigns interest in Boy Wonder. He lets his guard down and gradually is
seduced by her. She even manages to cure his impotence but the tryst
turns ugly when she learns he has not filmed it. Boy Wonder soon
discovers that his renewed pride and self-respect is to be short-lived
when it becomes clear that Cathy Cake actually loathes him and was only
using him in order to fulfill her porn movie fantasy. The ploy works to a
degree- her attention to Boy Wonder reawakens his sexual prowess but
when she learns the camera wasn't rolling, she cruelly tells him that
she only used him for selfish purposes. With this, Big Mac and Rex
return from their horrendous errand and catch Boy Wonder in bed with
Cathy Cake. The situation becomes dangerous with Big Mac threatening to
kill Boy Wonder and things only deteriorate from there.
Richard Dreyfuss seemed to have a personal
obsession with this film. He was very involved in all aspects of its
production and remained defensive about the movie after its harsh
reception from critics. The movie's complete rejection by reviewers and
the public might have hurt his career but Dreyfuss already had "American
Graffiti" and "Jaws" under his belt. Soon he would also star in another
blockbuster, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" followed by his
Oscar-winning performance in "The Goodbye Girl". The fact that so few
people ever saw "Interiors" actually worked to his advantage. However,
whatever motivated him to become involved in this bizarre project
remains a mystery. It's an ugly tale about ugly people doing ugly things
to each other. If there is a message here, I didn't receive it. There
isn't a single character you can identify with or sympathize with. They
are all self-obsessed cynics with no redeeming traits. That leaves us
with whatever values the performances afford us and it's a mixed bag.
Dreyfuss is miscast. He was twenty nine years-old when he made the film
and, despite his sordid appearance which ages him considerably, he is
still far too young to portray a once-great movie director who has
fallen on hard times. John Byrum's direction of Dreyfuss is unsteady. At
times he encourages him to underplay scenes while at other times he has
Dreyfuss chew the scenery mercilessly. Similarly, Stephen Davies plays
the brain-dead hunk Rex with flamboyantly gay characteristics one minute
then suddenly transforms into a heterosexual stud the next. Bob Hoskins
in what would become his trademark tough-guy gangster mode but gives a
solid performance. The best acting comes from the two female leads with
Veronica Cartwright especially good as the ill-fated Harlene. Jessica
Harper also does well in her thankless role. Both women seem at ease in
doffing their clothes and playing much of their scenes in a provocative
state. Cartwright even goes full frontal for the violent sex scene with
Rex while Harper spends almost the entire last act of the film being
photographed topless. Curiously, the willingness to appear nude onscreen
was considered the epitome of female emancipation in films during the
1970s but the practice has largely become frowned upon in more recent
years. In fact the days are long gone when virtually every major actress
had to appear naked on screen. Today, female emancipation is the
ability to play erotic scenes on screen without having to be completely
compromised.
Some
guys have a hard time finding themselves in life, even with the advantage of a
comfortable upbringing.It isn’t a new
phenomenon.The son of a prosperous
Chicago businessman, Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) floundered through his
twenties and early thirties in a series of short-lived, dead-end jobs.At age 37, with a growing family to support
on a meager salary, Burroughs threw the proverbial dice and began to write
imaginative adventure stories for the pulp-fiction magazines of the day.Burroughs found immediate success and never
looked back.Particularly lucrative were
his novels about Tarzan of the Apes, an infant raised by great apes in Africa
after his marooned parents died.Tarzan
eventually returns to civilisation to claim his inheritance as a British peer,
John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, becoming a man who enjoys unfettered freedom in
the wild when the notion strikes him, while navigating the demands of polite
society as an urbane, globetrotting sophisticate other times.
Next
to creating this iconic fictional character, Burroughs’ most inspired move was
to register “Tarzan” as a trademark.That way, he retained Tarzan as his own intellectual property to
safeguard against anyone else stealing the name.The strategy also turned Tarzan into an even
bigger money-maker for his creator, as a property he could license to movies,
radio, and comic strips for a handsome fee.One such opportunity arose in 1932, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer approached
the author for the rights to make a movie titled “Tarzan the Ape-Man.”By then Burroughs had already approved seven
Tarzan movies, but all of them had been silent films, largely produced by
second-tier studios without MGM’s resources and respectability.
“Tarzan
the Ape-Man” was a great success, in part because of MGM’s rich production
values and in part because of good timing.1932 was the grimmest year of the Great Depression, when everybody
sought escapist entertainment at the movies.The release also slipped under the ropes before Hollywood began to crack
down on sex and nudity under a restrictive production code.Olympic swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller
as Tarzan and Maureen O’Sullivan as his sweetheart Jane (his wife in the
novels, their marital status unclear in the picture) wear revealing jungle
skimpies as they frolic in the rain forest.Perhaps to assert its own claim on the character within the limits of
the contract with Burroughs, the studio did away with most of the trappings of
the novels.Weissmuller’s Tarzan is an
athletic but inarticulate lug whose presence in the jungle is largely
unexplained, a far cry from the eloquent hero and imaginative backstory of the
books.
Some
critics say that Burroughs was unhappy with the MGM version, particularly in
regard to the portrayal of his brainchild as a lummox.Others disagree, citing evidence to the
contrary, including the fact that eleven more Weissmuller movies followed with
his approval.At any rate, the
opportunity soon arose for Burroughs to present a movie version closer to his
vision.The result was “The New
Adventures of Tarzan” (1935), a twelve-chapter serial.The film was released by Burroughs-Tarzan
Pictures Inc., an independent company headed by Burroughs and a veteran
Hollywood actor and producer, Ashton Dearholt.
Now
available on Blu-ray from the Film Masters Archive Collection, “The New
Adventures of Tarzan” finds the ape-man joining an expedition by an explorer,
Major Martling, into the jungles of Guatemala.Martling is searching for the fabulous Green Goddess, an idol worshipped
by a lost tribe of Mayans in a ruined city.The Green Goddess contains a fortune in jewels as well as “the formula
for an explosive more powerful than any known to modern science.”For modern viewers, the notion of an ancient
Mayan secret may bring to mind the crackpot Internet rumour from a few years
ago, that the world was fated to destruct on December 21, 2012, according to a
Mayan prophecy.
Martling
wants to make sure the formula doesn’t fall into the wrong hands of
war-mongers.Separately, a young woman,
Ula Vale, sets off on her own to vindicate her late fiancé, who died in a plane
crash in quest of the idol.Tarzan
doesn’t care about the jewels or the formula; he wants to rescue his friend
Paul d’Arnot (a pivotal character in the novels), who was marooned in the
jungle by the same crash that killed Ula’s fiancé.Meanwhile, a mercenary named Raglan sets off
on a rival expedition, financed by a backer who wants to obtain the mysterious
formula for sale to the highest bidder.Even if he finds the idol, Raglan still needs a code in hieroglyphics
that Martling possesses.Without the
code, the idol will blow up if someone tries to open it.If the synopsis sounds familiar, you may
remember it from “Tarzan and the Green Goddess,” a 1937 release edited down to
72 minutes from the 240-minute serial.The feature-length version was a perennial on the “Tarzan Theatre”
package that local TV stations broadcast weekly in the 1960s and 1970s.
Although
the script was an original work credited to Charles F. Royal and Edwin H. Blum,
and not an adaptation from any of Burroughs’ novels, it shares the same
narrative pattern as Burroughs’ plots: Tarzan is one of several characters who
wind up as a loosely aligned group of good guys competing against the bad
guys.This ensures a sufficiently large
cast for a rapid succession of cliff-hanger thrills in print or on the
screen.One character is attacked by a
lion, plummets over a waterfall, or faces death from a sacrificial dagger at
the end of a chapter.In the next
chapter, the character emerges safely as another is placed in jeopardy.In “The New Adventures of Tarzan,” there are
almost too many characters, two of whom—Martling’s daughter and her boyfriend,
along for the trek—hardly register.Along with d’Arnot, they mostly disappear from the later chapters once
it’s clear they aren’t needed.After the
quest for the Green Goddess is wrapped up, the final chapter concludes with a
holiday party at the Greystoke Estate in England.Bizarrely, everyone at the party wears Gypsy
costumes, including Tarzan as their host, Lord Greystoke, who escorts a
gorgeous blonde on each arm.
Burroughs
and Dearholt gained some publicity mileage from the fact that exterior scenes
of Tarzan and his friends mingling with crowds in the town of Puerto Barrios
and venturing into old Mayan ruins outside Quirigua were actually filmed in
Guatemala.For the most part, though,
the interiors were studio sets, and the jungle scenes were filmed in
California’s Jungleland USA theme park.In the final product, the footage from the diverse locations is
remarkably well integrated.Of the cast
and crew, Herman Brix as the handsome, well-spoken Tarzan is the only one
likely to be remembered today even by connoisseurs of Hollywood trivia.A former college athlete and Olympics
champion, Brix (1906-2007) followed the Tarzan film with further action roles
in classic serials like “The Lone Ranger” (1938), “Fighting Devil Dogs” (1938),
and “Daredevils of the Red Circle” (1939).After changing his screen name to Bruce Bennett, he moved on to
supporting roles in “Mildred Pierce” (1945), “The Treasure of Sierra Madre” (1948),
and “The Last Outpost” (1951), where he and Ronald Reagan were cast as
estranged brothers.Ashton Dearholt
played the villainous Raglan under the assumed name of “Don Costello,” and Ula
Vale was played by his protege Ula Holt.Nowadays, TMZ and Entertainment Tonight would jump on the story behind
the movie.Dearholt divorced his wife
Florence to marry Ula, and Burroughs divorced his wife Emma to marry
Florence.It was a musical-chairs,
backstage drama that would make a quirky, amusing film or limited series for
Netflix.Not to mention the
possibilities of humor from the logistics of hauling bulky 1930s camera
equipment to Central America.
The
Film Masters Blu-ray packs all twelve chapters of the serial onto one disc in a
newly restored print.Like the print
included in “The Tarzan Vault Collection,” a 2022 Blu-ray from The Film
Detective, reviewed by Cinema Retro HERE, the quality here varies from
excellent in some portions to serviceable in others, depending on the condition
of the source material.Viewing the
entire serial in one sitting may be a slog for modern viewers, even those
accustomed to binge-watching episodic TV series on streaming platforms and home
video.Chapter 1 is too long at nearly
50 minutes, even with several action scenes.The next 11 chapters are shorter, but each lags at the beginning with
footage from the preceding instalment to bring viewers up to speed.This was a necessity for watching each new
episode in weekly doses in 1935, but cumbersome today.The plot becomes repetitive too, as one
character and then another seizes the Mayan code and the explorers fall into
the hands of the Mayan cultists twice.
However,
thanks to home video, it’s easy to spread the chapters out as they were meant
to be seen, or to fast-forward over the repetitive parts if you prefer to watch
in fewer sittings.If you do, be careful
not to miss the scenes most indebted to the Burroughs novels, like the one
where a Mayan high priestess prepares to stab Tarzan on her altar (a standby
from at least four of the books), or those where the ape-man lifts his enemies
over his head and throws them away like so many used hamburger wrappers as more
rush in to attack him.Much of the humor
courtesy of a comic-relief character, George, is largely on the infantile level
of a snapping turtle latching onto the seat of George’s trousers, but
unsympathetic moviegoers could say the same about the comedy provided by
second-bananas like Rob Schneider, Tom Arnold, and Kevin Hart in most of the
action movies from the past twenty-some years.One passing conversation, though, is laugh-out-loud worthy on its own
terms.As Tarzan relays a warning from a
chattering monkey, Ula exclaims, “You mean that little ape talked to you?”
“Yes, of course,” Tarzan replies.After
all, he’s Tarzan.Who doesn’t know he’s
fluent in primate-speak?
The
Film Masters Archive Collection edition of “The New Adventures of Tarzan” is
presented at its proper 1.33:1 aspect ratio, with subtitles for those who don’t
have Tarzan’s keen jungle hearing.The
strikingly attractive cover art reproduces the original poster illustration for
the serial against a black background.There are no other supplemental features for the limited-edition
Blu-ray.If it sells well, perhaps Film
Masters will be encouraged to produce a second edition with special
commentaries and short “making of” documentaries like those on the other
collector’s Blu-rays in its catalog.
“The New Adventures of Tarzan” can be ordered HERE.
(Fred Blosser is the author of "Focus on the Spaghetti Western #1:The Films of Tony Kendall". Click here to order from Amazon.)
The Towering Inferno, which premiered on
December 16, 1974, wasn’t the first disaster film, nor was it the last, but it
was the biggest and the best. It took the financial resources of two Hollywood
studios to get it made, and it was the crowning achievement of its
fifty-eight-year-old producer, Irwin Allen, who could not have known at the
time that his career had hit its zenith and that everything he did afterwards
would be downhill. Allen’s story and the history of his greatest film cannot be
told separately.Like the fictional 138-story skyscraper that
was built with a fatal defect, so, too, was Irwin Allen. He was a tireless
self-promoter who garnered so much success early in his career that the
self-promoting was justified. In an industry that ran on smoke and mirrors, he
was flesh and blood (and fire). He had confidence born of actual achievement,
not presumed expertise. Although he and modesty were strangers, he was often
quick to acknowledge the work of those around him. As a producer he provided
everything his cast and crew needed, and he was near-maniacal about safety on
his hazardous productions. He was vain but charming about it, and at heart was
a sentimentalist about the movie business that he so dearly loved. If he had
flaws, they were the flaws of passion.
I
never actually met Irwin Allen even though I worked for him. A young marketing
genius named David Forbes hired me along with five others to be a special
advance publicity team to handle regional publicity. The closest I came to
Allen was the lobby of the Showcase Cinema in Hartford, Connecticut where there
was a studio sneak of his about-to-be-released film. On this particular November
night, my job was to fly myself and a precious print of the film from Boston to
Hartford, where it was to be shown to a test audience. Everybody from the
studio was to be there including Allen, composer John Williams, father-son editors
Karl and Harold F. Kress, and a cadre of nervous executives from both Fox and
Warner Bros. (the film was a Fox-WB co-production). The
only one who wasn’t there was me. The print and I were socked in by fog on the
runway at Boston’s Logan Airport. There was no way to get off the plane and no
cell phones to alert Hartford. Eventually we were liberated and boarded a bus
supplied by the airline (in those days the airlines took care of passengers)
and driven to the Hartford Airport where the movie and I grabbed a cab to the
theatre and handed the print with moments to spare to a very impatient
projectionist.There
was just enough time to mingle in the lobby, and that’s where I spotted Irwin
Allen. You couldn’t miss him. What you also couldn’t miss was his very obvious toupee,
and that’s all I could think of. In those days I could be arrogant because I
still had hair; I’m the hirsute fellow in the back (see photo).
(Photo courtesy of Nat Segaloff.)
The Towering Inferno at
fifty is a relic as well as a milestone, and that’s why I decided to write a
book about it: More Fire! The Building of The Towering Inferno, A 50th
Anniversary Explosion. The title More Fire! comes from the most
frequent directorial command shouted by Irwin Allen while helming the action
sequences in the disaster film while John Guillermin directed the actors and
Paul Stader guided the remarkable stunt work. Somehow the three men got along
and merged their separate footage into one single film.
Who
was Irwin Allen? Beats me. He was born June 12, 1916, in New York named Irwin
Grinovit. Wikipedia says he was born Irwin O. Cohen, but that’s suspect, and
died on November 2, 1991. As most people know, he was the creative force behind
the classic TV series Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of
the Sea and movies such as The Poseidon Adventure, The Lost World,
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and, regrettably, The Swarm and When
Time Ran Out.The Towering Inferno was his crowning achievement. He
married late in life – to Sheila Matthews, an actress of a certain age – and
remained childless. His archives (some of which Julien’s Auctions sold in
summer 2024) are bereft of anything of a personal nature. Throughout his
career, he recycled the same thin press release biography that he first used in
the 1950s while he was doing The Animal World with Ray Harryhausen’s and
Willis O’Brien’s dinosaurs and the documentary The Sea Around Us, which
won him an Oscar®. But what were his parents’ names? Whom did he date?
What were his hobbies? Did he have military service (he would have been
twenty-five as World War Two began)? Nada. In
fact, the man seems to have had absolutely no private life; all he did was work.
I was able to make some headway with the help of Jeff Bond and Marc Cushman who
had written books about Allen’s shows and paid his estate for access to his
files (something I refused to do). The results appear in More Fire! which
is as much about Irwin Allen as it is about Poseidon and Inferno,
his two most famous and successful motion pictures. It’s also about the history
of fire in films, special fire effects, and tips on how to survive fires. In
the end, Allen’s life was in his work. He was obsessive about going over every
script, usually without co-writing credit, and held to tight television
budgets. While his TV series hold nostalgic fascination for the Baby Boom
generation, I focused on his disaster movies.
“Disaster
movie” is a phrase you won’t hear from the people who make, well, disaster
movies. They prefer the phrase “group jeopardy films.” It probably has
something to do with worrying that Variety would use the word disaster
in a nasty headline if one of them failed. The heyday of the genre was the
1970s and Irwin Allen pretty much dominated the field. The films routinely
involved a core of people, preferably movie stars, who faced a cataclysmic
event that could kill any of them, and often did. The group placed in jeopardy
in The Towering Inferno included Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Faye
Dunaway, William Holden, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, Robert Vaughn, Richard
Chamberlain, Susan Flannery, Susan Blakely, and O.J. Simpson. Yes, that
O.J. Simpson. When a fire breaks out on the world’s tallest skyscraper on the
night of its dedication, firefighters must attempt to rescue all the VIPs who
are trapped in the building’s rooftop ballroom.
The
film was scripted by Stirling Silliphant (who had co-written The Poseidon
Adventure) based on two books: The Glass Inferno by Thomas N.
Scortia and Frank M. Robinson and The Tower by Richard Martin Stern. By
coincidence, Warner Bros. had bought one and Fox the other and so, rather than
go broke competing with each other, the two studios decided to join forces and
let Irwin Allen sort it out. How he wrested control away from Warner Bros. and
literally willed his film into existence is the story that drives my book. It
was gratifying for me to close the circle after half a century that had begun
with my first real Hollywood job and now involves being able to finally write
about it. The book is both a personal journey and an archival mission, and I hope
it brings back the thrills and the secrets behind a memorable film. If you’ll
excuse the obvious pun, I hope it, um, sparks fond memories for anyone who
reads it.
Click here to order "More Fire! The Building of 'The Towering Inferno'" from Amazon
20 Films Directed by Frank Capra from
the Columbia Pictures Library
In a Limited Edition Gift Set
All 20 Films Presented on Blu-ray
Disc™,With Nine of Those Films Also on 4K
Ultra HD™
CULVER CITY, Calif. – Celebrate 100 years of Columbia Pictures and the work of
iconic and award-winning filmmaker Frank Capra as Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment proudly assembles 20 of his films, exclusively within the FRANK
CAPRA AT COLUMBIA COLLECTION, available November 19. Each film is
presented in high definition from original and existing elements, with nine
films also presented in full 4K resolution!
From romantic pursuits to explosive action,
from spectacular thrills to insightful social commentary, the FRANK
CAPRA AT COLUMBIA collection features a wide variety of films that
still feel fresh and timely today: the perfect collection of films for any mood
or occasion! Then for fans of classic cinema, the scope of pre-code rarities to
Best Picture-winning classics makes this set a must-own!
The 20 films in the FRANK CAPRA AT COLUMBIA
COLLECTION represent Capra’s earlier work at the studio through to the
more well-known award-winning blockbusters, with many films making their
long-awaited disc debut! The discs are included within a coffee table-worthy
sleek outer box that opens to showcase the films inside. The set also includes
several new commentaries from film historians, hours of archival special
features, and the full feature-length 2024 documentary, FRANK CAPRA: MR AMERICA!
In
addition to the physical gift set, several Frank Capra classics will also be
debuting at digital retailers this holiday season, including SO
THIS IS LOVE, THE WAY OF THE STRONG, THAT CERTAIN THING, THE MIRACLE WOMAN and
LADY
FOR A DAY. These must-see films will be available for digital purchase
or rental, alongside such favorites as IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, MR. DEEDS GOES TO
TOWN, LOST HORIZON, YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON.FRANK
CAPRA: MR AMERICA is also available now for digital rental or purchase.
SO THIS IS LOVE (1928)
?Synopsis: Dress
designer Jerry McGuire, (William Collier Jr.) is secretly in love with Hilda
Jensen (Shirly Mason) who works at the delicatessen. But Hilda is in love with
the self-admiring pugilist Spike Mullins (Johnnie Walker). Can Jerry summon up
the courage to woo Hilda? And more importantly stand up to Spike? With all-new
music score by Michael D. Mortilla.
?Presented in High Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA
Stereo Audio; Includes All-New Commentary with Film Historians Stan Taffel and
Bryan Cooper
?SO THIS IS LOVE has a run
time of approximately 55 minutes and is not rated.
THE
WAY OF THE STRONG (1928)
?Synopsis:Handsome
Williams (Mitchell Lewis), a brutal bootlegger, falls for blind violinist, Nora
(Alice Day). Handsome’s rivals recognize that she is his vulnerability--and
target the innocent Nora as retribution. With all-new music score by Michael D.
Mortilla
?Presented in High Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA
Stereo Audio; Includes All-New Commentary with Film Historians Stan Taffel and
Bryan Cooper
?THE WAY OF THE STRONG has a run
time of approximately 58 minutes and is not rated.
THAT
CERTAIN THING (1928)
?Synopsis:Viola
Dana plays Molly, a poor girl who falls in love with A.B. Charles, Jr.(Ralph Graves), son of a millionaire
restaurateur. When the son meets and impulsively marries Molly, his father cuts
him off without a dime, but with Molly’s ingenuity and “that certain thing,”
her prospects are better than ever. With all-new music score by Donald Sosin.
?Presented in High Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA
Stereo Audio
?THAT CERTAIN THING has a run
time of approximately 64 minutes and is not rated.
SUBMARINE
(1928)
?Synopsis:Columbia’s
first film to be released with a synchronized score is a
taut drama about a deep-sea diver's efforts (Jack Holt) to rescue the crew of a
submarine lodged 400 feet underwater, with Ralph Graves, his best friend and
rival, on board. Newly reconstructed score by Rodney Sauer, from original source
materials, performed by the Mont Alto Orchestra.
?Presented in 4K SDR on 4K Ultra HD disc and in High Definition on
Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA Mono Audio
?SUBMARINE has a run
time of approximately 103 minutes and is not rated.
THE
YOUNGER GENERATION (1929)
?Synopsis:In this
moving drama, Jean Hersholt is a Jewish pushcart vendor whose ambitious son’s
success allows him to move the family to a fancy uptown address where new
tensions push father and son apart. Columbia Pictures first “talkie” contained
limited dialog. Includes restored audio, including newly reconstructed score by
Rodney Sauer, performed by the Mont Alto Orchestra.
?Presented in 4K SDR on 4K Ultra HD disc and in High Definition on
Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA Mono Audio
?THE YOUNGER GENERATION has a run
time of approximately 83 minutes and is not rated.
FLIGHT
(1929)
?Synopsis:The
second of three technological spectacles featuring Jack Holt and Ralph Graves
as rivals in love despite a friendship forged as Marine Corps fliers in
training and action.
?Presented in High Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA
Mono Audio; Includes the Theatrical Trailer
?FLIGHT has a run time of
approximately 120 minutes and is not rated.
LADIES
OF LEISURE (1930)
?Synopsis:Kay
(Barbara Stanwyck) is a wild party girl out to snare herself a rich suitor.
Jerry (Ralph Graves) is a young man from an affluent family striving to become
an artist. What starts out as a relationship of mutual convenience soon
blossoms into love in this charming film.
?Presented in High Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA
Mono Audio; Includes an Audio Commentary with Film Historian Jeremy Arnold
?LADIES OF LEISURE has a run
time of approximately 98 minutes and is not rated.
RAIN
OR SHINE (1930)
?Synopsis:Mary
(Joan Peers) inherits her late father's financially floundering circus. With
the help of her charismatic manager, Smiley Johnson (Joe Cook), they try to
salvage the big top.Presented with an
alternate version released without sync dialog, created for international
audiences.
?Both Domestic and International Versions of the Film Presented in
High Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA Mono Audio; Includes the
“Frank Capra Finds a Place in the Sun with Michel Gondry” Featurette
?RAIN OR SHINE has a run
time of approximately 88 minutes and is not rated.
DIRIGIBLE
(1931)
?Synopsis:
Adventure duo Jack Holt and Ralph Graves pair again as great rivals, but better
friends challenging the elements and attempting to conquer the air and the
South Pole.
?Presented in 4K SDR on 4K Ultra HD disc and in High Definition on
Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA Mono Audio
?DIRIGIBLE has a run
time of approximately 100 minutes and is not rated.
THE
MIRACLE WOMAN (1931)
?Synopsis:Barbara
Stanwyck shines as the daughter of an undervalued minister, who, grieving after
her father's death, joins a fraudulent church as a preacher. David Manners, a
blind ex-pilot, hears Stanwyck preaching and goes to her.
?Presented in High Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA
Mono Audio; Includes the “Ron Howard on The Miracle Woman” Featurette
?THE MIRACLE WOMAN has a run
time of approximately 90 minutes and is not rated.
PLATINUM
BLONDE (1931)
?Synopsis: A
wise-cracking newspaper reporter’s entanglement with a wealthy socialite (the
glittering Jean Harlow) stirs the class prejudices of both her publicity-shy
family and his ink-stained pals (including Loretta Young) in this fast-paced
classic Capra comedy.
?Presented in 4K with Dolby Vision on 4K Ultra HD disc and in High
Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA Mono Audio
?PLATINUM BLONDE has a run
time of approximately 88 minutes and is not rated.
AMERICAN
MADNESS (1932)
?Synopsis:Walter
Huston stars as an idealistic bank president dealing with the aftermath of a
robbery. While rallying local businessmen to deposit funds to keep the bank
afloat, he learns the truth about the loyalties of the people around him.
?Presented in High Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA
Mono Audio; Includes an All-New Commentary with Film Historian Steven C. Smith
Featuring Victoria Riskin, Plus Commentary with Frank Capra Jr. & Author
Cathrine Kellison and the “Frank Capra Jr. Remembers...‘American Madness’”
Featurette
?AMERICAN MADNESS has a run
time of approximately 76 minutes and is not rated.
THE
BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN (1932)
?Synopsis:Barbara
Stanwyck plays an American missionary who reluctantly falls for the General who
kidnaps her amid the Chinese Civil War.
?Presented in High Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA
Mono Audio; Includes an All-New Commentary with Film Historian Kimberly
Truhler, Plus the “Defining Capra's Early Style with Martin Scorsese and Ron
Howard” Featurette
?THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN has a run
time of approximately 87 minutes and is not rated.
FORBIDDEN
(1932)
?Synopsis:In this
pre-code romantic drama, Barbara Stanwyck stars as a staid librarian swept away
by a charming married man (Adolph Menjou). When their affair produces a
daughter, Menjou proposes an unconventional, heart-breaking solution.
?Presented in High Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA
Mono Audio; Includes a Commentary with Author Jeanine Basinger
?FORBIDDEN has a run
time of approximately 85 minutes and is not rated.
LADY
FOR A DAY (1933)
?Synopsis:A
gangster and his gal help his good luck charm, Apple Annie, a depression-era
apple seller, convince her daughter’s future in-laws she’s a proper match.
?Presented in High Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA
Mono Audio
?LADY FOR A DAY has a run
time of approximately 95 minutes and is not rated.
IT
HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
?Synopsis: Winner
of all 5 major 1934 Oscars®, including Best Picture! When a brash reporter
(Clark Gable) meets a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert), can love be far
behind?
?Presented in 4K with Dolby Vision on 4K Ultra HD disc and in High
Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA Mono Audio; Includes an All-New
Commentary with Film Historian Julie Kirgo, Plus Commentary by Frank Capra Jr.,
2 Featurettes, Original Live Radio Broadcast and a Theatrical Trailer
?IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT has a run
time of approximately 105 minutes and is not rated.
MR.
DEEDS GOES TO TOWN (1936)
?Synopsis:Gary
Cooper plays Longfellow Deeds, whose simple rural life is upended when he
inherits his uncle's fortune. Jean Arthur is the cynical reporter tasked with
exposing him for laughs (and circulation) but ends up overwhelmed by his
honesty and decency.
?Presented in 4K with Dolby Vision on 4K Ultra HD disc and in High
Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA Mono Audio; Includes an All-New
Commentary with Victorian Riskin and Steven C. Smith, Plus Commentary by Frank
Capra Jr., Featurette, and a Theatrical Re-Release Trailer
?MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN has a run
time of approximately 116 minutes and is not rated.
LOST
HORIZON (1937)
?Synopsis:Ronald
Colman and Jane Wyatt star in this unique journey to the enchanted paradise of
Shangri-La, where time stands still.
?Presented in 4K with Dolby Vision on 4K Ultra HD disc and in High
Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA Mono Audio; Includes Commentary
with Charles Champlin and Bob Gitt, Alternate Ending, 4 Featurettes, 5
Theatrical Teasers & Trailers
?LOST HORIZON has a run
time of approximately 133 minutes and is not rated.
YOU
CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938)
?Synopsis:A man
from a family of rich snobs becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but
decidedly eccentric family. Winner of the Academy Award® for Best Picture!
?Presented in 4K with Dolby Vision on 4K Ultra HD disc and in High
Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA Mono Audio; Includes Commentary
with Frank Capra Jr. & Author Cathrine Kellison, Featurette and Theatrical
Trailer
?YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU has a run
time of approximately 126 minutes and is not rated.
MR.
SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
?Synopsis:James
Stewart takes on the powers-that-be in our nation's capital in Frank Capra's
timeless classic. Nominated for eleven 1939 Oscars®, including Best Picture.
?Presented in 4K with Dolby Vision on 4K Ultra HD disc and in High
Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA Mono Audio; Includes an All-New
Commentary with Film Historian Julie Kirgo, Plus Commentary with Frank Capra
Jr., 5 Featurettes, “Frank Capra’s American Dream” Documentary and Theatrical
Trailers
?MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON has a run
time of approximately 129 minutes and is not rated.
FRANK
CAPRA: MR AMERICA (2024)
?Synopsis:FRANK
CAPRA: MR AMERICA tells the story of Frank Capra, a young immigrant who rose
through the ranks of early Hollywood to become one of the Great American
storytellers and one of the most successful and influential film directors of
his generation. His iconic films, including IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, MR.
SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, offered an inspiring
vision of America where ideals win out, integrity triumphs, and ordinary people
have their day. The documentary uses never-before-seen footage and audio tapes
from Capra’s life to examine his career and relationship with America, offering
a portrait of a complicated man whose tales of hope in difficult times still
speak to audiences today. Written and Directed by Matthew Wells.
?Presented in High Definition on Blu-ray Disc; English DTS-HD MA
Audio; Includes a Theatrical Trailer
?FRANK CAPRA: MR AMERICA has a run
time of approximately 92 minutes and is rated PG-13 for brief strong language,
smoking and thematic elements.
Academy Award®
and Oscar® are the registered trademarks and service marks of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Norman
Lear helped raise me. Born two months
after All in the Family premiered in 1971, his signature sitcom and the
string of seminal hits that followed—Maude, Good Times,The
Jeffersons, One Day at Time, etc.—were and still are a part of my
DNA. Despite the very adult themes, the adults in my life always let me watch and
they made an indelible impression.
So,
too, did the man in the white hat. And I had always hoped (and in some ways
believed) that he would be around forever. Starting in 2020, of the biggest thrills of my
life has been getting to teach a class on Norman Lear at my alma mater Emerson
College in Boston, which he also attended, and where he graciously dropped in
over Zoom twice during the pandemic to visit with my students. He even called me afterwards, not only to tell
me how much he enjoyed it, but that he hoped to be there in person someday.
Over
the last decade, I was blessed to cross paths with him on several other
occasions. Always deferentially addressing him as “Mr. Lear” even though he
insisted on Norman, the first time was by phone in 2011 for a 40th
anniversary retrospective I did on All in the Family for TV Guide.
He couldn’t have been nicer. Soon after it ran, I received in the mail one of
my most prized possessions: a letter on his personalized stationery telling me
he “loved” the article.
The
last time I saw him was in 2018 when Emerson dedicated a statue of Norman Lear that
stands prominently in the middle of our campus. As many others who met Norman observed, one of
the things that made him so special was his uncanny ability to make you feel
like the most important person in the room. “It’s taken me a lifetime to get
here,” he’d say. “And I couldn’t be happier.”
Of
course, in the back of my mind I always knew Norman’s eventual passing was
inevitable. In the immediate months
before, I also became increasingly aware that it could be imminent as his
public appearances diminished while pictures of him in a wheelchair, sometimes
wearing an oxygen tube, began surfacing on social media.
Then
last December, Norman died at the age of 101.As fate would have it, I was just putting the finishing touches on my
biography about him.My heart sank.
Within minutes of his death, I began receiving dozens of phone calls, texts,
emails and Facebook messages from family members and friends. Although many
were aware of the biography I was working and my class, mostly they were
condolences from people who knew how much Norman and his sitcoms meant to me.
I sat
glued to my computer reading the tributes as they poured in from news outlets
around the world and on social media. And sentimentalist that I am, I couldn’t
help but tear up as the theme songs from his classic shows, especially “Those
Were the Days” from All in the Family played in the background.
I also
felt like I was starting from scratch and found it difficult to concentrate
when it came to the task of getting back to the book even though most of the
heavy lifting had already been done.
Though
Norman was unable to participate, his team gave me their blessings as did his
daughter Kate and many of the surviving actors from his shows, including
Adrienne Barbeau, Louise Lasser, Mary Kay Place, James Cromwell and John Amos,
in what turned out to be one of his final interviews, agreed to talk to me.
There
was the profound sense of sadness and disbelief I felt now writing about him in
the past tense. But far tricker was trying to figure out how to capture the
essence of an American icon who had lived for more than a century and remained
active until almost the very end.
As for
legacy, Norman’s stands in perpetuity among the most seminal and enduring cultural
figures America has ever produced. Forever altering a sitcom landscape that had
previously been populated by white picket fences and cardigan-sweater and pearl-necklace-wearing
parents, Lear offered the world a window into the lives and homes of families who
looked like the people who were watching them, giving underrepresented members
of society their first-ever prime-time voice.
Interestingly,
by his own admission, he also did so by default, telling Harvard Business
Journal in 2014, “I never thought of the shows as groundbreaking, because
every American understood so easily what they were all about. The issues were
around their dinner tables. The language was in their school yards. It was
nothing new.”
And as
a result, Norman became the first television producer to become as famous as
the shows he created. Off-screen, he was an impassioned social activist and
advocate for free speech, a pursuit to which he devoted much of his later life.
Most notably was the progressive advocacy group he founded in 1981, People for the American Way, dedicated
to the preservation of free speech and counteracting the political sway of the Christian
Evangelical right.Later on, he purchased
an original copy of the Declaration of Independence and toured it for a decade across
all 50 states.
In a
statement, President Joe Biden called Lear a “Transformational force in
American culture.”
But
even more importantly, he was a human being and we are all the better for
having had him in our midst. Luckily for all of us, he will live on forever through
his unrivaled body of work. Thank you, Mr. Lear.
#
##
Tripp Whetsell is the
author of Norman Lear: His Life & Times, and an adjunct media
studies professor at Emerson College in Boston where he teaches the only
college level course in the country on Lear and classic sitcoms.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Everyone loves a sequel! PARAMOUNT SCARES is back
with another limited-edition collection of terrifying films, all available for
the first time in 4K Ultra HD. PARAMOUNT SCARES VOL. 2 arrives October 1,
2024 from Paramount Home Entertainment.
This collectible box set includes four killer films that
offer an exciting mix of all that the horror genre has to offer. From a
knife-wielding maniac in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART II, to the twisted thrills of
ORPHAN: FIRST KILL, the terrifying zombie hordes of WORLD WAR Z, and the
psychological terror of BREAKDOWN, this must-own collection delivers loads of
chills and thrills.
Each film in the 8-disc collection has been newly
remastered and is presented on both 4K Ultra HD Disc and on Blu-ray™ in an
individual case and special sleeve exclusive to the set, all housed in a
premium box with original artwork. PARAMOUNT SCARES VOL. 2 also includes
more than 2.5 hours of bonus content, the unrated version of WORLD WAR Z,
access to a Digital copy of each film, and these exclusive collectible items:
Full-size FANGORIA magazine produced specifically for
this release with new and classic articles about the films
Four unique iron-on patches representing each film
A domed PARAMOUNT SCARES logo sticker
A new PARAMOUNT SCARES glow-in-the-dark enamel pin
Limited-Edition poster by acclaimed artist Orlando
“Mexifunk” Arocena
In addition to this new collector’s edition set,
Paramount Home Entertainment and FANGORIA have teamed up to deliver classic
thrills and chills to moviegoers across the country. “PARAMOUNT SCARES
and FANGORIA present SCREAM GREATS” brings fan-favorite films back to the big
screen for special limited engagements. Titles returning to theatres this
year include:
§ FRIDAY THE 13TH PART IV: THE FINAL CHAPTER 40th
Anniversary—September 10 & September 15
§ SLEEPY HOLLOW—October 13 & October 16
§ ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES—November 10 & November
13
FRIDAY THE 13TH PART II Synopsis
Five years after the massacre at Camp Crystal Lake, the
nerve-wracking legend of Jason Voorhees and his diabolical mother lives on.
Despite ominous warnings from the locals to stay away from “Camp Blood,” a
group of counselors at a nearby summer camp decide to explore the area where
seven people were brutally slaughtered. All too soon, they encounter horrors of
their own and the killing begins again.
BREAKDOWN Synopsis
Jeff Taylor (Kurt Russell) and his wife Amy (Kathleen
Quinlan) are headed toward a new life in California when their car’s engine
dies on a remote highway. Amy accepts a ride from a helpful trucker (J.T.
Walsh) while Jeff waits with the car. But when Jeff shows up at the agreed
rendezvous, he finds his wife isn’t there. The locals aren’t talking; the
police aren’t much help. With no one to turn to, Jeff battles his worst fears
and begins a desperate, danger-ridden search to find Amy before it’s too late.
WORLD WAR Z Synopsis
In this fast-paced, pulse-pounding action epic, former
United Nations investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) is in a race against time to
save both his family and the world from a pandemic that is toppling governments
and threatening to destroy humanity itself.
ORPHAN: FIRST KILL Synopsis
Esther’s terrifying saga continues in this thrilling
prequel to the original and shocking horror hit ORPHAN. After orchestrating a
brilliant escape from an Estonian psychiatric facility, Esther travels to
America by impersonating the missing daughter of a wealthy family. But an
unexpected twist arises that pits her against a mother who will protect her
family from the murderous “child” at any cost.
Though I’m sixty-two years of age, I can still clearly
recall the moment I discovered Famous
Monsters of Filmland magazine.It
was not a newsstand purchase.I was in
third grade and the elementary school I attended was hosting a rummage
sale.There on a table overflowing with
the usual Bric-à-brac one sells off at such events, was Famous Monsters no. 44, cover date May 1967.I couldn’t believe someone hadn’t already grabbed
up this treasure.Perhaps it was
destiny.
The cover art came courtesy of Dan Adkins, better known
for his work on another macabre Warren publication, Creepy.His painting featured
Willis O’Brien’s King Kong (RKO,
1933) getting the better of a Pteranodon attacker.The image was set amidst a background of
Day-Glo orange.It was a used copy of
the magazine, but one still in excellent shape.I can’t remember what I paid for it - certainly far less than its cover
price of fifty cents.Upon arriving home
I paged gingerly through the magazine, much as an archeologist might while examining
a rare, ancient scroll. I couldn’t
believe such a magazine existed: one completely devoted to my favorite actors,
monsters and movies.The issue offered
stories on Boris Karloff, The Monster that Challenged the World, Tarantula,
Dr. Who and the Daleks, Horror Castle, The Creature Walks
Among Us and Chamber of Horrors.It was “mind blown” time.
I’m
sometimes ridiculed for my love of the original run of Famous Monsters of
Filmland.The mag’s detractors are
correct in some of their charges.Yes,
the writing was mostly juvenile, editor Forry Ackerman’s bad puns
atrocious.Others - mostly those never
introduced at young age to Famous Monsters - tease my fascination (obsession?)
with the magazine is simply rose-colored nostalgia: a desperate return to a
more innocent time long passed.I know
this accusation to be untrue.How can I
“return” to a time that, for better or worse, I’ve simply never abandoned? I’m
not regressing, I simply never “grew out of it.”
One
of my favorite features of Famous Monsters was their “You Axed For It”
section.Readers would request images
from films that we desperately wanted to see but feared we ever would.There was no home video, no YouTube.We were completely dependent on television
broadcasts, often programmed well past our bedtime.Published on page forty-seven of FM #44 was a
still from a film titled The Unknown Terror (1957).It was an intriguing image that would haunt
me for decades.A beautiful actress, unidentified
in the magazine’s caption, was about to be accosted by some scary, long-haired,
mummified figure covered in… well, what appeared to be soap bubbles.
Aside
from the dupey, bootleg prints that circulated, The Unknown Terror had
been unavailable on home video until 2021 when Imprint Films of Australia
issued the film as part of its Silver Screams Collection.For those Stateside not wishing to pay the
high shipping fees from Oz, the film is now available (alongside The
Colossus of New York (1958) and Destination Inner Space (1966) to be
featured in Kino Lorber’s new 2-disc Sci-Fi Chillers Collection.Though none of these films will ever be lauded
as iconic, cultural touchstones of sci-fi cinema – some are pretty wonky, in truth
– they’re still enjoyable popcorn films, assuming viewers dispense of any
pretense of critical, rational thinking.
Interestingly,
the photograph of which I was so intrigued - actress Mala Powers being tracked
by some sort of sudsy creature – was simply a promotional still.There is, as far as I can tell, no such scene
in the film itself.Charles Marquis
Warren’s The Unknown Terror, shot in “Regalscope” and distributed by
2oth Century Fox is at best an OK film, one half of a 1957 double-bill and
twinned with the same director’s Back from the Dead.The film’s screenplay is credited to Kenneth
Higgins, an industry veteran who wrote primarily for TV westerns but also had
such an old creaker as the Bela Lugosi/Bowery Boy’s romp Ghosts on the Loose
(1943) on his resume.Similar to
Warren’s Back from the Dead, The Unknown Terror serves passable
entertainment, but one promising more thrills than delivered.
The
brother of Gina Matthews (Mala Powers) goes missing while searching for a
mysterious “Cave of the Dead.”If such a
cave exists, we’re told only that it’s found in a distant land “South of the
American continent.”Gina, her moneyed
husband Dan (John Howard) and her cave exploring ex-paramour Peter Morgan (Paul
Richards) anxiously decide to travel there to seek out Gina’s missing sibling.Unfortunately, they have few clues to go
on.
They
think there might be a clue found in decoding the lyrics of an island song,
“Suffer to be Born Again,” as performed by the calypso singer Sir
Lancelot.(For the record, Sir Lancelot
is real; I have a number of the artist’s 78rpm shellac recordings in my
collection).Dan wants his superstitious
friend Raoul Koom (Richard Gilden), to decipher the song’s secreted message.He’s then tasked to lead the trio to a cave situated
on the outliers of his native village.Raoul hesitantly agrees to shepherd his friends there, but not before
warning it might be best if they chose not to visit.
Upon
their arrival – and as one might expect - Raoul disappears almost upon arrival.The others meet with the loathsome Dr. Ramsey
(Gerald Milton), a bald and burly scientist who appears to possess few likable
character traits.On the other hand,
Ramsey is their only principal contact: he knows the area well since he’s conducted
scientific research there for some fifteen years.Ramsey dismisses his adopted hometown as a
“tropical backwash,” but remains, studying the plants, fungi, bacteria and
slime molds that assist in his antibiotic research.
The
doctor has also established himself as the most powerful figure in town.Having cured the local villagers of smallpox
through traditional medicine, the superstitious indigenous hold him in high
esteem.He’s now thought of as a
“spiritual king,” proving himself mightier than the “God of Death.”He tells the visiting Americans there is no
such Cueva de la Muerte, that the cave’s existence is merely local
superstition.Ramsey’s frightened native
wife – whom the doctor allegedly saved from a human sacrifice ceremony – whispers
otherwise.
She
tells the Yanks that she can take them to a rocky area where one can hear the
tortured “voices of the souls in purgatory” bellowing sorrowfully from
underground.Sure enough, they too hear
the voices and fatefully choose to investigate the labyrinth of tunnels and
caverns beneath their feet.Should Gina
manage to find her missing sibling in the creepy caverns, who else – or what - might
she encounter while down there?
This
is all good stuff for low-budget sci-fi - and the black-and-white transfer used
appears unblemished.It’s likely the
same transfer as issued on Imprint’s Silver Screams box.For all of its intermittent charms, the film
is not necessarily a nail-biter.There’s
quite a bit (read “too much”) of meandering spelunking footage.The admittedly creepy “fungi” creatures
appear on screen only sparingly, terribly underused.While there’s a big sudsy climax, there’s
simply not enough suds to wash away the fact the film offers very little
suspense in its getting there.
Higgins’
scenario of a damp cave setting beneficial in growing mold spores comes right
out of Erle C. Kenton’s House of Dracula (1945).In that film, Onslow Stevens’ afflicted Dr.
Edelman tries to do much of the same gardening to cure the Wolfman of his
lycanthropy.If nothing else, with Kino
having only recently offered Back from the Dead on Blu-ray, the arrival
of The Unknown Terror allows fans to program their own Charles Marquis
Warren film festival… should one feel the pressing need to do so.Warren is generally remembered as a prolific
writer-director of western films.I
think it’s fair to suggest his directorial flair for westerns, arguably, does not
translate to the two sci-fi and mystery-horror pics of which he was contracted.
This
is my second digital go round for Eugène Lourié’s The Colossus of New York (Paramount, 1958),
the first being Olive Film’s summer 2012 release of the film on DVD.(Never picked up the Olive Blu-ray of this
title so can’t compare editions).It’s
nice to finally have this on Blu-ray and the film looks and sounds great in all
of its monochrome splendor.Though Lourié
might best be acknowledged in the industry for his talents as production
designer and art director, he was certainly no slacker as helmsman.Though he didn’t wish to be typed as a
director of science-fiction films, he certainly knocked out a few 1953-1961
that remain genre favorites to this very day:The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), The Giant Behemoth
(1959) and Gorgo (1961).
According
to Tom Weaver (central commentator of the disc’s audio commentary), producer
William Alland suggested the film’s memorable monster was based on the Golem,
the skulking anthropomorphiccreature of Jewish folklore.This is certainly apparent in the creature’s
design, a hulking and lumbering cement-headed giant clothed in a biblical
Moses-style robe.The script of Thelma
Schnee (from an original story by Willis Goldbeck) is “classic” 1950’s sci-fi
hokum – great fun if you like this sort of thing.Lourié’s flair for design is
evident throughout, and the film’s odd and sparse piano-based score provides an
intriguing counter-point to the action on screen.
Upon his return from Stockholm – where he was just
honored with an “International Peace Prize” – the altruistic scientist Jeremy
Spensser (Ross Martin of Wild Wild West
fame) is tragically killed in an automobile accident.He leaves behind a wife, Anne Spensser (Mala
Powers, again) and a son, Billy, played by child actor Charles Herbert.(Herbert will be a very familiar face to fans
of 1950s/60s television as well as to horror/sci-fi fan for his roles in The Fly (1958) and 13 Ghosts (1960).Jeremy’s
widow and son are left to grieve, but Jeremy’s scientist father, Dr. William
Spensser (Otto Kruger) and his brother Dr. Henry Spensser (John Baragrey), an
“automation” specialist, decide to re-settle Jeremy’s brain into a “Colossus”
robot.
Jeremy’s distraught father believes the brain of his uber-compassionate
son might still benefit humankind.Jeremy’s brother is less certain, offering a man’s brain without a soul
to guide one’s intentions might not be the best idea.He’s right, though he has a secondary reason
to wish his brother forever dead and buried: Henry has the hots for Anne, his
brother’s widow, his clumsy advances thus far rebuffed.For his part, Jeremy the Colossus is unhappy over
his resurrection.“Help me.Destroy me,” he pleads.But as his familial appeal is ignored, the
Colossus’s mindset registers antithetical to its devotion of promoting ideals
of global humanitarianism.
In fact, the Colossus now bitterly wants to rid the world
completely of “idealists” and “human trash.”He figures a good place to start as any is at the United Nations on
Manhattan’s East River.With his new-found
gifts of ESP, hypnotism, and eyes that blaze with murderous directional lasers,
the heavy-footed Colossus is well-equipped to attack and destroy the temple of
international peaceful coexistence.Who,
if anyone, can stop the Colossus in his vengeful wrath?If you have seventy-seven minutes to spare,
you can find out.
I confess.Prior
to this first-time viewing of Charles Marquis Warren’s supernatural drama Back from the Dead (Regal Pictures,
1957), I knew very little about the
film.The movie was first released in
summer of 1957 as one-half of a double-feature paired alongside Warren’s sci-fi
pic The Unknown Terror.The pressbook promoting that original combo
suggested the pair as the summer’s “2 Biggest Supershock Sensations!Super Monstrous!Super Human! Super Thrills!”Disappointingly, the promised thrills and
excitement were creations only of super
promotional ballyhoo.
As far as I can tell, this new Kino Lorber Blu-ray of Back from the Dead signals the film’s official
debut on any home video format.My only,
and very dim, memory of this film was
a single, promising black-and-white still featuring a pair of Bergman-esque black-hooded
figures standing cliff side near an ocean.I’m guessing I stumbled across that old photo in one of the monster
movie magazines I passionately obsessed over back in the late 1960s/early 70s.So a time so long ago and far away, to say
the least.I wish I could deem Back from the Dead a lost classic, perhaps
minor in standing, but… Well, let’s just say while it might offer a
semi-memorable moment or two – and, yes, while I’m certainly glad it’s been
made available to us – it’s an eye-rubbing, draggy affair.
The scenario of Back
from the Dead is based on Catherine Turney’s novel of 1952, The Other One, first published as a 248-page
hardback by New York’s Henry Holt & Co. and later as a thirty-five cent
Dell paperback.The blurb on the paperback’s
cover promises a story of “Black Magic and a Modern Sorceress.”While the book might or might not deliver on
its promise (I haven’t read it), Warren’s film simply does not.The film’s one-sheet poster asks “What was the Sinister Secret of this
Unknown Creature who came… Back from the Dead?”Though the film does arguably answer the
question posed by the poster, it does so without inventiveness nor vigor.
Prior to scribing of The
Other One, Catherine Turney was a celebrated playwright.She was also an accomplished Hollywood
screenwriter, a creator under contract at Warner Bros.The
Other One, optioned by Robert Lippert’s Regal Pictures, received mixed
critical reviews by upon its publication but most were generally favorable.One positive critique of praised Turney’s
novel as:“Gothic witchery in which malevolent spirits, psychiatry and black
magic compound into a hunk of emotional excitement that bids strongly for
sustained reading into the small hours…” Other critics sourly found the
book little more than tosh, one suggesting its “transmigrations of souls”
scenario having produced “some, but not too much excitement.”In some manner of speaking, the latter
comment more closely reflects my personal feelings towards the film version.
In the briefest of synopsis, Back from the Dead tells the story of Mandy Anthony (Peggie
Castle), the new wife of Dick Anthony (Arthur Franz).Mandy, seemingly under a strange spell, slips
into a comatose trance of sorts.She
awakens from that state soon enough, but now identifies herself as “Felicia.”Though totally unaware of her husband’s prior
marriage - to a woman named Felicia, of course, now dead - Mandy unexplainably
refers to Dick by the private, pet nickname his former wife once bestowed upon
him.Mandy’s sister Kate (Marsha Hunt)
is understandably concerned of her sibling’s mental state.Kate will soon find herself in some danger through
her determined investigations of her sister’s mysterious spiritual
possession.
Hoping to sort things out, Kate enlists the assistance of
some neighbors (Don Haggerty, Marianne Stewart) as well as the Bradleys’ (James
Bell and Helen Wallace), the still-mourning parents of Felicia.She learns that Felicia – and others soon revealed
- were members of a Devil-worshipping cult.She also learns should Felicia’s otherworldly grip on Mandy as host body
begin to weaken, the Satanic cult has plans, if necessary, to imbue her soul into
another innocent (Evelyn Scott).
It all sounds pretty exciting on paper, I guess.Turney was enlisted to adapt and translate her
own novel for the screen, a promising start.Unfortunately, it’s here, I suppose, where the weak seams of the film’s
adaptive storyline began to show.The
filmmakers, by necessity, were tasked to simplify - and bleach out - aspects of
her original story.In doing so, many aspects
of the novel’s lasciviousness subplot elements and tangential, colorful
characters were abandoned.To be honest,
the producers really had no choice.
Motion picture censors would have most definitely had
issues should the finished pic include the novel’s back-stories.These include an incestuous relationship
between a seduced father and his fourteen-year-old daughter, Satanic Black
Masses and sex orgies.Such scenarios
would have certainly made for great exploitative fodder in the freewheeling1970s:
in the mid-to-late ‘50s, it would have been castigated as lurid cinematic
trash.The novel’s Devil worshipping
protagonist was, of all things, a renegade priest.The ordained designation of the film’s central
“villain” was likewise dropped as to not offend the “religious sensibilities”
of the movie-going public.
To really
understand this film – and its weaknesses - I suppose fans will be compelled to
watch in tandem with either one of the two expert commentaries included with the
set.Though I’m personally not a big fan
of multiple audio commentaries, both offered here are informative if too-often
overlapping in content.The first
commentary is moderated by author-researcher Tom Weaver: he’s abetted with assistance
from such knowledgeable friends as Dracula/Lugosi/Vampire film scholar Gary D.
Rhodes and filmmaker Larry Blamire.A
second commentary features film historian/journalist David Del Valle and Dana
M. Reemes (the latter a biographer of the legendary 50s sci-fi director Jack
Arnold).With the exception of Rhodes
who, perhaps, over-estimates Back from
the Dead as “a wonderful film,” there seems to be some consensus that the
film version is a mostly frustrating misfire.
To their credit, both Weaver and Reemes have chosen to read
through Turney’s original novel for contrast.There is quite a bit of discussion in regard to the many differences
between the novel and the film. Reemes particularly digs deep in her analysis. Neither Weaver nor Reemes were introduced to
the film upon its release in 1957.Weaver allows his first viewing was via a television broadcast in 1961.
Reemes was first introduced to the film via a muddy bootleg VHS sourced from a
16mm television print.Del Valle too admits
the film had long eluded him, and celebrates the film as a true rarity.Del Valle tends to cheerlead the film a bit
early on in his commentary, but like the others soon recognizes its deficiencies
as the movie progresses.
This is a rare strange case where I admit I enjoyed listening
to the expert commentaries more than enjoying the film on its own merit.The commentaries share interesting, often contrasting,
opinions on some several matters.There
does seem to be a consensus on one point, however: that Warren was simply the
wrong director to tackle the project. Warren entered the film business in 1948
as a writer of mostly westerns, later turning his attention to the direction of
early television assignments.His first
feature-film as director was the 1957 western Trooper Hook with Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck, a film certainly
in his wheelhouse.His second and third directorial
assignments were The Unknown Terror
and Back from the Dead, the films shot
as back-to-back quickies.
There’s agreement that Warren simply displayed little
flair for styling an atmospheric horror film, especially one of a monster-less,
supernatural nature.De Valle mused
Warren’s “horror” films are mostly devoid of the ethereal, eerie atmosphere created
in such stylish Val Lewton-RKO films as Cat
People (1942), the devil-worshipping The
Seventh Victim (1943) or in Universal’s celebrated The Black Cat (1934).Much
to his credit, Weaver offers honestly from the onset that he’s generally not a
fan of these old monochrome occult and black magic films.He’s especially not enthusiastic of those made
in the wake of the 1956 publication of The
Search for Bridey Murphy, the faddish best seller offering the story of a
Colorado housewife who, under hypnosis, was presumed the reincarnate spirit of
a nineteenth-century Irish woman from Cork.
In that “spirit,” Weaver believes the premise and
execution of Back from the Dead is simply
too “far out” to engender any real interest.Variety thought so too in
their trade review of the pic 30 July 1957.They thought the film “laudable […] but only spasmodically
successful.”That critic was certain the
picture wouldn’t please matinee-goers as the film’s “horror aspects may prove
to cerebral for the moppet trade.”Replace the word “cerebral” with the term “non-involving” and I’d agree entirely,
with regret.
Though there were any number of “Bridey Murphy” styled
film releases in 1957, the commentators rightfully point out that the film
version of Back from the Dead consciously
or unconsciously borrows elements from any number of earlier films.Among those plundered for ideas,
intentionally or not, were Victor Halperin’s Supernatural (Paramount, 1933), Will Jason’s The Soul of a Monster (Columbia, 1944, slagged off by Weaver as “another
lousy movie”), and Lewis Allen’s ghostly masterpiece The Uninvited (Paramount, 1944).There’s a suggestion that elements of Back from the Dead might have partly inspired Alfred’s Hitchcock’s Vertigo (Paramount, 1958).Weaver and Blamire suggests that actress
Peggie Castle, as the spirit-afflicted Mandy in Back from the Dead, is virtually the proto-doppelganger of Kim
Novak’s Judy Barton.Well, perhaps, but it’s
a doubtful stretch.It’s also noted that
the four-time married Castle, a former “cheesecake model,” suffered a tragic,
alcoholic fate.Castle would die from
cirrhosis of the liver, age 45.
Actress Marsha Hunt, who plays Mandy’s sister in the
film, has an interesting backstory as well, though one of a survivor.Though she recollects to have appeared, in
both credited and un-credited in some eighty-films since 1935, in June of 1950 offers
to work abruptly stopped coming in.She
found herself “graylisted” as a “patriotically suspect citizen” in the witch-hunting,
anti-Communist bible Red Channels. A
self-described “articulate liberal,” Hunt was never a member of the Communist
Party nor even a particular supporter or participant in the movement.She simply found the McCarthy era witch hunts
anti-American and anti-democratic.
As a result, Hunt was offered very few roles in the years
1950-1957, managing to eke out a nominal living by performing in low-wage
traveling stock productions.She was to
be cast as the mother of James Dean in Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause, but disappointingly had to turn down the
role due to her stage commitments.She
was happy to get the role in Back from
the Dead, and expresses both professional and personal warmth with director
Warren.Though she too acknowledged the
film’s shortcomings, she long held to her belief that the project was “not a
disgrace.”
One of the other aspects of the production that every
commentator agrees upon is the completely unsuitable casting of actor Otto
Reichow in the role of Maître Renault.He is, sadly, pretty stiff and boring in the role, a completely
unremarkable practicing Satanist.Everyone onboard seems to have an opinion on who might have been able to
pull off the role with a bit of exaggerated zest and menacing conviction: Weaver
suggested John Carradine or Henry Daniell, Del Valle mulling Lionel Atwill,
George Zucco or Martin Kosleck.Good
choices all, though Atwill was already ten years dead and Zucco now retired
from the biz in 1951 due to a stroke.(Carradine
would have been my choice, if anyone is wondering).
Of the film’s primary male cast member, Tom Weaver deliciously
skewers B-movie actor Arthur Franz (Sands
of Iwo Jima, Invaders from Mars,
Hellcats of the Navy) in an entertaining, if catty dismissal.To be fair, Weaver carries a bit of personal
animosity for the actor (whom he refers to as “Arthur Frowns”).Seeking an interview with Franz when composing
one of his interview books on sci-fi and horror actors of the 1950s, Weaver
ignored the pleadings of both industry contacts and producer friends to simply forget
about the arranging a one-on-one with the unfriendly, often belligerent Franz.
But Weaver persisted and upon finally making contact with
the expectantly unpleasant Franz on the telephone, he actually managed to
cajole and schedule a rare interview date with the actor.Except after weeks of researching the actor’s
career, Franz disrespectfully hung-up the phone on the agreed upon interview
date, refusing to share even a single anecdote.So Weaver’s memories of Franz are understandably grievous, to say the
least. As for the roasting of poor Franz in the commentary… well, as the saying
goes, payback’s a bitch.
Weaver’s commentary is threaded with audio excerpts from interviews
he conducted with both Hunt and Harry Spalding, the latter a screenwriter often
associated with Robert Lippert’s Regal Pictures.The interspersed commentary of Gary D. Rhodes
is delivered in a scholarly, academic fashion.He muses at some length on the role of the American public’s awareness
of Satan as portrayed in the press, in early films and in such popular music
forms as blues and jazz.He concludes U.S.
audiences were familiar with Satan if only, “in a brief, cursory fashion.”
Sixty-seven summers have passed since Back from the Dead first hit the silver screen.With the inclusion of The Unknown Terror on Kino’s new set Sci-Fi Chillers Collection (review forthcoming), fans can now
re-live the certifiably mild thrills offered in Warren’s two-film foray into the
wacky if nostalgic world of ‘50s double-feature matinees.However, I will offer a word of advice.These two movies might prove great fun to
help pass the time of a rainy afternoon.However, should the sun be shining bright, by all means get outside and
enjoy the day while you can.A
double-feature of Back from the Dead
and The Unknown Terror can most
definitely wait
This Kino Lorber Studio
Classics Blu-ray issue of Back from the Dead is offered as a 4K scan
from Paramount Pictures brand new HD master.It’s presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, in 1920 x 1080p in DTS monaural
audio.The set includes the two aforementioned
audio commentaries, three trailers (It! The Terror from Beyond Space, The
Colossus of New York and the noir 99 River Street.)The disc also includes removable English
subtitles and is jacketed in a mirroring cardboard slipcase. A welcome release for completists of
supernatural cinema.Others may find the
film lacking in “spirit.”
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Get ready to revisit some old haunts…
Paramount Home Entertainment is teaming up with FANGORIA to deliver classic thrills and chills to moviegoers across the country. A new theatrical program called “PARAMOUNT SCARES and FANGORIA present SCREAM GREATS” will bring fan-favorite films back to the big screen for special limited engagements.
The program kicks off in select U.S. theatres this month in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the mesmerizing cult classic THE CROW. Fans can visit www.thecrow1994.com for details and follow @ParamountScares on social for ongoing updates.
Additional films will be resurrected in the coming months and each theatrical presentation will include custom bonus content. Titles returning to theatres this year include:
THE CROW 30th Anniversary—May 29 & May 30 (tickets on sale now) FRIDAY THE 13TH PART IV: THE FINAL CHAPTER 40th Anniversary—September 8 & September 10 SLEEPY HOLLOW—October 13 & October 16 ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES—November 10 & November 13
Technically speaking, OSS 117 secret agent Hubert
Bonisseur de La Bath is not a James
Bond knock off.The creation of wildly
prolific French author Jean Bruce, the first literary adventure of the spy arrived
in 1949 with the publication of Tu parles d'une ingénue (Ici OSS 117).This
would pre-date the April 1953 publication of the first Ian Fleming James Bond
novel, Casino Royale, by nearly four years.In the years following the publication of that
first 007 thriller to his last in 1965, Fleming would deliver an impressive thirteen
James Bond novels and nine short stories.
In contrast, Jean Bruce would
publish no fewer (and possibly more) than eighty-eight to ninety OSS 117
pulp-adventures between 1949 and March of 1963, the month and year of his
passing. It’s difficult to determine how many of Bruce’s novels were of his
composition alone. His widow, Josette – and later a teaming of the Bruce’s son
and daughter – would continue the pulp series into the early 1990s. So determined
bibliophiles will have their work cut out for them if they wish to track down
all of the 250+ published OSS 117 novels.
If OSS 117 beat James Bond to
the stalls of book-sellers, he also managed to beat him to the cinema
screen.Two OSS 117 films were released
throughout Western Europe and foreign markets in 1957 and 1960: OSS 117 n'est pas mort (OSS 117 is not Dead)
andLe bal des espions
(Danger in the Middle East).The latter title,
interestingly, does not feature “Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath.”Though based on one of Bruce’s OSS 117
novels, a messy rights-issue prevented the filmmakers to use the central
character’s moniker.These earliest
films, produced as routine crime dramas by differing production companies (and
featuring different actors in the title role), came and went without attention
nor fanfare.
But in 1963 Bruce’s OSS 117 character was resurrected as
a cinematic property following the success of Terence’s Young’s Dr. No, the first James Bond screen
adventure.The spy pictures comprising
Kino Lorber’s OSS 117 Five Film
Collection are tailored as pastiches of the popular James Bond adventures
of the 1960s.This new Blu ray set
features the entirety of OSS 117 film thrillers produced 1963 through 1968
during the height of Bondmania.And,
just as the Eon series offered a trio of actors to portray James Bond
(1962-1973), the OSS series would likewise present three in the role of Colonel
Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath.Each actor
would bring some aspect of their own personalities to their characterizations.
Of course, the name Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath is a bit
of a Franco-linguistic mouthful to market successfully overseas.So, throughout the five films the character usually
assumes an Anglo-friendly alias which helps move things along a bit more
smoothly: he alternately assumes – among others - such covert surnames as
Landon, Barton, Delcroix, Wilson and Mulligan.It certainly makes his character’s many “personal” on-screen introductions
easier for all involved.
The Kino set starts off chronologically with 1963’s OSS 117 is Unleashed (original title OSS 117 se déchaîne).Like the four films to follow, the series
were all Franco-Italia co-productions and distributed by Gaumont Films.Unlike those four, OSS 117 is Unleashed is filmed in black-and-white.The monochrome photography is not really an
issue.But cinemagoers were certainly cheated
of enjoying the beautiful beaches and Cliffside scenery of the village of
Bonifacio (off the Corsican strait) in vibrant color.
In OSS 117 is
Unleashed our hero (American actor Kerwin Mathews, best known to American
audiences for his roles in Ray Harryhausen’s special-effect laden epics The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960), is sent
to Corsica to investigate the suspicious death of a fellow agent.We’re told, suspiciously, there’s been, “lots
of accidents among agents near Bonifacio.”A preamble to the film, culled mostly of cold war era newsreel footage,
alerts that an unspecified enemy is working towards “neutralizing” free-world atomic
submarine movements in the area. With
conspirators tagged with such names as “Sacha” and “Boris,” we can reasonably
assume its east-of-the-Iron Curtain intelligence agents behind the plot.
Initially posing as a relative of the recently targeted
and now deceased CIA frogman (and later as a Lloyds of London insurance adjustor),
Mathews must dispatch and/or fend off a series of enemy agents and perhaps a duplicitous
woman.In due course, he survives a poisoning,
several (well-choreographed) hand-to-hand combat sequences and even a submerged
spear-gun and knifing frogman attack.The latter occurs while he’s search of a mysterious submerged
subterranean grotto.The base is outfitted
(as one might expect) with high-tech equipment and a detection system designed
to bring about “the end of atomic submarines.”The secreted grotto is also equipped with a built-in self-destruct
button… always handy, just in case.This
is all definitely Bond-on-a budget style filmmaking.Of course, the idea of covertly tracking atomic
submarines movements brings to mind the storyline of the far-more-lavishly
staged The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).
As far as I can determine, OSS 117 is Unleashed was never released theatrically in the
U.S.But Mathews’ second (and final) outing
as OSS 117, Panic in Bangkok (Banco à Bangkok pour OSS 117) (1964) would
have a belated release in the U.S. (as Shadow
of Evil) in December of 1966.Regardless,
Shadow of Evil was not exhibited as a
primary attraction in the U.S. market.It most often appeared as the under bill to Christopher Lee in The Brides of Fu Manchu or (more
sensibly) to Montgomery Clift’s political suspense-thriller The Defector.
In Panic in Bangkok,
Mathews is dispatched to Thailand to, once again, investigate the assassination
of a fellow agent.The murdered CIA operative
had been investigating a possible correlation between anti-cholera vaccines
produced by Bangkok’s Hogby Laboratories to an outbreak of a deadly plague in
India.The trail leads Mathews to
suspect a certain mysterious Dr. Sinn (Robert Hossein) is somehow involved.Unlike the previous film which lacked a singular
villain with a foreboding presence (ala Dr. No), the filmmakers offer
cinemagoers a more exotic adversary in Dr. Sinn.
Published by Drugstore Indian Press (imprint
of PS Publishing)
May 2023
512 pages
Paperback
ISBN: 9781786368997
RRP: £15.99
Review by Adrian Smith
If, like me, you love old movies, the chances are high
that a love for the thrilling pulp magazines of the 1950s can’t be far behind.
Robert Silverberg, now an award-winning science fiction author, was one of the
most prolific writers (allegedly averaging around 1 million words a year) for
dozens of magazines throughout that decade including Super-Science Fiction,
Monster Parade, Fantastic and Monsters and Things, amongst
many more. Capable of seemingly churning out stories in any genre he turned his
hand to (including pornography when required), these short tales were designed
to be read once and then forgotten once the next issue came along. Of course,
what was once disposable is now highly sought-after and original copies of many
of these short-lived magazines are out of reach to us mere mortals. Thankfully
the almost equally prolific writer and editor Stephen Jones has compiled a representative
sample of Silverberg’s horror and sci-fi stories published between 1957 and
1959 for this excellent new collection published by Drugstore Indian Press,
accompanied by suitably retro illustrations from American artist Randy Broeker.
Most of the stories are just a few pages long, so no time
is wasted before the thrills and chills set in. From premature burials, mad
doctors, demons, werewolves, vampires and ghouls to aliens, global conspiracies,
sinister cults and outer space adventures, the stories pack a pulp punch and
are all very enjoyable, especially the ones with twist endings that would not
be out of place in an episode of The Twilight Zone. With titles
including ‘Secrets of the Torture Cult,’ ‘Beasts of Nightmare Horror’ and ‘Vampires
from Outer Space’ (a precursor to Colin Wilson’s The Space Vampires
perhaps?), Silverberg's imagination was extraordinary, producing a continual
stream of stories, often published under pseudonyms so that it didn’t look like
he’d written the entire magazine. In his introduction to this collection (he’s
still with us, at the ripe old age of 89!), he discusses his early career and
his need to keep the [were]wolf from the door by writing anything he could get
paid for, and it was clearly good preparation for the highly-respected novels
which would earn him fame later on.
Given the sheer number of short stories Silverberg
produced, one can only hope that another collection from Drugstore Indian Press
is on its way. These are really fun, pulpy stories that remind us of all of another
era; when guys called Skip drove hot rods, when Big Jack hosted late-night talk
shows about the occult on stations like WYXD, and when teenage librarians like
Marty could accidentally raise the old gods using a stolen copy of the
Necronomicon. Robert Silverberg’s Monsters and Things belongs on the
shelf of any discerning 1950s nostalgia junkie.
Nicholas Anez’s Science
Fiction Thrills… Horror Chills is the fourth installment of the author’s
“Celluloid Adventures” series, all published by Baltimore’s Midnight Marquee
Press.Although I’m not familiar with Anez’s
original triad, I can reliably muse - based
solely on the strength of his newest effort - the preceding trio are as
well-researched, informative and against-the-grain-in-opinion as is this new
volume.
In his introduction to Science Fiction Thrills, Anez – full disclosure, a contributing
writer to Cinema Retro magazine - informs
readers that his intent in the writing of this current book is to “hopefully
create interest” in fourteen –mostly dismissed upon original release – sci-fi
and horror films.These were films that,
in one way or another, failed to find an appreciative audience despite creative
merit.Being a guy from New Jersey, I
can appreciate Anez’s fighting up from the mat for recognition of these
underdog efforts, championing under-performing films he posits as overlooked
cinematic treasures.
The fourteen films that go under Anez’s microscope are: Son of Dracula (1943), Alias Nick Beal (1949), The Maze (1953), Donovan’s Brain (1953), 1984
(1956), The Mind Benders (1963), Crack in the World (1965), The Mummy’s Shroud (1967), The Power (1968), Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969), The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972), Who? (1974), The Medusa Touch
(1978) and Capricorn One (1978).The latter title, Peter Hyman’s “space
mission” conspiracy film Capricorn One
is, of course, an odd man out in this study.Though not critically praised on its release, the film actually performed
reasonably well at the box office.
Each of Anez’s contributing essays are formulaic in
presentation: an introductory paragraph or two; a multi-page synopsis of the
film’s storyline; a discussion of the movie’s production history (including
full cast and crew credits); a review of a film’s critical reception and
subsequent box office performance.The
book is filled with a score of illustrations – both photographs and promotional
memorabilia - all well-reproduced in balanced black-and-white saturations.The book additionally closes with an eight-page
Appendix where the author lists his favorite sci-fi and horror flicks - as well
what he considers the greatest performances by an actor or actress in both
genres.Suffice to say, I share many of
the author’s cinematic enthusiasms.
To his credit, Anez doesn’t argue that any of the films under
examination - in an extremely readable and cogent two-hundred and fifteen page
paperback - is necessarily a “lost classic.”But Anez does suggest that each film studied here offers challenging
ideas and (mostly) cerebral storylines.Some of the films, he argues, were critically maligned or were proven box
office disappointments for economic reasons: that is, a shortfall of money.Too often the production budgets allotted
were simply too modest to mount and support the project’s ambitions.Having said that, Anez also notes the paucity
of money wasn’t always the reason a particular film did not light up the big
screen as hoped.The author opines some
of the films perhaps simply fell to the wayside due to the carping of critics (i.e.
the alleged miscasting of Edmond O’Brien as “Winston Smith” or of Michael
Andersons’ “unobstructive” direction of George Orwell’s novel 1984).
Other films, such as Basil Dearden’s The Mind Benders, might not have met expectations due to the filmmakers
having chose to mix multiple genre devices into their storylines.Anez gives examples: The Mind Benders is described as being “as much a domestic drama as
a thriller.”He offers John Farrow’s Alias Nick Beal as “a supernatural
horror story,” but one that “also fits in the category of film noir.”The author also contends that Robert
Siodmak’s Son of Dracula (a personal favorite
of mine, featuring an arguably miscast corn-fed Lon Chaney Jr.) remains “a
vastly underrated horror movie that is also a romantic tragedy.”
It soon becomes apparent that Anez’s argument that
certain films failed at the box office - or with film critics – was not due to
the quality of the films themselves.Instead many were perhaps doomed by visionary “outside-of-the-box”
productions that were tough to commercially pigeonhole.Perhaps these films didn’t achieve nor enjoy
a measure of acclaim due to the schematics of the filmmakers.It’s suggested such creative teams, at their
own expense, had gambled on their film’s commercial potentials – perhaps accidentally,
perhaps purposefully.Ultimately, they
chose not to cater to clichés or to rigid formulas or to the expectations of
their target audience.
In the book’s afterword, Anez notes he chose to focus on
“an era in which science-fiction movies depended on ideas and not special effects,” a time when horror films conjured chills
“upon the power of suggestion and not
graphic gore.”Reading through these
essays it becomes obvious that Anez is a strong champion of scenarios that feature
solid writing and cerebral storytelling.It’s of interest that of the fourteen films examined here, no fewer than
eight had been adapted from pre-existing science-fiction novels or other
literary sources published from the 1940s through the 1970s.
Anez acknowledges that some of these films under his
microscope might now appear dated - even open to some ridicule by contemporary
standards - for their dopey, unsophisticated poor-science-based projections.He muses other films might have been doomed at
the box office by their gloomy, paranoid prognostications of a dreary, dystopic
future.(Certainly none of the films Anez
examines here can be thought of as “feel good” movies – quite the opposite, in
fact).Such dystopic melancholia is
reflected in Anez’s own opinions.He
writes of his fear that contemporary exercises of political correctness and encroaching
Orwellian cancel culture movements might yet alter - even expunge – aging artistic
works and forms of “popular culture from the past.”“In today’s Hollywood,” Anez sighs, “nothing
is implied anymore; everything is explicit.”
I’m probably not as fatalistic as Anez on some of the points
he makes, though one can certainly understand – and even sympathize with – some
of the arguments he makes.But by my
reckoning, home video has - from inception - assured that a majority of cultural
artifacts will survive in their original forms for some time well into the
future.Certainly books and films and
music reflective of the aggrieved historical period in which they were created
will survive in their original state.How could they not?There’s too
many of us who have carefully collected and curated these artworks to see them
suddenly made unavailable.But it is also
true that many of these works might – might
- need to co-exist alongside a bowdlerized version for generations to come.
The real question is whether or not our shared histories
– good, bad, tragic, celebratory or indifferent - can be erased easily?The jury is out on that point, and the debate
on the historical revisionism of culture, I imagine, will be argued long into
the future.It’s of interest that many
of the future-looking films that Anez studies in Science Fiction Thrills… Horror Chills cautions and forewarns against
the censorship of free ideas - be those ideas well-meaning, ignorant, brilliant
or otherwise. I was going to end this review with Shakespeare’s famously reflective
and internal ponder on the duality of intentions, “Ay, there’s the rub.”But I
admit I almost didn’t, perhaps employing a bit of guarded self-censorship.After all, Shakespeare, the “immortal bard”
of Avon, might not prove so immortal after all.He too is now a target of cancel culture.
The
incentive for this 4th volume in my Celluloid Adventures series was a dismissive review in a reference
book of the 1956 film version of George Orwell’s novel, 1984, calling it “a great disappointment and a lackluster
adaptation of the briliant novel.” This derogatory opinion remains the general
consensus among many critics. I disagree with this assessment, in part
because
the movie remained in my memory long after I first saw it. Furthermore, I had
read the novel so I knew that, though the adaptation was definitely a loose
one, it was actually faithful to Orwell’s ideas. So I wanted to redress this
negative opinion of the movie and proceeded to write about it. This led to my
considering other movies in the science fiction and horror genres that, I
believe, are also underrated. Thus was born the concept for Celluloid Adventures 4:Science Fiction Thrills….Horror Chills.
I
should state at this point that I became a fan of science fiction and horror
movies in my adolescence. I also loved Westerns (Shane is my all-time favorite movie) and it has always upset me
when a good movie, particularly in my favorite genres, fails at the box-office.
Thus, my objective in the first three volumes was to bring overdue attention to
some of these movies. In these books, I discuss films within several genres
while I devote individual chapters to science fiction and/or horror movies. For
this fourth book, I decided to focus only on science fiction and horror because
the ascendancy of these genres that began with Star Wars (1977) and The
Exorcist (1973) relegated to relative obscurity many fine movies that
preceded this dominance along with a few that followed. And it is some of these
films that I wanted to retrieve from anonymity for this book. (Not
coincidentally, my devotion to the genres more or less ended in the late 70s,
coinciding with this ascendancy, but that’s another story.)
It
was very rewarding for me to research the movies in Celluloid Adventures 4 because I discovered numerous interesting details
about their development and production that I hope will make this book equally
interesting. For instance, here are just a few of the many intriguing facts
that I learned:
The director of one movie fired his own
brother who had written the screenplay.
One movie is based upon a legend of the
birth of a deformed monster.
One movie was made by a married couple
that later engaged in an acrimonious divorce.
One movie failed upon its original
release but played to enthusiastic audiences in New York
and Los Angeles 65 years later.
The
screenplay for one movie is based upon actual inhumane experiments conducted in
prestigious universities.
The producer of one movie was forced to
cast the actor who starred in it.
The director of one movie considers it among
his worst.
One serious movie suffered because its
studio promoted it as an exploitation movie.
The
14 movies that I highlight cover a period of three and one-half decades, from
1943 to 1978, and I would speculate that the average moviegoer today has not
heard of most of them. With one exception, they were financial failures or
disappointments, a fact that contributes to their obscurity. However, I believe
that they still deserve the recognition and praise that they did not receive
upon their original release. In my estimation, these are all excellent films
but yet most of them did not attract wide audiences.
These
movies include a wide variety of subjects. In Son of Dracula (1943), the main character is a woman who is not
only eager to die but is also willing to kill the man that loves her. In Alias Nick Beal (1949), Lucifer is
determined to condemn an innocent man him to eternal suffering. Both The Power (1968) and The Medusa Touch (1978) portray men with
superior brains that have the capability to either save or destroy the entire world.
One of them will choose destruction because he hates humanity with a passion.
Very
few people have heard of the movie, Who?
(1974), and those who have heard of it were probably confused by the title. And
yet it is a poignant story of an altruistic man who is victimized by futuristic
technology. The protagonist of The Groundstar
Conspiracy (1972) also endures tremendous suffering from another type of
futuristic technology. The future of the aforementioned 1984 (1956) is extremely frightening because it depicts a world in
which a sweet-looking child will betray her own father to be tortured and
perhaps killed.
I
am hoping that this book will encourage people, including some of you who are
reading this, to view these movies. They are all entertaining and, in some
respects, provocative. For instance, after seeing The Maze (1953), you might actually sympathize with a monstrous amphibian.
If you believe that a brain is lifeless once it is removed from its body, Donovan’s Brain (1953) may change your
mind. You might also discover how fragile our brains are after viewing The Mind Benders (1963), a story about the
cruelty of pitiless scientists. If you view Crack
in the World (1965), you will witness how the earth is almost destroyed by
a scientist with abundant hubris. Upon viewing Journey to the far Side of the Sun (1969), you will witness a benevolent
scientist lose his sanity because of his extraordinary discovery.
There
are moments of pure excitement and suspense as well as pure terror in these
movies. Viewers of Capricorn One
(1977) will inevitably break out in ecstatic applause at the sight of a rickety
biplane suddenly appearing on an isolated desert road. This is the only movie
among the 14 in this book that was a success – with the public if not the
critics. In contrast, The Mummy’s Shroud
(1967) played the bottom-of-the-bill of double features and was unnoticed upon
its release. But I believe it deserves some kind of awareness.
So
I hope that I have piqued your curiosity enough to encourage you to read about
the making of these movies. But even if you choose not to buy the book, for
your own safety, I implore you to please heed this warning: Beware the beat of
the cloth-wrapped feet!
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount:
Hailed as “the biggest and best action movie of the year” (Screen Rant), the edge-of-your-seat, non-stop thrill ride MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—DEAD RECKONING Part One
becomes available to buy on Digital for fans to watch at home starting
October 10, 2023. The blockbuster hit will debut on 4K Ultra HD
SteelBook™, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray™, and DVD on October 31st.
“Tom
Cruise is at the top of his game” in “the best ‘Mission’ ever”
(KTLA-TV) that’s loaded with “next level action and thrills”
(Entertainment Weekly). Certified Fresh with a stellar 96% critic score* on Rotten Tomatoes,® MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—DEAD RECKONING Part One received widespread acclaim and a coveted “A” CinemaScore from fans.
Fans
who purchase the film on Digital can go deeper into the mission with
extensive, action-packed bonus content. Get an inside look at how Tom
Cruise and the filmmaking team pulled off multiple breathtaking stunts,
go behind-the-scenes of the exotic filming locations, delve into
spectacular footage not seen in theatres, learn about the intricacies of
the filmmaking process with director Christopher McQuarrie and editor
Eddie Hamilton, and more! Bonus content is detailed below:
Commentary by director Christopher McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton—McQuarrie and Hamilton take viewers through each compelling scene with in-depth commentary.
Abu Dhabi—Explore
the exotic filming locations in the desert and at the international
airport and discover how each thrilling sequence was shot.
Rome—Take
a behind-the-scenes look at the thrilling car chase through Italy's
historic capital, as Tom Cruise's driving skills are pushed to the limit
while handcuffed to Hayley Atwell!
Venice—See
the breathtaking city of Venice as it's never been shown on film.
Plus, witness the cast's dedication and commitment to their training as
they prepare to get "Mission Ready."
Freefall—An
extended behind-the-scenes look at one of the biggest stunts in cinema
history. Watch never-before-seen footage of the rigorous training as
Tom launches a motorcycle off a cliff.
Speed Flying—Join
Tom and the crew as they explain the various training techniques
involved in pulling off the dangerous speed flying stunts in the film.
Train—See
how the climactic train sequence was captured on film. From building
an actual train from scratch to crashing it using practical effects, you
don't want to miss this!
Deleted Shots Montage—Director
Christopher McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton share some of the
breathtaking, never-before-seen footage that didn't make the final film.
Editorial Featurette: The Sevastopol—Director Christopher McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton take viewers through the intense opening scene.
(Photo: Paramount)
Synopsis
Ethan
Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous
mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of
humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With the fate of the
world at stake, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a
mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing
can matter more than his mission - not even the lives of those he cares
about most.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—DEAD RECKONING Part One is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some language and suggestive material.
PARAMOUNT PICTURES and SKYDANCE Present
A TOM CRUISE Production TOM CRUISE “MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE”
HAYLEY ATWELL VING RHAMES SIMON PEGG REBECCA FERGUSON VANESSA KIRBY
and HENRY CZERNY Casting by MINDY MARIN, CSA
Music by LORNE BALFE Costume Designer JILL TAYLOR Film Editor EDDIE HAMILTON, ACE
Production Designer GARY FREEMAN Director of Photography FRASER TAGGART
Executive Producers DAVID ELLISON DANA GOLDBERG DON GRANGER
TOMMY GORMLEY CHRIS BROCK SUSAN E. NOVICK
Produced by TOM CRUISE CHRISTOPHER McQUARRIE
Based on the Television Series Created by BRUCE GELLER
We film collectors are a spoiled lot: and, yes, I include
myself in that assessment.When Australian
video label Imprint first announced their seminal Silver Screams Cinema collection in 2021, I was ecstatic.Though the now defunct U.S. based Olive Films
had already given us Blu-rays of three titles soon-to-be featured on the
Imprint set (Return of the Ape Man
(Monogram, 1944) She Devil (1957) and
The Vampire’s Ghost (Republic, 1945),
it was the Aussie’s inclusion of several long-neglected films from the vault of
Republic Pictures - Valley of the Zombies
(1946), The Phantom Speaks (1945) and
The Lady and the Monster (1944) -
that compelled one to pre-order.
The Imprint set contained almost every title a fan of
Republic’s horror-mystery offerings might desire… with one notable
exception.Where was Lesley Selander’s The Catman of Paris (1946)? It was the
one Republic horror flick I had been wishing on the longest.Decades ago I gave up hope of ever seeing any
sort of legitimate home video issue. So I sought out the serviceable – if scratchy
and hazy - gray-market bootleg long making the rounds on the collector’s market.So the exclusion of The Catman of Paris from Imprint’s otherwise magnificent Silver Screams set was a bit
frustrating.
So it was with great anticipation when Imprint’s
single-disc Blu-ray of The Catman of
Paris recently arrived.I’m pleased
to report that the release not only looks great but also arrives with a couple
of bonus features.But while this film’s
arrival on Blu-ray brings with it a satisfying sense of closure, I think it’s best
to acknowledge that The Catman of Paris
is by no means a riveting lost classic of horror cinema.Though the film holds a certain charm in my personal
nostalgia bank, The Catman of Paris often
plods along for most of its hour or so running time.But I’m still a fan.
Republic Pictures was, of course - unfairly, in my mind –
deemed a Hollywood “Poverty Row” studio.But the production values of the studio were often of high-caliber
despite meager budgets, the studio producing more than a thousand features and
serials from its inception in 1935.Though associated with Monogram Pictures – a purveyor of a number of
1940s low-rent horror and mystery pictures (which often featured the likes of
genre stars Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, Lionel Atwill and John Carradine),
Republic was late in getting on the exploitative horror-film train.I suppose it can be argued that they nearly missed
the train entirely.The studio only really
began to test the horror-picture market when public interest in such fare was clearly
on the wane.
But the studio’s first horror pic The Lady and the Monster (1944), featuring Erich von Stroheim as a cold
and humorless mad scientist, did well enough for the studio to greenlight a
double-dose of new horror in 1945:The Vampire’s Ghost and The Phantom Speaks – two films which
we’ll get to in a moment.Generally
speaking, the Republic horrors were of similar construct to Monogram’s.But unlike the Monogram films – which have
been mostly available over the years on home video due to their public domain
status – the Republic horror pics have been, until recently, almost entirely commercially
inaccessible to students of the genre.
It’s possible the Republic horror pics have been glossed
over due to the fact that, unlike the studio’s western film counterparts – which
featured such star-spangled stars as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and John Wayne –
their horror pics offered no similar
marquee attraction.Perhaps if the
Republic horror and mysteries features offered such boogeymen as Lugosi or Boris
Karloff there might have been more of a commercial interest in getting these
out to fans and collectors.But
Paramount Pictures, the company that ultimately absorbed the Republic catalog,
seemed mostly disinterested in making available that studio’s horror film efforts.
To be fair, Republic wasn’t Universal: there actually wasn’t
a great deal of true “horrors” to choose from.In 1999, film historian Tom Weaver examined some of the Republic titles
in his tome Poverty Row Horrors!:
Monogram, PRC, and Republic Horror Films of the Forties (MacFarland).A decade- and -a -half later author Brian McFadden
published his Republic Horrors: The
Serial Studio’s Chillers.Both books
were welcome additions to the film scholar’s personal libraries.But while McFadden’s effort seemed to promise
a deeper-dive into the Republic’s long-neglected horror catalog, it mostly reminded
readers that the studio actually released very few true horror pictures during the Golden Age of the 1940s.Of the ten films chosen for examination by McFadden,
only five could justify being classified as genuine “horrors.”The remaining five titles selected were simply
mysteries with woven eerie elements.
But if Universal’s reign as the preeminent horror-movie
studio was beginning to wind down by the mid-1940s, Republic’s was just
beginning to rev up.In early May of
1945, the Los Angeles Times reported
that executives at Republic Pictures, “encouraged by the current success of The Vampire’s Ghost and The Phantom Speaks,” were already planning
a pair of thrillers of similar design.Under the watchful eye of producer William O’ Sullivan, Republic’s
newest horror pics, titled The Catman of
Paris and The Valley of the Zombies,
was to “be sold to exhibitors as a pair.”
Associate producer Marek M. Libkov told the Hollywood Reporter that their newest, The Catman of Paris, would have a
provisional start date of September 20, 1945 with casting to “start
immediately.”In fact, most of the
principal casting was already in
place by early September, though casting notices for small roles were still being
announced as late as October 5.It was also
later reported that the film’s start date would be pushed to September 22.The film’s presumed co-feature – Phil Ford’s Valley of the Zombies – was already just
shy of two weeks into production with production on The Catman of Paris set to follow immediately on its heels.But even the revised start date of September
22 is in doubt.On September 24, 1945,
the Los Angeles Times noted
production on Lesley Selander’s The
Catman of Paris was, at long last, to start “today at Republic.”
It’s of some interest that the two primary cast members
of The Catman of Paris, Carl Esmond
and Lenore Aubert, were both born in Vienna, Austria.Though neither had ever appeared in a horror
film, both already would share near-miss flirtations with real-life
horrors.Esmond left for the U.S. as
early as 1938 at the behest of MGM’s Louis B. Mayer.The actor had been performing with a touring
company in London when Nazi troops swept into Austria in March of 1938.Esmond reflected to Hollywood scribe Maxine
Garrison that Mayer dangled an MGM contract before him, warning ‘You would be
foolish not to come [to America].Europe
will be lost in war before long.”Esmond
admitted, “I had not thought of it that way, but he was right.”
Aubert too left Vienna, choosing travel to Paris.But with German troops already occupying the
City of Light, the actress also made the decision to immigrate to America.(Ironically, Aubert’s first screen credit was
for a performance as a villainous Nazi spy for Samuel Goldwyn’s They Got Me Covered (1943), an early Bob
Hope and Dorothy Lamour comedy).Though
not a household name to most cinephiles, the darkly beautiful Aubert is likely
best remembered for her performance as the sinister Dr. Mornay in the
time-tested Universal classic Abbott and
Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
The Hollywood trades were reporting a lot of activity on
the Republic Studios lot that first week of October of 1945… but most interest
was fixed on producer-director Frank Borsage’s ambitious and expensive Technicolor
effort Concerto.But a wandering journalist noted that only
“two stages away,” Republic’s dual monochrome horror pics, The Catman of Paris and Valley
of the Zombies, were being shot concurrently for a provisional
double-feature release.“On both sets,
the visitor must have nerves of steel,” it was reported, “to withstand sudden
appearances of perambulating cat people and corpses.”
By Thursday, October 11, 1945, the Hollywood Reporter noted that production on The Catman of Paris had wrapped on the night previous, when
“final exterior scenes were filmed on the studio’s back lot.” The report also indicated
that co-feature Valley of the Zombies
had finished shooting a mere “one day before Republic started rolling Selander’s
picture.”If true, the earlier reportage
of dual-picture sightings of “perambulating cat people and corpses” was little
more than promotional ballyhoo.
So who was this sinister cinematic Catman of Paris? Parisian police detectives are of the belief
that it’s none other than the best-selling, dashingly handsome French novelist
Charles Regnier (Carl Esmond).The
popular-selling author has recently returned to Paris following two years of
international travel – including a possibly fateful visit to the tropics.Not everyone has enjoyed his most recent
book.Regnier’s fiction-novel Fraudulent Justice has come to the
attention – and annoyance – of the French government.It seems Regnier’s narrative appears to have
been based on a true-life crime and trial: the details of which were never brought
to public scrutiny and the judicial outcome now thought a travesty of
justice.So how was it that Regnier
could accurately account so much about a secretive government trial?
Regnier has also returned to Paris to wrestle other demons.The writer suffers headaches which bring
about unexplainable subsequent episodes of amnesia.During such sessions Regnier is visited by
images of violent weather disturbances and of a mysterious black cat.Regnier’s moneyed patron, Henri Borchard
(Douglas Dumbrille), suggests Regnier’s fragile mental state is due to his having
contracted some sort of fever when visiting the tropics.There’s also a measure of astrological hokum
in the scripting mix as well.
Both Bouchard and Regnier’s publisher Paul Audet (Francis
Pierlot) are concerned that following two gruesome murders of which Regnier is
at least tangentially involved, the author’s book sales might plummet and
bankrupt the publishing house.And circumstantial
evidence of Regnier’s involvement in the murders continues to mount.The Catman’s most recent victim - Regnier’s
high-society fiancé Marguerite Duvall (Adele Mara), was recently jilted so the
author might enjoy a new romance with publisher’s daughter Marie (Lenore
Aubert).Having completely fallen for
the dashing author, Marie Audet is completely convinced of Regnier’s innocence…
until she herself is chased through a misty evening garden by a cloak and
top-hatted Catman on the prowl for her blood.
Though the film would eventually pair with Valley of the Zombies, The Catman of Paris was initially paired
on release with John English’s somewhat better-received ice-skating
musical-mystery Murder in the Music Hall.The first wave of reviews of The Catman of Paris were generally fair -
if mostly unfavorable.The Hollywood Reporter ignobly described the
film as an “absurdity,” a career embarrassments to all involved.The lugubrious screenplay of Republic scenarist
Sherman L. Lowe was decried as far too “wordy… every character uttering
editorials instead of dialog.”
There were complaints – also not unfair - that the film
displayed a curious lack of “physical action.”Variety was a bit more forgiving in its assessment,
calling the Valentine’s Day preview of The
Catman of Paris “a cross between a garden-variety whodunit and a
Jekyll-Hyde horror-meller […] that taxes belief to the breaking point.”The Christian
Science Monitor dismissed the film outright as a “routine horror story
based on far-fetched thrills.”
Despite the lukewarm reviews of both Murder in the Music Hall and The
Catman of Paris, the package managed a successful earning of $35,000 in its
first week.Which, at the very least, guaranteed
a second week of booking.Republic, presumptively
optimistic and encouraged by strong initial returns, inked producer Libkov to a
contract of three additional pictures. Though there was the inevitable revenue
fall-off in the second week of release, the trades were reporting box office
tallies in and around Los Angeles remained “good” if not showing signs of
sustained momentum. But by week three,
the box office receipts were down to disappointing four figure earnings.As the Catman
creeped regionally across the U.S. through autumn of 1946, local reviewers and small-town
theater managers found the film a mild mystery offering at best.Subsequently, four-figure weekly returns were
now the norm.
Anna May Wong has been commemorated with a three-film box set from Kino Lorber. Wong was a popular presence on the silver screen in an era in which most Asian screen characters were played by non-Asians. Here is the breakdown of information about the the Blu-ray set that coincidentally features Anthony Quinn in all three movies.
This collection features three Hollywood classics from
the 1930s starring screen icon Anna May Wong.
DANGEROUS TO KNOW
(1938)
Screen legend Anna
May Wong (Picadilly) reprises her acclaimed Broadway role in this romantic
crime drama from the pen of Edgar Wallace (Chamber of Horrors). Racketeer Steve
Recka (Akim Tamiroff, The General Died at Dawn) rules his town and the sultry,
silk-gowned Madam Lan Ying (Wong) with an iron hand. But when he falls for the
enchanting Margaret Van Kase (Gail Patrick, Death Takes a Holiday), a socialite
not impressed by his power nor his wealth, he makes frantic efforts to win her
and turns his back on the loyal Lan Ying. Dangerous to Know comes elegantly
directed by Robert Florey (The Crooked Way) with the sparkling supporting cast
of Lloyd Nolan (Portrait in Black), Harvey Stephens (The Cheat), Roscoe Karns
(Night After Night), Porter Hall (Murder, He Says), Hedda Hopper (Little Man,
What Now?), Ellen Drew (If I Were King) and Anthony Quinn (The Ghost Breakers).
ISLAND OF LOST MEN
(1939) – Screen legend Anna May Wong (Daughter of Shanghai) clashes with J.
Carrol Naish (Sahara) in this rousing remake of 1933’s Carole Lombard/Charles
Laughton starrer White Woman. Cabaret singer Kim Ling (Wong), the daughter of a
Chinese general who has been accused of absconding with government funds,
arrives in the Straits Settlements. There she meets Gregory Prin (Naish), a
half-caste gunrunner and head of a jungle empire where he treats the Malaysians
ruthlessly. She agrees to accompany him in search of her father, as she has
several reasons to believe Prin is responsible for the general’s disappearance.
Directed by Kurt Neumann (The Secret of the Blue Room, The Fly) and co-starring
Anthony Quinn (Road to Singapore), Eric Blore (Road to Zanzibar), Broderick
Crawford (Seven Sinners) and Ernest Truex (His Girl Friday), Island of Lost Men
is a torrid mix of thrills, mystery and adventure.
KING OF CHINATOWN
(1939) – Screen legend Anna May Wong (Shanghai Express) co-stars with the “czar
of a city of sin,” Akim Tamiroff (Desire), in the ripping crime yarn King of
Chinatown. Violence and death stalk the Chinese faction of a big American city,
but one man, Dr. Chang Ling (Sidney Toler, Shadows Over Chinatown), and his
daughter, Dr. Mary Ling (Wong), defy the gangsters who are responsible, and,
against terrific odds, bring peace to their oppressed neighbors. Wong gives a
powerful and pioneering performance as a respected surgeon faced with a
shocking moral dilemma. Directed by Nick Grinde (Million Dollar Legs), shot by
Leo Tover (The Day the Earth Stood Still) and featuring J. Carrol Naish (Beau
Geste), Philip Ahn (China), Anthony Quinn (The Last Train from Madrid),
Bernadene Hayes (Dick Tracy’s Dilemma) and Roscoe Karns (It Happened One
Night).
Product Extras :
Brand New 4K and 2K Masters
NEW Audio Commentary for DANGEROUS TO KNOW by Film Historian Samm Deighan
NEW Audio Commentary for ISLAND OF LOST MEN by Entertainment Journalist/Author
Bryan Reesman and Max Evry
NEW Audio Commentary for KING OF CHINATOWN by Film Historian David Del Valle
and Archivist/Film Historian Stan Shaffer
King of Chinatown Theatrical Trailer (Nitrate Restoration in 4K)
This Kino Lorber 4K Restoration Blu ray of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame is likely as
good as we’re going to get.Universal
Studio’s official 1923 program heralded Hunchback
as Hugo’s “Mighty Epic of a Mighty Epoch” and, truth be told, director Wallace Worsley’s
film never delivers less than promised. It is, above all, a spectacle. In August of
1922 when announced Universal-Jewel was to begin lensing the film, newspapers
reported it had been Lon Chaney’s “life’s ambition” to bring Hugo’s tale – and
the story of the novel’s titular tortured soul Quasimodo - to the big screen.
Chaney’s Hunchback
would not be the first cinematic adaptation of the famed 1831 novel.Esmeralda,
a ten-minute long French adaptation was brought to the screen as early as in
1905. Albert Capellani’s 1911 French
silent (Notre-Dame de Paris) would also
precede the Universal version, but that film too was a modest production running
a mere twenty-six minutes in length.The
first feature length-effort was Fox’s romantic The Darling of Paris (1917) featuring silent-screen-siren Theda
Bara.A British version of 1922 preceded
Chaney’s by only a year – though, again, only as a short of some thirteen
minutes.All but the 1911 version are
now presumed lost.
If Universal was not the first to bring the epic to the screen,
producer and studio co-founder Carl Laemmle promised a production unmatched in size
and scope.Universal would front a
budget of some $1,250,000, bringing in some 2800 artisans to work on the film’s
massive sets.The centerpiece was to be
the cathedral of Notre Dame, built practically to scale.Universal promised, “The cathedral at Notre Dame is an exact replica in every infinite
detail of the cathedral as it looked in 1482, an extraordinary feat and an
archeologic, historical and technical triumph.”
Such an ambitious project was going to require an
ambitious production team.In October of
1922, gossips whispered the studio was “anxious to have D.W. Griffith direct” Hunchback.On the surface, Griffith would seem a natural
choice.He had, after all, helmed such
pictures as Birth of a Nation (1915)
and Intolerance (1916), both showcase
spectacles of large scale and huge casts.In the end, Universal would announce, January 1923, that Worsley would
direct – with assists by “ten assistant directors and twenty-eight field
captains.”Worsley and Chaney already
had a good working relationship: the two having already combined their talents
on The Penalty, The Ace of Heartsand The
Blind Bargain. This new collaboration would spend six months in pre-production
and one year in filming.
Everything was crafted bigger-than-life. The make-up
appliances for Quasimodo, the film’s monstrous bell-ringer, were painstakingly crafted
by Chaney in a series of three-and-a-half hour sessions.The September 1923 issue of Pictures and Picturegoer magazine
enthused Chaney had promised “something even more startling than usual in the
way of make-up.” Alongside that of Erik, The
Phantom of the Opera (1925), the twisted and feral Quasimodo remains the
most iconic example of Chaney’s make-up artistry.
Biographer Michael F. Blake’s Lon Chaney: The Man Behind the Thousand Faces (Vestal Press, 1990)
and A Thousand Faces: Lon Chaney’s Unique
Artistry in Motion Pictures (Vestal Press, 1995) remain the two most
essential reference books on the man and his films, but they weren’t the first.There were earlier “serious” circulating books
on the actor:Robert G. Anderson’s Faces, Forms Films: The Artistry of Lon
Chaney (1971) came first, N.L.
Ross’s Lon Chaney: Master Craftsman of
Make Believe following more than a decade later. That said, Blake’s sister
volumes remain the most reliable and error free sources of Chaney marginalia.Blake occasionally proffers stern judgements,
some fair and some maybe not so, on preceding Chaney biographers, but all books
mentioned above are worthwhile reads and contain excellent bibliographies.
Blake opens his 1995 study with the declaration “Lon
Chaney was not a “horror actor.”Though this is essentially true, Blake – who contributes
seven pages of booklet notes to this new Kino Blu – sighs the actor’s association
with the horror genre is terribly overblown.He argues this mistaken union was due to the actor’s famous ghastly
make-up creations.It’s doubtful the
audience of eleven and twelve year-olds who sought out these cheap newsprint monster
movie magazines of the 1950s and ‘60s had actually ever saw a Lon Chaney silent film.But the reproduced published stills would fire imaginations, giving
Chaney Sr. instant cult status as a “horror film” icon. At the very least, I think
it’s fair to say that the genre mags were instrumental in keeping Chaney’s
legend alive at a time when few other outlets were interested.
It was that way for me at least.I’m not sure when I first learned the name “Lon
Chaney.”But it was likely through
photographs or an article in the pages of Famous
Monsters of Filmland magazine.I had
become obsessed with Famous Monsters when
chancing upon a used copy of their May 1967 issue at a school “white elephant”
sale.The magazine sent me scouring the
listings in TV Guide in search of the
films I was first introduced to in the pages of “FM.”It was through Famous Monsters I was first introduced to silent films – many of which
I find even today to be as fascinating as any talkie.
In trying to learn about silent films, I discovered
Daniel Blum’s A Pictorial History of the
Silent Screen (1974) at my local library.It was an oversize hardcover held in the reference section.Since I couldn’t bring it home to read at leisure,
I spent hours in the library looking through the hundreds – maybe thousands of
stills – reproduced therein.My
knowledge of and interest in film history really began there.While combing through the pages for Chaney info
(there wasn’t a lot, if I recall), I discovered Chaplin, Keaton, Pearl White,
Fatty Arbuckle, the Keystone Cops and hundreds of others.
It was around this time I also managed to catch Robert
Youngson’s affectionate silent-era doc Days
of Thrills and Laughter on television.As with Blum’s book, I don’t believe Chaney, again to my great disappointment,
was even mentioned in the doc.Youngson’s
emphasis was mostly on the slapstick comedy of Charlie Chaplin, “Fatty”
Arbuckle,” Snub Pollard and Ben Turpin.Though
a rare, brief clip of Boris Karloff in King
of the Congo (1929) further fueled my interest in early cinema, Chaney –
frustratingly – would remain a man of mystery.
Knowing what I know now, the notoriously private and
reclusive actor – non-ceremoniously interred following his passing, age forty-seven,
in a Glendale sepulcher – would have likely preferred it that way.At age nine I finally had the opportunity to catch
Chaney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame
on WNET-13, Manhattan’s PBS-TV affiliate.Hunchback was the last title to
be featured on the network’s “The Silent Years” series (each segment introduced
by Orson Welles) in September of 1971.
OK, I apologize. I have digressed. I will also confess
it’s taken me quite some time to finally getting around to view this Kino issue
of Hunchback. I was gifted a copy
back in the autumn of 2021 but chose to put the Blu-ray aside – for the time
being, anyway.I had already planned to
attend a genuine film element screening of Hunchback
at a local cinema that October, one complete with live organ
accompaniment.That night, sadly, proved
to be a projection booth disaster.The
theater ran the last two reels in reverse so inter-titles appeared Cyrillic and
completely unreadable.God bless Ben
Model, the silent film historian/organist accompanying the program.He calmly and expertly navigated through this
maelstrom with amazing poise and finesse, salvaging what would have been
otherwise a completely disastrous evening.
There’s no point in discussing here the plot of Worsley’s
The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It’s a
more-or-less faithful rendering of the Hugo novel.This is a century old film, one I find as
entertaining today as it was a hundred years ago.Yes, the acting often is – as was the order
of the day – visually exaggerated and overly emotive, but the story remains a
compelling one.The scenario really
revolves around Esmeralda, the soft-hearted street dancer, and not the tragic
Quasimodo.To his credit, Chaney – though
top-billed – recognizes this and admirably serves as an essential member of the
ensemble, not as the film’s principal player.
This Kino release has been cobbled together from the best
existing prints available, so there are temperature and tinting changes from
section to section.But it’s a beautiful
4K restoration and while surviving element damage is not totally absent, the
film looks remarkable all things considered.This edition also features a lively and original musical score.This new soundtrack is composed and performed
by Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum and Laura Karpman, both Julliard-trained artists and
the previous recipients of Grammy and Emmy Award nominations/victories.
Over this millennium, The
Hunchback of Notre Dame has been re-made on any number of occasions.The best recalled of these are RKO’s 1939
version featuring Charles Laughton or the French-Italian 1956 version featuring
Anthony Quinn and Gina Lollobrigida.Folks of my generation might better recall these two post-Chaney re-tellings,
especially if they have little interest in silent cinema.Younger folks were likely first introduced to
the tale via Disney’s 1996 animated musical adaptation – a film whose cartoon
Quasimodo most resembled Laughton’s pitiful, less grotesque caricature.Having said that, Chaney’s Quasimodo, despite
age, will forever remain the most iconic.
A few notes on this generous bonus materials supplied on
this set.Included is a vintage, silent Life in Hollywood newsreel that features
a birds-eye view of the massive Universal City lot, described on an inter-title
card as “the strangest city in the world.”Once on soil, we watch as a procession of Universal’s silent-era stars
and starlets’ parade out of a studio canteen.Most of these names are now sadly lost to the memory of all but a small cabal
of film historians.The newsreel,
running approximately eight and a half minutes in length features a small clip
of Chaney – sans costume and make-up - demonstrating a bit of acrobatics on the
exterior of the Notre Dame structure.
The set also features a thirteen-minute silent reel of
“Mabel and Bill Dumphy’s Visit with Hazel and Lon.”This is sourced from 16mm footage shot during
the couple’s visits with Chaney, his wife Hazel, and their wire-haired terrier
Sandy, at rest during the family’s residencies in Soboba Hot Springs and
Saratoga.The Soboba footage is
primarily interesting in its moody capture of the former’s Riverside County
hamlet’s Spanish mission-styled architecture and terraced landscapes.There’s not much Chaney in the Soboba
footage, aside from Lon looking out pensively over the hillside, or playfully
tugging at Sandy the dog’s tail in another.
The Saratoga footage documents additional glimpses of the
Chaneys at home.We watch as Chaney and
guests mill about a backyard garden, the reclusive actor letting down his guarded
reserve.We watch as Lon playfully
wrestles a giggling Hazel on the lawn or smoking and drinking with friends.The latter clip is of interest due to the recognizable
presence of Lon’s son, Creighton (strategically “re-christened” Lon Chaney Jr. following
his father’s passing), smiling as he too puffs away on a cigarette in the
background.The set also features an
audio-commentary track by Farran Smith Nehme, a film historian and critic whose
work has appeared in such publications as Film
Comment, The Wall Street Journal, Village Voice and New York Post.The set
rounds off with a generous gallery/slideshow of publicity materials and
production stills.
One hundred years following the date of its production,
Worsley’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame
admittedly puts the “retro” in Cinema
Retro.But despite the film’s age,
its heart still beats soundly.Anyone
interested in film history should visit this film at least once in their
lifetime, and this Kino Blu-ray might just be the best conduit for one to do
just that.
On Tuesday, April 25, it was a balmy and pleasant New York evening as ticket holders and the press lined up at Lincoln Center to attend the New York Philharmonic's special concert in honor of five-time Oscar winning composter John Williams. Attendees walked past the famous circular fountain in the main concourse area where Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder had rejoiced in Mel Brooks' "The Producers". The movie reference is appropriate because Williams is best known for his contributions to cinema over the course of the last six decades. Inside the Wu Tsai Theater in David Geffen Hall, nary a free seat could be found. The event had sold out quickly, with even standing room only places quickly snapped up by eager admirers of Williams. Cinema Retro has been invited to cover many of the NY Phil's film-oriented concerts over the years and each one is a very memorable occasion. However, at the risk of appearing to engage in some hyperbole, the Williams concert was not only memorable but the most impressive film concert this reviewer has ever seen. Conductor Ken-David Masur, son of NY Phil's Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur, made his debut with the orchestra with this performance. If Masur had any trepidation of performing with John Williams in the audience, it was not evident. He was simply brilliant, as was the full orchestra.
(Photo: Chris Lee)
The concert began in dramatic fashion with the NY Phil's magnificent rendering of Williams' main theme for the 1978 film "Superman". The choice of musical selections was inspired and sidestepped predictability. There were selections from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" that had hints of the famous main title theme. This was followed by a presentation of Williams' track from a chase scene in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". An unusual inclusion was the animated Oscar-winning 2017 short film "Dear Basketball" narrated by Kobe Bryant that chronicled the late, legendary basketball player's lifelong fascination with the sport. Williams provided the score the production, illustrating once again the sheer diversity of his achievements. Then, to the delight of the audience, The NY Phil played selections from "Star Wars: A New Hope", which predictably brought down the house. But there were plenty more thrills in store.
(Photo: Chris Lee)
To the accompaniment of Williams' main theme from "Jaws", Steven Spielberg took to the stage, eschewing his usual casual look for black tie. Commenting upon his musical introduction, Spielberg quipped that "I've made 3,300 hundred movies and all anyone wants to talk about is 'Jaws'!" He elaborated by saying that even among autograph hunters, it's "Jaws" more than any of his other films that elicits the most comments. Spielberg spoke warmly about his longtime friendship with John Williams, reminding the audience that they have collaborated on 51 films over a period of 29 years. It's clear that Spielberg still regards him as a treasured mentor as well as an essential collaborator. Spielberg then showed the opening sequence of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" sans any musical score. He wanted to emphasize how valuable a composer's contribution to a film is. We're all familiar with the scene, as Indy appears to have successfully snatched a golden relic only to find he has triggered the activation of many death traps. Spielberg remembered that, upon seeing the unscored sequence back in the day, George Lucas said "We need Johnny!" Indeed, "Johnny" did contribute his magic, as evidenced when Spielberg replayed the scene with Williams' score intact. I came to realize that his genius was not only in providing a suspenseful score, but for making musical notes appear to be special sound effects that further enhanced the scene. The tribute continued with the NY Phil providing musical tributes to "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Jurassic Park" and "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial", accompanied by extensive film clips.
The event concluded with Spielberg paying tribute to Williams' haunting score for "Schindler's List". He then invited Williams to take to the podium and conduct the orchestra for this pivotal work. Predictably, the audience responded with thunderous applause. The somber, heart-wrenching score brought back all the memories of the brilliant film and the disturbing images that have led me to be unable to watch it since I saw it upon its initial release. Williams left the stage to a standing ovation that wouldn't stop. He then reemerged to conduct the orchestra for the iconic theme song from the Indiana Jones films. He left the stage once more but the audience wouldn't relent in its applause so Williams came out again. This time, the energetic 91-year old concluded the proceedings by conducting the "Imperial March and Finale" from "Star Wars: A New Hope". I doubt there was a dry eye in the house.
(Photo: Chris Lee)
New York City has taken it on the chin in recent years with reports of all the things that had gone wrong during the time of the pandemic. But Gotham was back in full glory thanks to the remarkable talents that provided the audience with a historic and unforgettable evening. We are unlikely to see a film composer with the career accomplishments of John Williams ever again. Anyone who was privileged to witness this extraordinary event would understand why.
"The Pink Jungle" is a Universal production from 1968 and it looks it, with plenty of backlot sets doubling for authentic foreign settings. The studio always clutched the purse strings rather tightly when producing mid-range fare such as this, but it doesn't mean these films were devoid of value. This particular production was based on a 1965 action adventure novel titled "Swamp Water" by Allan Williams, which is regarded as a straight-forward thriller. The film adaptation with a script by Charles Williams eschews the thrills in favor of laughs. The film opens in one of those conveniently unnamed-but-undesirable South American countries where we find James Garner arriving in a one-horse town. He's fashion photographer Ben Morris who is there to do a quick shoot before returning to the States. The subject of his fashion spread soon arrives: supermodel Alison Duguesne (Eva Renzi), and she's more than a bit put off by the primitive environment. Things go downhill from there. They find they are stranded when the only local helicopter is stolen. They are introduced to the local corrupt police chief, Colonel Celaya (Fabrizio Mioni), who is looking to squeeze them for any bribes he can get. Then there is Raul Ortega (Michael Ansara), a local shady character in his own right. I won't bother with detailing how all of these characters affect the story, as we're not outlining "Citizen Kane" here. Suffice it to say that both Ben and Alison find themselves on defense all the time among this stew of swindlers and killers. Things kick into high gear when they meet Sammy Reiderbeit (George Kennedy), a South African with an American accent (!). He's a volatile nut case who embroils them in a seemingly madcap scheme to find a hidden diamond mine. He has access to a map that supposedly outlines where it is located but it requires an arduous and dangerous journey to reach the area- and there are all sorts of villains on their trail trying to obtain the map at any cost.
"The Pink Jungle" is played strictly for laughs with Garner playing a typical Garner role: a man of action who can dispense punches and quips with equal skill. Kennedy plays a typical Kennedy role: a loud, crude boisterous type who is more brawn than brains. They form one of those uneasy partnerships to set off to find the gold only to encounter another disreputable character, McCune (Nigel Green) who joins the team even though no one trusts him. The first section of the film is shot entirely on the Universal backlot, though the art directors- Al Ybarra and and Alexander Golitzen- do succeed in making the seedy buildings seem convincing. Things only open up when the characters hit the mountains and desert (entirely filmed in California and Nevada). It's clear that Universal designed this movie for quick playoff. I'm not even certain it ever played as a main feature, as I recall as a kid seeing it as the bottom half of a double-bill with "Lady in Cement". Writing in his memoirs many years later, Garner dismissed the film thusly: "I made this thing for the money and I'm lucky it didn't wreck my career". That seems a bit harsh. If one approaches the film with modest expectations, they might be rewarded with some modest pleasures. Garner is always fun to watch and Eva Renzi, fresh from her success in "Funeral in Berlin", makes an appealing leading lady whose flirtatious relationship with Ben remains chaste, probably because they spend most of their time dodging assassination attempts. George Kennedy dominates every scene he's in as the cigar-chomping, erratic, yet likable madman who is obsessed with finding the diamond mine. Nigel Green's appearance mid-film adds some intrigue and he's fun to watch. Director Delbert Mann, like his cast members, would not have put this film near the top of his credentials. (He had directed the Oscar winner, "Marty"). However, his workmanlike direction here keeps the pace lively and the action flowing. Oh, and the ending does provide a bit of a surprise revelation.
The Kino Lorber Blu-ray presents the film in a reasonably good transfer. The only bonus extra is the original trailer (which plays up George Kennedy's recent Oscar win for "Cool Hand Luke") and a gallery of other trailers for KL action movie releases.
Way back in 1971 when I was in high school, there seemed to be a tidal wave of soft-core porn flicks, mostly imported from Europe and dubbed rather crudely into English. I never sought to spend the paltry contents of my wallet on these tame sex movies movies because I lived directly across the river from Times Square and that offered my friends and I the real forbidden fruit in sleazy, grind house movie theaters. Age was no barrier as long as you were willing to pay the then tidy sum of $5. However, the softcore Euro imports did find enthusiastic audiences in places where there weren't many alternatives to finding cinematic "adult entertainment". The films were generally rated "X" but were pretty tame, stressing humor to overcome objections from local killjoys who thought the idea of seeing some naked people on screen would condemn their entire community to eternal damnation. One of the most profitable of these films was the 1969 release, "The Stewardesses", which was so tame that it could be shown on Disney+ today. Nevertheless, these films afforded women to get a few cheap thrills without having to suffer the stigma of being seen entering a theater showing hardcore fare. Thus, plenty of couples enjoyed the opportunity to share in date nights that somewhat pushed the envelope in terms of general standards. The films were generally bestowed with memorable titles, which is why I remember the newspaper ads for "Dagmar's Hot Pants" and similar fare such as "The Long Swift Sword of Siegfried". The good news is that some of these films have been lovingly presented on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber, in collaboration with Code Red. When a screener arrived of "Dagmar's Hot Pants", I took an immediate interest, remembering hot pants as one of those short-lived fashion trends of the 1970s. For those readers who were not around way back then, the gimmick with hot pants was a simple one: they were very short and very tight and left little to the imagination. Although my high school had a very liberal dress code (jeans and T shirts were the norm), I do recall one of my female classmates pushing the envelope by wearing hot pants to class. That was a bridge too far and she was summarily sent home to change into something less offensive, much to the consternation of her male classmates. At least hot pants were provocative and sensible, as opposed to the male fashions of the era such as the leisure suit and safari jacket, the latter of which was a dress/casual abomination that looked as though it was designed to allow a man to hunt elephants in the morning and then attend a swank cocktail party in the evening without changing attire.
I looked forward to viewing "Dagmar's Hot Pants" simply to see an abundance of this long-forgotten fashion trend glorified on screen. Alas, I was snookered, as was anyone back in the day who paid to see the film. You see, there are no hot pants in "Dagmar's Hot Pants". They are neither shown nor discussed. It was simply a case of a shamelessly deceptive marketing campaign to capitalize on a recent fashion trend. Oh, well.The film itself presents lovely Diana Kjaer in the title role, playing a fabulously successful young woman who has emerged as one of Copenhagen's most in-demand hookers. Dagmar's daily schedule of meeting with clients from around the globe is frantic and she sometimes has to call on the services of fellow prostitutes to assist her in meeting some of the more unusual demands of her customers. The film takes a humorous view of all this, as we see Dagmar patiently keeping a straight face while interacting with oddball clients ranging from two goofy Japanese businessmen who want an orgy to horny local businessmen of some esteem, including a doctor who pays Dagmar to initiate his teenage son in the ways of the world. The only "normal" client Dagmar services is a member of Copenagen's Vice Squad, who ensures she doesn't get busted in return for sexual favors. One of her adoring clients is a gruff, but rich American businessman played by Robert Strauss...yes, that Robert Strauss who had earned an Oscar nomination for Billy Wilder's "Stalag 13". It's a bit uncomfortable seeing the sixty-something actor engaging in a sexual dalliance with Dagmar but presumably the lure of a quick paycheck and a trip to Copenhagen made for an offer Strauss couldn't refuse. If Robert Strauss has always figured into your fantasies, then your ship has come in. Throughout the story, Dagmar is keeping a big secret as she arranges to leave her lucrative business for a top secret venture. "That's it!", I thought- she's going into the hot pants manufacturing business, but alas, the answer is somewhat more mundane and disappointing. There are a couple of minor efforts to introduce some dramatic scenes into the slapstick. Dagmar lends her desperate brother money so that his girlfriend can get an abortion. There is also a tense scene with her quasi-pimp, a scary fellow who threatens her if she doesn't obey his wishes. In this sense, the film differs from similar movies of this type by at least acknowledging that the life of a call girl isn't all fun and games.
As is usual with these films, there are some interludes showing the star walking through the lovely streets of Copenhagen in an obvious attempt to add an exotic appeal to the production. Diana Kjaer manages to keep her clothes on occasionally but for the most part she is seen showering or chatting on the phone sans any cumbersome garments. I must say the dubbing in this film is a bit better than most and Code Red and Kino Lorber have provided a good looking transfer from a 2K master. You have to admire companies that take such efforts to preserve and present even minor films such as this.
The only bonus extra is an English language trailer that continues the sin of false advertising by saying "Dagmar's Hot Pants" is the name the title character has given to her prostitution network. In fact, there is never any mention of Dagmar's Hot Pants anywhere in the film. However, if these tame sex comedies from the distant past appeal to you, this is one of the better in this genre. I now hopefully await a Blu-ray release of "The Long Swift Sword of Siegfried"!.
In the estimation of many film scholars the 1970s was the most
adventurous and liberating period in the history of the medium. The new
freedoms in regard to sex, violence and adult themes that had exploded
in the mid-1960s became even more pronounced in the '70s. Among the most
daring studios to take advantage of this trend was United Artists. The
studio had been conceived by iconic actors in the silent era with the
intent of affording artists as much creative control over their
productions as possible. UA had continued to fulfill that promise,
producing a jaw-dropping number of box-office hits and successful film
franchises. The studio also disdained censorship and pushed the envelope
with high profile movie productions. The daring decision to fund the
X-rated "Midnight Cowboy" paid off handsomely. The 1969 production had
not only been a commercial success but also won the Best Picture Oscar. A
few years later UA went even further out on a limb by distributing
"Last Tango in Paris". UA fully capitalized on the worldwide
sensation the movie had made and the many attempts to restrict it from
being shown at all in certain areas of the globe. Like "Midnight
Cowboy", "Tango" was an important film by an important director that
used graphic images of sexual activity for dramatic intensity.
Unfortunately, not every filmmaker who was inspired by these new
freedoms succeeded in the attempt to mainstream X-rated fare during
those years that the rating wasn't only synonymous with low-budget porno
productions. Case in point: screenwriter John Byrum, who made his
directorial debut with "Inserts", a bizarre film that UA released in
1975 that became a legendary bomb. The movie was released some years ago on Blu-ray as a limited edition by the now sadly defunct Twilight Time label. To my knowledge, it isn't available in that format today, although it is streaming on Screenpix, the subscription-based service that can be accessed through Amazon Prime, Roku, YouTube and Apple TV.
The claustrophobic tale resembles a filmed stage production. It is
set primarily in one large living room in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
The time period is the 1930s, shortly after the introduction of sound to
the movie industry resulted in the collapse of silent pictures (Charlie
Chaplin being the notable exception.) The central character, played by
Richard Dreyfuss, is not named but is referred to as "The Boy Wonder".
From our first glimpse of him we know we are seeing a man in trouble. He
is unkempt, dressed in a bathrobe and swizzling booze directly from the
bottle. We will soon learn that he was once a respected mainstream
director of major studio films and was revered by Hollywood royalty. Now
he is a has-been who has resorted to making porn movies in 16mm in his
own home. (Yes, Virginia, people liked to watch dirty movies even way
back then.) He is entertaining a visitor, Harlene (Veronica Cartwright),
a perpetually cheery, bubble-headed young woman who was once a
respected actress but who, like Boy Wonder, has fallen on hard times.
She is now a heroin addict who earns a living by "starring" in Boy
Wonder's porn productions. They make small talk and some names from the
current movie business are bandied about. Harlene tells Boy Wonder that a
rising star named Clark Gable is said to be an admirer of his and wants
to meet him. Instead of responding favorably to this news, Boy Wonder
seems unnerved by it. The implication is that he is locked in a
self-imposed downward spiral and lacks the self-confidence to attempt a
real comeback. Harlene also needles him about his sexual prowess. It
turns out that the king of porn films has long been impotent for reasons
never explained. As they prepare to film some scenes Harlene's male
"co-star" (Stephen Davies) arrives. He is nicknamed Rex, The Wonder Dog,
which seems to bother him especially when the Wonder Boy uses it to
intentionally disparage him. Like Harlene, Rex is short on brains but is
physically attractive. Boy Wonder seems to have a real resentment
towards him, perhaps because Rex is a powerhouse in bed while he can't
get anything going despite directing naked people in sex scenes. It
becomes clear that Boy Wonder and Rex don't like each other. Boy
Wonder ridicules Rex for performing sex acts on male studio executives
who he naively believes will help him become a star. However, their
relationship looks downright friendly compared to the interaction
between Harlene and Rex. When Rex is a little slow in becoming
physically aroused, Harlene mocks him mercilessly. This results in him
essentially subjecting her to a violent rape which thrills Boy Wonder,
who captures it all on film. Harlene doesn't appear to be any worse for
the wear, however, and blithely says she's going off to a bedroom to
rest.
The household is next visited by mobster Big Mac (Bob Hoskins), the
man who finances Boy Wonder's film productions. He is accompanied by his
financee Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper), a pretty young woman who seems to
have a particular interest in the forbidden world of pornography. Big
Mac and Boy Wonder also hate each other. Big Mac berates Boy Wonder for
making his porn flicks too esoteric and artistic for their intended
audiences who just want a cheap thrill. However, for Boy Wonder the porn
films represent the last opportunity he has to demonstrate the
cinematic style and camera angles that once impressed critics and the
public. In the midst of their arguing, it is discovered that a tragedy
has occurred: Harlene has died from a heroin overdose. Everyone seems
nonplussed by the news and Big Mac's only concern is to ditch the body
somewhere quickly. Turns out Rex has a part time job in a funeral parlor
and can arrange for a gruesome plan in which they dump her body inside a
grave that is being prepared for another person's funeral the next day.
The plan is to dig a bit deeper, bury Harlene, then place a layer of
dirt over her and have the "new" body placed on top of hers. As Big Mac
and Rex leave to "undertake" this sordid task, Boy Wonder finds himself
alone with Cathy Cake. She wants to use the time to have Boy Wonder film
her in her own personal porn movie since Big Mac would never let his
"fiancee" do so with his knowledge. She finds the idea of sex on film to
be a stimulant but Boy Wonder won't have any of it. He knows that Big
Mac's volatile temper and ever-present bodyguard could result in him
being the next corpse in the house. Cathy Cake tries another tactic and
feigns interest in Boy Wonder. He lets his guard down and gradually is
seduced by her. She even manages to cure his impotence but the tryst
turns ugly when she learns he has not filmed it. Boy Wonder soon
discovers that his renewed pride and self-respect is to be short-lived
when it becomes clear that Cathy Cake actually loathes him and was only
using him in order to fulfill her porn movie fantasy. The ploy works to a
degree- her attention to Boy Wonder reawakens his sexual prowess but
when she learns the camera wasn't rolling, she cruelly tells him that
she only used him for selfish purposes. With this, Big Mac and Rex
return from their horrendous errand and catch Boy Wonder in bed with
Cathy Cake. The situation becomes dangerous with Big Mac threatening to
kill Boy Wonder and things only deteriorate from there.
Richard Dreyfuss was said to have had a personal
obsession with this film. He was very involved in all aspects of its
production and remained defensive about the movie after its harsh
reception from critics. The movie's complete rejection by reviewers and
the public might have hurt his career but Dreyfuss already had "American
Graffiti" and "Jaws" under his belt. Soon he would also star in another
blockbuster, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" followed by his
Oscar-winning performance in "The Goodbye Girl". The fact that so few
people ever saw "Interiors" actually worked to his advantage. However,
whatever motivated him to become involved in this bizarre project
remains a mystery. It's an ugly tale about ugly people doing ugly things
to each other. If there is a message here, I didn't receive it. There
isn't a single character you can identify with or sympathize with. They
are all self-obsessed cynics with no redeeming traits. That leaves us
with whatever values the performances afford us and it's a mixed bag.
Dreyfuss is miscast. He was twenty nine years-old when he made the film
and, despite his sordid appearance which ages him considerably, he is
still far too young to portray a once-great movie director who has
fallen on hard times. John Byrum's direction of Dreyfuss is unsteady. At
times he encourages him to underplay scenes while at other times he has
Dreyfuss chew the scenery mercilessly. Similarly, Stephen Davies plays
the brain-dead hunk Rex with flamboyantly gay characteristics one minute
then suddenly transforms into a heterosexual stud the next. Bob Hoskins
is squarely in what would become his trademark tough-guy gangster mode but gives a
solid performance. The best acting comes from the two female leads, with
Veronica Cartwright especially good as the ill-fated Harlene. Jessica
Harper also does well in her thankless role. Both women seem at ease in
doffing their clothes and playing much of their scenes in a provocative
state. Cartwright even goes full frontal for the violent sex scene with
Rex while Harper spends almost the entire last act of the film being
photographed topless. Curiously, the willingness to appear nude onscreen
was considered the epitome of female emancipation in films during the
1970s but the practice has largely become frowned upon in more recent
years. In fact the days are long gone when virtually every major actress
had to appear naked on screen. Today, female emancipation is the
ability to play erotic scenes on screen without having to be completely
compromised.
If John Byrum's
debut as a director is problematic, so, too, is his script. There is a
lot of name-dropping about the great figures in the movie industry who once socialized with the Boy Wonder but it all seems pretentious and
unconvincing right down to the constant attempts by Boy Wonder to avoid
meeting the unseen Clark Gable. In fact, aside from some fleeting
references the "Flapper Look" styles worn by the women, the film could
have been set in the 1970s. Byrum has the characters indulge in
vernacular that is far too contemporary for the 1930s. The only wit
that is apparent concerns Big Mac's plans to build roadside restaurants
that would all look the same and serve identical fast food. ("Big Mac"-
get it?) Beyond that, there are few attempts at humor and most of those
pertain to unspeakably cruel behavior and mutual humiliation. There
seems to be no purpose for the film's existence beyond the desire of the
participants to be in a porn movie. Given their status in the industry
that was obviously not going to happen so they banded together for a
quasi-porn movie and shrouded it in the protective layer of
intellectualism. This gave them all the cover of being artistes and
Richard Dreyfuss the opportunity to nibble on Jessica Harper's nipples
while pretending there was some greater purpose to it all. In reality
the film's most cringe-inducing scene has Dreyfuss and Harper having an
extended conversation about her private parts, which are referred to
repeatedly (almost to an absurd degree) in gutter language as those the
actors were pre-teenagers using naughty words for the first time.
There are said to be people who consider "Inserts" to be an underrated gem. But for this
writer, it represents an interesting but woefully misguided experiment
by some very talented people who should have known better.
In case you were wondering, the answer is “yes.”That is Christopher Lee’s visage featured on
the slipcase of Kino Lorber’s Blu ray issue of Vernon Sewell’s The Blood Beast Terror.Now, ordinarily, displaying Sir Christopher’s
image on a Gothic horror film release wouldn’t make for bad marketing.The problem is that Lee doesn’t actually appear in The Blood Beast Terror.The
team at Kino curiously chose to use the poster art of Distribuzione Italiana
Films Internazionali, the distributor readying the film for European release as
the Mostro di Sangue.
The artwork procured by D.I.F.I. for The Blood Beast Terror was, at the very least, familiar: a reverse-image
lifted from the Italian poster of 1958’s Horror
of Dracula (Dracula il Vampiro).Kino is taking a fair battering on fan sites
for their packaging of this 2022 issue.But let’s be fair. Kino’s decision to forego the original British poster
art for the imagery of the Italian campaign might be a bit odd but not technically incorrect.Moviegoers in Italy had, in fact, been lured
into visiting their local cinema with such eye-catching - if misleading -
artwork.
Though Tigon’s The
Blood Beast Terror has a core of supporters – perhaps defenders is a better term - I find the film a mild amusement at
best.Which is a shame as I really want to like it. In a sense, it’s a film conceived from a time
out of mind.Some critics suggest that’s
exactly the film’s failing.Upon UK release
in the early spring of 1968, stately Gothic horrors were seemingly growing
stale amongst horror film fans.Critics
argued a new era of more edgy, sadistic and blood-letting horrors was in the
ascendant, old costume-drama gothics now too tame to frighten.While that’s not necessarily untrue, there’s
no denying The Blood Beast Terror is of
middling interest simply due to it not being terribly involving.
While it’s true goth-horror had lost some of its courtly appeal
with a large sect of cinemagoers, the sub-genre was hardly dead.A case in point: upon original release The Blood Beast Terror was paired as the
undercard to Michael Reeve’s brilliant Witchfinder
General, a film set circa 1645. This too was a Tigon release of Tony
Tenser’s, a Vincent Price vehicle far superior to The Blood Beast Terror on every conceivable level.I might be wrong, but I suspect if not for
the presence of Peter Cushing in The
Blood Beast Terror, Sewell’s more modest film would have far fewer
champions than it enjoys today.
So what’s wrong with it?I admit to moments of melancholia when watching The Blood Beast Terror.For
starters, it’s difficult to watch old pros Cushing and Robert Flemyng (known
best to horror film fans as the titular necrophagic M.D. The Horrible Dr. Hichcock) try their best to rise above the
mediocre material they’ve been given to work with. The film’s Director of
Photography, Stanley Long, recalled Flemyng complaining “how shit the script
was, how shit the effects were.”Even director
Sewell wasn’t spared the castigations of an unhappy cast member.He recalled the famously gentlemanly Cushing mildly
offering only a couple of days into the shoot, “Vernon, I think this is perhaps
the worst film I have ever made.” Sadly, in a few years’ time there would be new
challengers to Cushing’s lament.Such
clunkers as Tendre Dracula (1974) and
Blood Suckers (1971) would prove short
term contenders to that particular title.
I won’t give away anything important about the film’s
flimsy plot – just in case you’ve yet to see the film and still wish to after
reading this review.I’ll just say the
trail of mutilated bodies scattering the English countryside are – as ever –
the result of bad science gone horribly wrong.In this case entomological science.As transformative feminine-insect monsters go, Wanda Ventham’s fetching “Clare”
in The Blood Beast Terror is, IMHO, a
far less interesting or menacing creature than Susan Cabot’s “Janice Starlin” in
Roger Corman’s low-budget The Wasp Woman
(1959).But, again, the fault here lies
not with Ventham or Cushing or Flemyng, but with a script riddled with excessive
verbiage and slow-moving, sluggish plotting.
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Relive all the
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Available
individually on 4K Ultra HD for the first time, the Raiders of the Lost Ark
SteelBook is the first of four planned limited-edition releases of each Indiana
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Jones and the Temple of Doom on July 12, Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade on August 16, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull on September 20. With exclusive packaging celebrating the iconic
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There
are a handful of Hollywood movies out there that successfully combined comedy
with the horror genre. Surprisingly, truly good ones are few and far between. Abbott
and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) is perhaps the quintessential example
of the genre mashup. It provided genuine thrills and some frights mixed in with
hilarious comedic bits. A more recent one that comes to mind is of course the
1984 megahit, Ghostbusters. There is no question that this Bill Murray
vehicle owes a great deal to the 1940 romp, The Ghost Breakers,
considered one of Bob Hope’s most beloved early pictures.
Based
on the 1909 stage play, The Ghost Breaker, by Paul Dickey and Charles W.
Goddard, the 1940 movie is actually a remake of previous adaptations. Both
Cecil B. DeMille and Alfred E. Green made silent films of the play in 1914 and
1922, respectively, and both of these versions are considered lost. In turn,
the 1940 The Ghost Breakers was remade by the same director, George
Marshall, as Scared Stiff (1953), which starred Dean Martin and Jerry
Lewis, and it is arguable that Marshall also helmed a very similar picture in
1945 entitled Murder, He Says, which starred Fred MacMurray.
After
the success of The Cat and the Canary (1939), yet another good example
of a Hollywood horror-comedy that starred Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, the pair
was brought back a year later for The Ghost Breakers. Also starring
Richard Carlson, Paul Lukas, a young Anthony Quinn, and African-American comic
actor Willie Best, The Ghost Breakers was a popular hit that solidified
Hope’s place as one of the coming decade’s great talents.
Mary
Carter (Goddard) has inherited a spooky old mansion on an island off of Cuba,
and she plans to sail from New York to the island to inspect the place. Other
sinister forces—a foreigner named Parada (Lukas), the twin Mederos brothers
(Quinn, in both roles), and others not named here for the sake of spoilers,
also want the mansion because of a secret hidden within. Apparently it is also full
of ghosts, or so the legends say. During a classic situational and comedic
mix-up of mistaken identities, radio star Larry Lawrence (Hope) finds himself
trapped in Mary’s steamer trunk that has been loaded onto the ship to Cuba. Larry’s
loyal valet and friend, Alex (Best) stowaways to keep track of his boss. Once
on the island, Larry assumes the role of a “ghost buster,” since he’s obviously
fallen for Mary and wants to protect her from the bad guys. Throw in a handsome
historian, Geoff (Carlson), and the cinematic stew has enough complications and
plot twists to keep one entertained for the film’s brief 83 minutes.
Hope
is terrific, and one can easily see the development of his coward-with-bravado character
that he adapted for himself in pretty much all screen appearances, including
the “Road” pictures with Bing Crosby. Goddard is also winning, a perfect comic
and gorgeous foil for the tale. While the rest of the cast is admirable, one
must single out the great Willie Best, an actor who unfortunately was misused
by Hollywood—very typical in those days—to display a stereotype of the comic
black man with bulging eyes and slow dialogue delivery. (“Is you in there,
zombie?” he asks, knocking on a door.) That said, it is apparent that Best is brilliant
in comic timing, handling the demeaning characterization with utmost
professionalism. If The Ghost Breakers has a flaw, it is this. In
today’s climate, Best’s Alex is wince-inducing, but one can still appreciate
the man’s talent and competence.
Director
Marshall keeps the picture moving at a brisk pace, and the creepy aspects—while
certainly not scary today—are effective enough. Noble Johnson’s zombie is an
interesting take on that relatively rare creature (for the time), three years
prior to the Val Lewton masterpiece, I Walked with a Zombie.
Kino
Lorber’s new 2K master looks quite good in high definition, despite the age of
the material. There is an audio commentary by author and film historian Lee
Gambin that fills in listeners on all the trivia behind the movie. The only
supplement is a “Trailers from Hell” piece on the title by Larry Karaszewski,
and the theatrical trailer for this and other Kino releases.
The
Ghost Breakers is
for fans of Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, Hollywood horror-comedy, and those
distinctive pre-war pictures that provided solid enjoyment in less than ninety
minutes.
Just following Christmas of 1940, Box Office reported Paramount’s new thriller The Mad Doctor would hit cinemas on Valentine’s Day of 1941.The actual sneak-preview – and accompanying
publicity push - of the film would take place ten days prior, February 4, at Los
Angeles’s Paramount Theater.Then, on
Saturday night, February 6, the studio would pull out all the stops, offering a
proper premiere for their “blood-chilling drama.”The studio would celebrate the double-bill of
The Mad Doctor and The Monster and the Girl as central to a
“Spook Week” celebration.Saturday’s
“hair-raising” program would not only feature the films but also a magician and
Andy Kirk and his Harlem Orchestra… the latter performing their swinging
“Spooks and Boogie Woogie” stage show.
The general release of The Mad Doctor, more fittingly described a “drama” than a horror film
in industry trades, was pushed to February 20.Perhaps issuing a blood-letting, wife-offing film on Valentine’s Day was
considered poor taste, or maybe not.In
any event, The Mad Doctor opened to
mixed reviews, ranging from “pretty good” to “poor entertainment.”There were certainly no raves, most critics finding
the film lackluster and derivative.The scenario
was a basic one, they reminded, mildly reminiscent of Charles Perrault’s 1697
fabled folktale Bluebeard.(PRC’s Bluebeard
(1944), starring John Carradine as the titular murderer, was still more than
years away from hitting screens).There
were also suggestions The Mad Doctor
was very similar to Rowland V. Lee’s 1937 British chiller Love from a Stranger.”The comparison
to this latter film was not unfair.That
film, partly based on an Agatha Christie mystery, also featured Basil Rathbone
as a charming womanizer who murders paramours for their dowries.
In the first few minutes of director Tim Whelan’s The Mad Doctor, Basil Rathbone’s Dr.
George Sebastien, an eminent psychiatrist, has already left a trail of formerly
betrothed bodies behind in Vienna, Savannah, and in the village of Midbury,
NY.He has been abetted in his scheming by
murderous accomplice Maurice (Martin Kosleck).Maurice may, or may not, have sexual feelings for Sebastien.This inference of a homosexual relationship between
these two ne’er-do-wells hangs awkwardly in subtle dialogue parries
and glancing looks between the two.But,
this being 1941, one can only assume why this element is not explored further.
Shortly following his bumping off of wife number three,
Sebastien decides to moves his head-shrinking practice to midtown
Manhattan.It’s there that he’s asked by
Louise Watkins (Barbara Jo Allen), the wife of a wealthy newspaper publisher Lawrence
Watkins (Hugh O’Connell), to address the melancholic behavior of a sister Linda
Boothe (Ellen Drew).Though she’s beautiful
and lacks for nothing, the grim but glamorous Linda routinely suffers dreams
where she stands at the “edge of the grave looking down.”Her morbid visions drives her to suicidal
attempts.We watch as she prepares to
jump from the parapet of a high-rise skyscraper.But the girl’s plunge is foiled by the quick intervention
of would-be suitor Gil Sawyer (John Howard).
The girl clearly is in need of mental health counseling.Though concerned about Linda’s “suicide
complex,” Sawyer more selfishly, if correctly, sizes up handsome
psycho-therapist Sebastien as a romantic rival.He disparages Sebastien as a “half-baked soul meddler,” assuring Linda (in
ignorance) she suffers from nothing greater than “ordinary hypochondria.”Sawyer cunningly uses his platform as a
newspaperman to publish a series of unflattering articles on the practice of psychotherapy
in the New York Sun.He hopes to expose Sebastien as the biggest
quack of the profession.But his
research into the doctor’s past leads him to suspect the therapist might very
well be a homicidal maniac.So when a
half-hypnotized Linda agrees to accept Dr. Sebastien’s proposal of marriage, there’s
reason to worry.
Though eight decades have passed since The Mad Doctor hit theaters, it’s hard
not to agree with the original critical assessments published upon release. Personally,
I’m a soft touch for old, creaky and gloomy celluloid mysteries of the 1930s
and 1940s, but what critics moaned as true eighty years ago remains true today.
The cast is good, the New York City penthouse atmosphere elegant and classy,
but the film, alas, is a slow drag.Technically, the film is not even a mystery.It’s no spoiler to reveal Rathbone’s
character as the de facto serial wife-killer and misogynist.This revelation is made plain in the film’s
first few minutes.The only mystery here
is how and when this will be revealed to fellow cast members.
Box
Office dismissed The Mad
Doctor as” not good enough to grace the upper half of the bill save in the
most unimportant program arrangements.”Variety was in agreement sighing,
“Pictures are supposed to move, but ‘Mad Doctor’ has a difficult time getting
anywhere.”The review continued, “This
cumbersome film, running 90 minutes could have been cut to 60 and still there
would have been little meat.”It’s unfortunate
but true. The Mad Doctor is, at best, a middling B picture masquerading as a
something better.There’s very little
suspense, hardly any action nor mystery present to keep moviegoers on the edge
of their seat.A full-page Paramount in-production
announcement published in June 1940 promised, “Basil plays a ‘Jekyll’ and
‘Hyde’ role in the heart chiller!”But
the resulting film is unable to deliver any of the promised thrills.
The Mad Doctor is neither a great film nor, to be
fair, a terribly poor one. Despite its elegant trappings, it’s merely
another B programmer, the sort of thing Monogram or PRC might have knocked out
with less polish or window dressing. The film is mostly doomed by its
ninety-minute running time. There’s enough on screen to suggest The
Mad Doctor might have been a more exciting offering if condensed by a
modicum of judicious editing. But, truthfully, there are other dooming issues
aside from the film’s length.Howard J.
Green’s screenplay is odd in construction; so much so that his paint-by-numbers
scenario offers cinemagoers few moments of audience engagement.
To be fair, Green was brought on to rework an already troubled
script (The Monster) that had been knocking
about the Paramount lot for years.Screenwriters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur had been trying to get
their script of The Monster into
production as early as 1935. Variety
reported in January 1936 the pair was even bringing aboard Charles Lederer,
visiting Hollywood from New York, to assist in the film’s scripting.The problem was Paramount was simply not
interested in it.
This caused the writers to - unsuccessfully - try and
finagle a deal for The Monster with
the British arm of the Gaumont Film Company in the summer of 1936.Gaumont too would pass, the project remaining
in limbo until September 1939 when Paramount finally opted to purchase story
rights.On October 28, 1939, Box Office reported the studio had
engaged Green to write the script, with neither Hecht, MacArthur nor Lederer receiving
screen credit for their contributions.Perhaps this was a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth: the resulting
patchwork script is demonstrably less the sum of its parts.
The original supporting feature of this double-bill from
Paramount was Stuart Heisler’s The Monster and the Girl, another B film that
also would feature Ellen Drew as the damsel-in -distress. Though not a
classic by any stretch, at least that film (working title, The
Avenging Brain) is a bit of fun: Drew fights off a gorilla whose simian
cerebellum has been replaced by that of a vengeful gangster.At least The
Monster and the Girl half-delivers on what it promises.Something that, sadly, cannot be said of The Mad Doctor.
This Kino Lorber Studio Classics Blu ray of The Mad Doctor is presented herein an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 in 1920p x 1080p
with removable English subs and DTS monaural sound.The set also features an audio commentary
track supplied by film historian David Del Valle, as well as the film’s
theatrical trailer.Visually, I suspect
this film is going to look as good as it ever will.It’s doubtful this title will ever receive a
meticulous and expensive restoration; that would be an effort this film would arguably
not merit. The print used for transfer is not immaculate, but only God - and
a few film techs - would know the condition of the surviving elements used.
Medium shots tend to appear a bit soft-focused, but close-up photography
appears sharp with clarity. There are passing sprinkles of visual debris
and evidence of minor base and emulsion scratches, but these are minor issues
that do not distract.
As a promotional vehicle, the trailer for director Roger
Corman’s The Raven was clearly deceptive
in its construction.Cinemagoers were
promised that AIP’s newest Poe film would offer three of the “Screen’s Titans
of Terror,†the trailer flashing short, moody scenes of torch-lit chambers,
menacing stares, and the odd clutching hand. Intertitle cards and a voice-over narration
promised “A tempest of thrilling horror,†The
Raven to allow brave moviegoers to go “Careening through the darkest of
dangers into the ominous mystery of a master magician’s evil castle… witnessing
the mysterious powers of black magic.â€
On the eve of the film’s release, the newspaper promotionals
– entirely gleaned from the studio’s own duplicitous pressbook - promised much
of the same, “a thrilling mixture of the most powerful terror ingredients ever
assembled.â€There was a reason for the
filmmakers to cautiously hold the actual cards they were playing close to their
chests.Producers James H. Nicholson and
Samuel Z. Arkoff were aware that through their series of Edgar Allan Poe
pictures they were holding a true tiger by the tail.It was certainly helpful to the notoriously
frugal producers that Poe’s work had long fallen into public domain status and was
therefore royalty-free in use.The box
office returns on the first of their four Poe films were pleasing, and
expectations were high that The Raven
would do as well if not better.
So it was only mildly surprising when, in March 1963, the
producers announced that no fewer than ten more Poe pictures would be slated
for production by AIP.The next one
planned, The Masque of the Red Death,
was announced to begin shooting in April of ’63… although a springtime shooting
wouldn’t actually commence as proclaimed.Other titles announced were to include, The Haunted Palace, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Gold Bug, A Descent
into the Maelstrom, Ligeia, The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade, The
Angel of the Odd, The Four Beast in One, and The City by the Sea. It was an ambitious plan, but with the
exception of Masque (with a delayed
November ’63 start) only four of the other projected titles would actually see
production.
Such breakneck speed mining of Poe’s Gothic horror materials
might be considered market over-saturation by contemporary standards, but upon
its release in January of 1963, The Raven
was the fifth Poe film released by AIP in a span of two years. In September of
1962, Samuel Z. Arkoff sat down for an interesting chinwag with Stanley
Eichelbaum, the theater and film critic of the San Francisco Examiner.That
interview touched briefly on AIP’s shoe-string beginnings: the days when such efforts
as The Day the World Ended, The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues, and I Was a Teenage Age Werewolf – not to
mention the sixty or so films featuring Hot Rods and monsters in “Indian-rubberâ€
masks - were knocked out quickly and cheaply by the indie.
It was true that AIP had certainly come a long way since
its incorporation in 1955.And while the
producers continued to hold tight to the company’s purse strings, Arkoff
acknowledged that they were presently allowing for budgets as high as $500,000
a picture on many of their recent color Panavision releases.This was a notable mention since such budgets
were five times the amount AIP had put up to fund their teen-market pictures of
the late 1950s.
The Poe films were bringing in more than a teenager
audience into the cinemas, and the producers recognized the trend.Since monster and horror films had played such
an important role in the AIP’s success, it was surprising to hear Arkoff sum up
part of the audience who loved macabre cinematic fare in less than charitable
terms.“The horror crowd falls into
three groups,†he told Eichelbaum, “the young people; the adult morons; and the
intelligent adults. It’s pretty difficult to cater to all of them in one
movie.But that’s what we try to do.â€
The company had certainly achieved an enviable level of
success since incorporation.As their
production budgets grew more generous, Arkoff and Nicholson were able to bring
into the fold some horror picture veterans who still held sway with fans of the
genre.Since the first Poe film House of Usher (1960), the producers
managed to secure the talents of such luminaries as Boris Karloff, Basil
Rathbone, Peter Lorre, Barbara Steele, Vincent Price, Ray Milland and Hazel
Court, with Lon Chaney Jr. waiting in the wings for his second act.
In his usual blunt manner, Arkoff partly attributed the
actors’ willingness to work with AIP on the series due to the fact, “Actors
like Poe.He has snob appeal.â€That may have been a consideration of the
talent conscripted, but it’s also true that it was a welcome payday for these
(mostly) aging and typecast thespians.Many gathered had heydays dating back to Hollywood of the 1930s and 40s.It’s also true that due to the “Monster Boomâ€
of the late 1950s and early 1960s, these actors were thought highly and fondly of
by a generation who knew them primarily through Shock package TV screenings and such horror-film fan magazines as Famous Monsters of Filmland, Shock Monsters,
and Fantastic Monsters of the Films.
Of course, should anyone have misgivings that Arkoff was more
interested in the bottom line than in art, such suspicion would soon be
confirmed.The producer was, of course,
certainly correct in his assessment that “picture-making has to be a business.â€
He insisted that the business of filmmaking was simply “not a cheap individual
art, like painting or sculpting.â€Fair
enough.But Arkoff, then a forty-three
year old former lawyer, went further, suggesting he didn’t care whether a film
was good or bad following release.He
was only interested if it clicked at the box office.He also wasn’t concerned if the films
produced by AIP would stand the test of time or be held in high regard in the
distant future.“We can’t let a movie
sit on a vine for thirty years waiting for recognition.If we can’t get a return, where will we get
the money for the next one?â€
Co-producer James H. Nicholson was somewhat more prosaic
in assessing the popularity of the horror pictures that AIP churned out with
regularity over the past seven years.He
offered the move-going public’s dimming fascination with horror films was
curiously reignited following World War II.Choosing to take the historical long-view, Nicholson offered there had always been a market for scary stories,
noting “Greek myths were horror subjects†in style and content.When questioned by a UPI correspondent if the
1960s horror film craze was just that – a passing fad – the producer insisted mythological
stories were as popular in 1964 as they had been during ancient times.“There are only three emotions,†Nicholson opined.“Deep sorrow, laughter and just plain
thrills, and our movies are filled with the last.â€
To celebrate the release of producer Sam Sherman’s memoir,When Dracula Met Frankenstein (Murania Press) Cinema Retro presents
this exclusive interview with the man himself. In our two-hour conversation,
the filmmaker demonstrated a virtual photographic memory when discussing his
remarkable 60 plus year career.Our
interview was a time capsule of the drive-in era where creative marketing,
distribution and production exemplified the true spirit of independent
filmmaking.
Sam Sherman grew up a horror and western film fan.The first horror film Sam ever saw was
Universal’s classic monster comedy, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
(1948) which captivated his imagination at a very young age.Following his dream, he attended City College
of New York to study filmmaking.Like
most CR readers, he was also an avid collector – in his case, horror stills,
which one imagines were almost given away in the 1950s.Those black and white photos, picked up in
the small memorabilia stores that used to dot Manhattan, led to a career – “In
1958, I wrote to Famous Monsters and to my surprise, got a call back from Jim
Warren and asked if they’d be interested in renting my stills,†Sherman
recalled.
“I produced ads for Captain Company (FM’s merchandising
division) and I also acquired product for them.â€(As one who spent a lot of hard-earned
teenage cash on Captain Co products - including a Dr. No movie poster
for all of $4.99 - that was a part of Sam’s long career I could instantly
relate to.)
While ghostwriting articles for FM and working on other
Warren publications like Spacemen, Screen Thrills Illustrated and Wildest
Westerns, Sherman frequently found his enthusiasm for horror looked down upon
by Help! magazine art director, Terry Gilliam. Years later, Gilliam took an
obvious jab (and inspiration) from Sherman’s climactic battle of the monsters
in Dracula vs Frankenstein (1971) with his own comedic dismemberment scene
in Monty Python & The Holy Grail (1975).“I made it a point never to see anything
he’s done,†Sam adds.
In the 1950s and 60s, New York was the center of the film
universe and Sherman found himself making the rounds of small distributors
trying to find films to license for his own fledgling company, Signature
Films.Sam later got in with an independent
film company called Hemisphere Pictures which specialized in movies shot in the
Philippines, including the Blood Island horror cult classics directed by
Eddie Romero.Sherman honed his
exploitation skills by creating the theatrical, television, radio and print ad
campaigns which established Hemisphere as The House of Horror with
unforgettable gimmicks and marketing promotions like “The Oath of Green Bloodâ€
for the first audience participation film, The Mad Doctor of Blood Island
(1969).
Sam’s book is full of photos from that era – from
snapshots of early visits to LA, to on-set stills and “ballyhoo†photos of
theater displays, lurid posters and marquees.One image that jumps out is of a young Sam standing behind the iconic Boris
Karloff on A.I.P.’s The Raven set. “Forry Ackerman (Famous Monsters’
longtime editor) took me to the last day of shooting and we spent the whole day
with Peter Lorre and Vincent Price, which was wonderful. I had a nice chat with
Karloff. He finished up for the day and (director) Roger Corman took him away
to do The Terror, which was non-union, somewhere else.â€Talk about maximizing your star!
In 1968, Sherman and several partners – including longtime
friend, filmmaker Al Adamson, formed Independent-International Pictures Corp.(a riff off the very successful American
International Pictures).“Al just wanted
to make movies, he left it to me to figure out how to market them and make
money,†Sam recalls.
Their first production for the new company was a raw biker
film, Satan’s Sadists starring Russ Tamblyn of West Side Story
fame and directed by Adamson. The film tapped into the national shockwaves
reverberating from biker gang violence as well as LA’s horrific Manson
murders.The female lead was a
statuesque California blonde, Regina Carrol, who became Adamson’s girlfriend,
later his wife and star of his films. Wanting to give her a little extra
exposure, Sherman labeled her “The Freak-Out Girlâ€.As the film contained nudity, the then-new
movie ratings board wanted to slap an X on Satan’s Sadists.Sam went to the mat to contest it, even
advising the theatre circuits to rate the film themselves based on regional
tastes vs the Motion Picture Board’s inconsistent classifications for
independent films.
Sam’s book is full of similar throw out the rulebook tales
– like licensing an odd Filipino caveman film named Tagani which was
shot in black & white. To modernize it, Adamson shot some new scenes with
veteran horror star John Carradine but the film still didn’t look right, so Sam
suggested using various tints (“Like they did in silent moviesâ€). He wrote MORE
new scenes (including computer sex!), added an eye-catching title - Horror
of the Blood Monsters and they now had a releasable film!
At Independent-International, Sam and Al shrugged off the
industry’s notoriously unforgiving deadlines: “We released an imported German
picture called Women for Sale which had been a big hit and I said ‘We
can’t find anything like it to follow up with, so let’s make a picture like
this’, it’ll be called Girls for Rent…â€Sam hired an industry friend to write it, months went by without a
script.“We’re getting closer to the key
summer playdates, and we were really in a jam†Sam recalled. “I got another
writer and we knocked the picture out fast, doing the campaign fast, ordered
prints and got it into release by the end of the summer. Sixty days, I couldn’t
believe we could do it but we did and it was a pretty good film!â€
Of course, there’s a chapter on Independent-International’s
biggest picture – Dracula vs Frankenstein, which actually started out as
Blood Freaks (aka Blood Seekers).“The script was not much of anything but I was working on it… we wanted
a name actor so Al went to agent Jerry Rosen who said ‘You can have Lon Chaney,
Jr. and J. Carrol Naish for a week for $6K.’â€They booked them sight unseen – and when they reported for work, both
were in ill health. “Naish had a bad eye and Chaney had throat cancer. (Dracula
vs Frankenstein would be his final horror film.) “Ya gotta meet the people,†Sam adds
knowingly.Diminutive Angelo Rossitto rounded
out the cast as the carnival barker Grazbo. The resulting film was so bad,
backers recommended it just be shelved.Sam lives by the motto “Waste not, want not†and since he was an editor
himself, he went to work watching the film repeatedly until he found a line of
dialogue he could use to expand the storyline to include the last surviving
Frankenstein… and the monster. “And once I thought that I said, ‘Let’s bring in
Dracula for good measure.’â€Scraping
together $50K for reshoots they hired a tall, dark-haired record store
employee, Rafael Engel (named “Zandor Vorkov†by Forry) to play the Count and
7’4†accountant, John Bloom, to play the monster.“I left it to Al to make the picture, but as
the president of Independent International, I made the final decisions,†Sam
adds. Sam also tapped Famous Monsters’ Forry Ackerman who not only acted in the
film, but also secured the electrical equipment and props of special effects
wizard Kenneth Strickfaden for the production. Strickfaden’s crackling
electrical contraptions were originally used in Universal’s Frankenstein
film 40 years earlier.Against the
odds, Dracula vs Frankenstein was a monster hit!Ahead of his time, Sam even released the film
on TV AND in theaters/drive-ins “day-and-date†at the same time.“Nobody caredâ€, Sam says, chuckling, “I did what
I wanted to do.â€
Naturally, Sam devotes a chapter to his creative partner
and “the brother I never hadâ€, Al Adamson, who was tragically murdered by a
contractor renovating his desert house in 1995.Incredibly Sam still had a connection with him because one night after Al
had been declared “missingâ€, Sam silently asked his friend to give him a sign
of where he was… the word “Cement†popped into his mind. He communicated that to police and sure
enough, when they investigated, Al’s body was discovered underneath a cement floor.The contractor was apprehended in Florida and
is now serving decades in prison but the pain of Sam’s loss is palpable.He still keeps Adamson’s name alive with
drive-in screenings and special DVD and Blu-ray releases of their work.
Behind the scenes on "Dracula Vs. Frankenstein": (L to R): John Bloom, Sam Sherman, Zandor Vorkov, Al Adamson.
Now 81, Sam feels the time is ripe for his story to be
told.His oversize book is full of
industry lore and life lessons.“I hope
readers get that if they want to be in the picture business, they can… and people
who aren’t filmmakers but want to know the history of Al and myself, the whole
story is there – how we did it, why we did it and what really happened.â€Summing up, Sam says, “We did what we had to
do.â€
Michael Curtiz’s Doctor
X is a more technically extravagant version of the original stage
production of playwrights Howard Warren Comstock and Allen C. Miller.The play was first tested at the Fox Theater
in Great Neck, Long Island, for a single night’s performance on January 10,
1931.It was immediately followed by a
brief run at Brandt’s Carlton Theatre in Jamaica, Queens, where newspaper adverts
suggested theatergoers “Bring Your Shock Absorber†along.The production then moved to Brandt’s Boulevard
Theatre in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, for several performances, only to
be followed by a week-long preview and fine-tuning at Brandt’s Flatbush Theater
in Brooklyn beginning January 26.
The three-act “mystery melodrama†would finally make its Broadway
debut at the Hudson Theater, off W. 44th Street, on February 9,
1931.The stage play featured actor Howard
Lang in the role of the sinister Dr. Xavier, but the mystery wouldn’t enjoy a
terribly long run on the Great White Way.The Hudson would eventually shutter the doors on the production in
mid-April 1931.
It’s no coincidence that four Brandt-owned theatres were successively
engaged to showcase the early previews of Doctor
X.The play had been intentionally co-produced
for the stage by the theatre owners William and Harry Brandt.Billboard
would note in December of 1930 that the two brothers had chosen to enter the
field of theatrical production as a potential remedy to offset the “slack
business conditions on the subway circuit.â€
The early reviews of the Brandt’s showcase were mainly
positive, especially when considering the decidedly grim fare offered.The critic from Brooklyn’s Times-Union thought Doctor X a “swell show.†The paper reported that the gruesome
goings-on of Jackson Height’s preview had not only caused a woman in the
balcony to scream in fright but that other patrons nervously called “for the
lights to be turned on†midway through the program.Whether such outbursts of fright were genuine
or simply publicity ballyhoo stunts may never be known.But likely more of the latter than the
former.
Not everyone was impressed. Brooklyn’s Standard-Union newspaper took a
contrarian view of the stage show’s ability to curdle the blood of attendees.In the paper’s review of February 10, 1931,
their critic would grieve that Doctor X
was a mostly undistinguished effort, “Freighted with all the dismal baggage of
those lamentable pastimes known as mystery thrillers.â€â€œEven though the authors, no pikers, have
arranged almost an endless procession of synthetic horrors,†the review
mercilessly continued, “spectators are no longer hoodwinked by such drowsy
tidbits.No longer can an actor with an
anaemic makeup or panels that slide open terrify theatergoers into submission.â€
Nonetheless, and though the play opened to mixed reviews,
some of the New York dailies were impressed.There were enough good notices to allow the Brandt’s to run
advertisements suggesting Doctor X as
“New York’s Only Mystery Hit: Electrifies Press and Public Alike!†The critic of the New York Herald Tribune thought it a grand affair, trumpeting, “’Doctor X’ holds the best claim for some
time to the grand heritage of such creepy works as ‘The Bat,’ ‘The Cat and the
Canary’ and ‘The Spider.’â€These
references to past and successful mystery-melodramas of the stage were not only
interesting but prescient: all three of these theatrical properties were
subsequently licensed by Hollywood studios to be brought to neighborhood movie
screens. Such transitioning of
properties from Broadway to Hollywood was, as referenced by the above review,
not unusual.
Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood’s The Bat had made its Broadway debut at
the Morosco Theatre on August 22, 1921.That play would be belatedly adapted for the screen as a vehicle for
Vincent Price in 1959.John Willard’s The Cat and the Canary would debut on
the boards of the Majestic Theatre on June 14, 1937, and enjoy no fewer than three
film treatments: there was Paul Leni’s celebrated silent film version of 1927,
a popular Bob Hope mystery-comedy of 1939, and a late-arriving 1978 British
production featuring Honor Blackman, Michael Callan and Edward Fox.Fulton Oursler and Lowell Brentano’s The Spider would make two appearances on
Broadway with an initial staging at Chanin’s 46th Street Theater in
March of 1927 and, again, at the Century Theater in February of 1928.That play would be brought to the big screen
twice, first in 1931 as a straightforward murder mystery, then reconfigured in
1945 as a film noir-style mystery picture.
Interestingly, Lionel Atwill was working on a different
Broadway stage at the same time Doctor X
was concurrently running at the Hudson.Atwill was working one block north at Broadway’s Morosco Theatre, the
featured player in Lee Shubert’s production of The Silent Witness (opening date 3/23/31).The
Silent Witness too was quickly picked up by Fox and following that show’s
Broadway run, Atwill traveled out to Hollywood to star in the play’s film
version, co-directed by Marcel Varnel and R.L. Hough.Though there were reports that Lionel Atwill
was to return to the New York stage directly following that film’s wrap, in early
March 1932 newssheets reported that Warner Bros. had asked him to remain in
Hollywood for a spell.He had been
offered the title role in their recently optioned property Doctor X.
There’s a lot to like about this film.With the release of Doctor X, Warner Bros. was most likely hoping to siphon off some of
the public interest and box office that Universal was enjoying with such
macabre fare as Dracula and Frankenstein.Though the studio fell short of producing an
iconic film, they nevertheless produced a pretty decent B-picture that offered
a modicum of thrills and chills.One of
the true highlight’s of the film version of Doctor
X, is the art deco “mad scientist†laboratory sets of designer Anton
Grot.The sets were so elaborate and
grand that the New York Herald Tribune
would run a fifteen paragraph long - and impressively detailed - tribute on
Grot and his designs.That article, “Built-in Menace Hangs Over All in Anton
Grot’s House of Doomâ€), includes an unusual for the period in-depth
interview with the designer.The article
also notes that no fewer than “192 sketches and blueprints†of imaginative and
elaborate design had been drafted in preparation for shooting.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
Latest
Title in the Paramount Presents Line Debuts March 30, 2021
Legendary director Cecil B. DeMille’s grand spectacle THE
GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH arrives for the first time on Blu-ray as part of
the Paramount Presents line on March 30, 2021 from Paramount Home
Entertainment.
A two-time Academy Award-winner*–including Best Picture
and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story–THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH
captures the thrills, chills and exhilaration of the circus. Featuring
three intertwining plotlines filled with romance and rivalry, DeMille's film
includes spectacular action sequences, including a show-stopping train wreck. THE
GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH also boasts a sensational cast, including Betty
Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame, and
James Stewart.
Newly restored from a 4K scan of the original negative, this
essential movie of the Golden Age of Hollywood packs action, romance, laughs
and treachery into an epic only DeMille could create, resulting in one of
1952’s biggest hits.
The limited-edition Paramount Presents Blu-ray Discâ„¢ includes the
newly restored film in collectible packaging with a foldout image of the film’s
theatrical poster and an interior spread with key movie moments. THE
GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH Blu-ray also includes a new Filmmaker Focus
with film historian Leonard Maltin, exploring the making of the film and its
reception, as well as access to a Digital copy of the film.
About Paramount Presents
This collectible line spans celebrated classics to film-lover
favorites, each from the studio’s renowned library. Every Paramount
Presents release features never-before-seen bonus content and exclusive
collectible packaging. There are 14 additional titles available in the
Paramount Presents collection: Fatal Attraction, King Creole, To
Catch a Thief, Flashdance, Days of Thunder, Pretty In Pink,
Airplane!, Ghost, Roman Holiday, The Haunting, The Golden Child, Trading
Places,The Court Jester and Elizabethtown.
RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES
BY LEE PFEIFFER
In the early 1970s producer and director Bob Chinn was one of the most prolific and profitable names in the adult film industry. Chinn's productions may have had skimpy production values but he generally made them look more grandiose than anything competing erotic film producers were able to offer. Like many filmmakers in this bizarre genre, Chinn aspired to do films that were more mainstream and meaningful. He entered a collaboration with Alain Patrick, a young hunky actor in the Jan-Michael Vincent mode who had his own aspirations to become a respected star. By 1971 Patrick had accumulated some legitimate film and TV credits but always in "blink-and-you'll-miss-him" roles. Like Chinn, he drifted into the adult film industry where he established some credentials as a director. He and Chinn teamed up that year in an attempt to make a mainstream movie about the porn film business. The result was "Blue Money", which has just been rescued from obscurity by Vinegar Syndrome, which has released the film as a special edition Blu-ray/DVD.
"Blue Money" suffers from the same limitations as Bob Chinn's other productions in that it was financed largely by people who expected to get a hardcore porn flick. Thus he was given a budget of $35,000, which was a pittance even in 1971, and a very abbreviated shooting schedule. Under Alain Patrick's direction, however, the movie went in a different direction and became a hybrid between the mainstream and porn film genres. Patrick gives a very credible performance as Jim, a 25 year-old surfer dude type who lives an unusual lifestyle. On the surface he leads an unremarkable existence: he has a pretty wife, Lisa (Barbara Mills) who is a stay-at-home mom who devotes her energies to raising their young daughter. Like most fathers, Jim is a dad who goes off to work every day...except that his "work" is directing pornographic feature films. Shooting in a seedy makeshift studio, Jim and and his partner sell the finished product to shady distributors who pay them premium prices for master prints of their latest 16mm productions. Because Jim is considered one of the top talents in the industry, theaters are always hungry for his latest films. Ironically, although Jim's career is filming people having sex, he prides himself on remaining loyal to his wife and resists the occasional overtures of his female stars. Jim and Lisa have a joint dream: they are renovating a schooner-type yacht with the quest of quitting the adult film industry and sailing around the world as free spirits. All of this is put at risk when Jim casts Ingrid (Inga Maria), an exotic European beauty who is desperate for money, in his latest production. Against his better judgment, Jim begins an affair with her- thus endangering his marriage after Lisa starts to become suspicious. At the same time the government is cracking down on the porn business. Suddenly, there is a dearth of distributors to take Jim's films. He is being paid far less than usual- and the entire industry is paranoid about the number of high profile arrests of performers, producers and directors in the porn business. Lisa begs Jim to quit but he wants to take his chances in the hopes of making enough money to finally finish the schooner's renovations and allow him to take his family on their-long planned journey.
"Blue Money" is an interesting production that never found acceptance by any audience. The film received some limited release in mainstream theaters but, although not quite hardcore, it is far too sexual for most general audiences. Conversely, people expecting to see a movie packed with gratuitous sex acts would also have been disappointed. Director Patrick has plenty of sex scenes and full frontal nudity but they are generally confined to the sequences in which we watch the actual filming of porn productions. In that respect, Patrick strips away any glamour or thrills from the process. Bored performers must enact explicit acts under hot klieg lights manned by total strangers. Jim must contend with moody actresses and actors who sometimes loath each other but who must engage in kinky sex. Every time Jim yells "Cut!", arguments can break out or the male leading man finds himself unable to perform on cue. Where the film excels is as a time capsule of sexual mores at the time of its production. There is much talk about the Nixon administration's Commission on Pornography report which had recently been released. Initiated by Nixon's predecessor, President Lyndon Johnson, the report came out during Nixon's first term in office. Nixon was confident that the report would legitimize his belief that pornography had a devastating effect on society- a talking point that would play well with his arch conservative base. Instead, the report basically said that there was no such evidence. Enraged, Nixon denounced the findings of his own commission and set about a crackdown on pornography. Countless man hours and millions of dollars were spent going after theater owners and people who made the films. In "Blue Money", when Jim is eventually arrested, the cops admit that the First Amendment would almost certainly ensure that he would win the court case- but the real strategy is to financially ruin those accused by having them spend their life savings on defending themselves. This gives the movie a hook that extends beyond the soap opera-like storyline centered on Jim's fragile relationship with his wife. The movie has a polished look to it and most of the performances are quite credible, with Patrick and Barbara Mills very good indeed.
“HITCHCOCK
AND HUMOR: MODES OF COMEDY IN TWELVE DEFINING FILMS†by
Wes D. Gehring
(McFarland;
ISBN 978-1-4766-7356-1 print; 978-1-4766-3621-4 e-book; $39.95 retail)
“THE
MASTER OF DARK COMEDYâ€
By
Raymond Benson
Just
about anything with film historian and media writer Wes D. Gehring’s name on it
will be of quality. A professor of telecommunications at Ball State University
in Indiana and author of the regular column “The Reel World†in USA Today magazine,
Gehring has distinguished himself as an expert on comedy—especially as it has
been utilized in the cinema.
Among
Gehring’s several books that explore humor in film are tomes on Chaplin, the
Marx Brothers, Leo McCarey, Laurel and Hardy, Carole Lombard, W. C. Fields, and
Frank Capra, as well as topical studies on dark comedy and screwball comedy.
Now
comes Hitchcock and Humor, which evaluates the notion that the filmmaker
who earned the moniker “The Master of Suspense,†is also “The Master of Dark
Comedy.†Gehring makes his case by examining the humor in several of the early
British pictures (Blackmail; The Man Who Knew Too Much; The 39
Steps; Secret Agent; and The Lady Vanishes), and several of
the Hollywood delights (Mr. and Mrs. Smith; Shadow of a Doubt; Rope;
Strangers on a Train; Rear Window; The Trouble with Harry;
and North by Northwest). There is also an epilogue with brief comments
on Psycho, which could very well be, as Gehring acknowledges, the most
obvious example of dark humor that Hitchcock presented to an unsuspecting
audience.
Mr.
and Mrs. Smith,
of course, is one of the filmmaker’s few blatant comedies. The picture starred
Carole Lombard, about whom the author has previously written, and Gehring
spends the chapter dissecting the actress’ importance to this wacky romantic
comedy. A general public, however, might not immediately grasp the subtle humor
displayed in the other titles, although film students and Hitchcock aficionados
would surely already be aware of it. Consider this—while The 39 Steps is
a riveting thriller about a wronged man on the run, it also has the hallmarks
of a screwball comedy once Robert Donat meets and is handcuffed to Madeleine
Carroll. The two characters are a mismatched couple thrown together by
circumstances beyond their control, are initially at odds, and slowly gain
affection for each other. Rope is full of gallows humor as the two
killers (played by John Dall and Farley Granger) host a dinner party with the
guests sitting around the “table†that is really a coffin holding their victim.
(The above trailer for North by Northwest amply illustrates Hitchcock's ability to blend thrills and humor.)
As
with most publications from McFarland, the book takes a scholarly
approach—there is little in the way of illustrations (there are a few) and is
mostly dense text (290 pages). While Hitchcock and Humor is intended for
the more serious devotees of cinema and Alfred Hitchcock himself, the book is
quite readable and entertaining.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
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The
new Paul Newman 6-Movie DVD Collection boasts classic films highlighted by
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It was the
enormously ambitious and costly film project they said would spectacularly
flop; the 1937 feature length cartoon feature that even his own family tried to
talk him out of making; the realised dream of an all cartoon motion picture,
three years in the making, which broke new ground and cemented his place in
film history. It could have failed and it was a gargantuan gamble, but it paid
off handsomely and Walt Disney never looked back after the supremely seminal Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became a
global sensation and set him on his way to certain success with a succession of
captivating cartoon classics. Then came the parks, the publications, the
inevitable merchandise and the rest, as they say, is history. So much for this
being “Disney’s Folly†which Snow White was
unfortunately nicknamed - even during
its production! Indubitably, the film serves as a life lesson in believing in
yourself and following your dream. The visionary that was Walt Disney surely
deserved every cent of success for the wealth of wonder and excitement for
which he was responsible.
Picking up a copy
of “Disneyland†comic from a
selection of periodicals in the doctor’s surgery when I was a very young boy
was enough to captivate me and ordain me as a Disney devotee. It became a
weekly reading staple of mine from that point on, taking in “Mickey Mouseâ€
comics along the way. I never missed “Disney Time†on the Beeb and the first
big Disney movie for me at the cinema was Lady
and the Tramp. It completely blew me away and even at that tender age, I
knew that there was something extra special about this particular animation;
everything about it was so wonderfully lifelike (I then had no knowledge of
such animation processes and techniques such as rotoscoping). I eventually knew
all the Disney characters by heart and longed to see the other films on the big
screen. One by one, during school holidays and Easter weekends, I would get the
invaluable opportunity to thrill to these masterpieces: Pinocchio (1940), The Jungle Book (1967), One Hundred and One
Dalmatians (1961), The Rescuers (1977). However, the one Disney production
which never played at any of our local cinemas was the one film I wanted to see
most of all. And that was Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs, having adored the classic Grimms fairy tale as a nipper
and from which the film was adapted. Finally
that day came when I was in my early teenage years and I actually visited the
cinema to see it after all that time. I would have much preferred to have seen
it as a child, but it still cast its magic spell over me and delivered the
goods I had longed to see.
I think what
appealed to me most about the Disney films, especially Snow White, were the genuinely frightening moments in his films
that featured the villains of the piece. That stirred something deep inside me
and was instrumental in making me a horror film aficionado as I grew older.
So, back to Snow White. Disney did something quite
remarkable with the oft-told and much loved Grimms Brothers favourite Everyone
knows the story of how a young princess, forced to flee for her life when her
insanely jealous mother Queen demands she be killed because she is more
beautiful, encounters a cottage full of dwarfs, becomes a mother to them and
then is brought back from death by love’s first kiss, delivered by a handsome
prince for whom she always had the hots. After which, it goes without saying,
they all live happily ever after.
However, making a
short and sweet little story into a full length animated and consistently
entertaining film is no mean feat, but Disney knew exactly what he was doing
and his invention and attention to detail here is extraordinarily admirable. There
are no longeurs whatsoever and the
film is carefully and cleverly paced and crafted to ensure that there is no
extraneous material inserted to pad out the picture which has an the 83 minutes
running time. For a start, the dwarfs are imbued with their own personalities
and named accordingly; then there is that unmistakable anthropomorphic charm
with the woodland creatures who befriend the gentle and sweet-tempered Snow
White, help her with household chores but most importantly play a pivotal part
in the exciting climax; beautifully written songs are introduced into the story
along the way and could easily stand alone as classics in their own right. All
of this works wonderfully well and never looks out of place or appears poorly
judged.
Do
sharks give you the willies?Does the
sight of a 12-foot Great White on the Discovery Channel make your heart skip
some beats?Then imagine a 75-foot super
shark, looking like a freight train with gills! Meet the villain of the new
Warner Bros. sci-fi thriller, The Meg
starring Jason Statham and Chinese star, Li Bingbing.
The
story concerns a Chinese-American exploration team penetrating the deepest
reaches of the Pacific, cut off beneath a thermal layer.The operation’s backer, a snarky billionaire
played by Rainn Wilson (TV’s The Office)
is hoping to exploit the sea bottom’s mineral wealth. Unfortunately this
untouched region is inhabited by a Megalodon, a gigantic prehistoric shark that
makes “Bruce†(the shark from Jaws)
look like a sardine.It can bend
submarines and implode research pods with ease… but it meets its match in a “washed
up but still heroic†rescue diver played by Jason Statham.
Directed
by Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure)
and made with (lots of) Chinese money, there is an obvious Chinese influence
running throughout - with Chinese talent in key roles and the climax unfolding at
an exotic Chinese beach resort.(There,
several scenes such as a frantic mother searching for her child during the shark’s
attack, or the giant shark dragging swimming platforms like flotsam are truly
reminiscent of Jaws.)
Although
the movie drags on the surface, it picks up speed underwater and the visual
effects of the enormous shark trashing whatever technology mankind throws at it
are superb.While Statham turns in his
usual rugged performance (and at 51, his physique remains a work of art), Li
Bingbing is lovely but a bit wooden. The dialogue tells us they’re inching
towards romance but their interaction has an odd formality, with nary a kiss to
be seen. Instead it falls to her
precocious daughter (the wonderful Sophia Cai) to tell Statham, “My mom likes
you.†As if an action movie icon like
Statham needs a romantic assist from an 8 year-old!
To
be fair, any shark movie made after 1975 will always be compared to the mother
of all summer tentpoles, Jaws, and
while The Meg does provide some
thrills, it’s not better… it’s just bigger. But maybe for the “global audienceâ€
this movie is going after, that might be enough.
The Meg opens nationwide on
August 10th from Warner Bros.
(Barry Monush, author of the new book "Steven Spielberg FAQ" enlightens readers as to how the famed director inspired him to write this overview of the famed director's career.)
BY BARRY MONUSH
As it gets harder
these days to find “reliables,†it’s nice to have certain filmmakers still
around who have given me more pleasure than pain over the years. And even nicer
when you’re given a chance to celebrate them in print. Such is the case with
Steven Spielberg.
My publishers,
Applause Books, were tossing around possible ideas for further volumes of their
FAQ series, and I tossed back at them
the suggestion of a Spielberg book. Of course it got an instant response,
because absolutely everyone is aware
of Steven Spielberg. You needn’t be the sort of film aficionado that follows
the scene with fervent interest (i.e. readers of this website) to know he’s out
there making movies and has been doing so for some 45 years with a track record
of success far exceeding anyone else. When you’re pitching ideas, it helps for
your topic to have a high awareness factor in order to get a book on that someone
“greenlighted,†but it’s even better when the subject is worthy of the tribute.
To me, the motion
picture scene since the 1970s would be inconceivable without the presence of
Steven Spielberg. Some would go so far as to say he created the world of motion
pictures as we know it today, which shouldn’t necessarily be taken as a high
compliment. For everyone who loves the cinematic world of Steven Spielberg,
there are plenty who will give you a theatrical grimace at the mere mention of
his name. Trust me, I know, I’ve seen it, when people asked me what the subject
was for my newest book. They either lit up or cringed. You don’t get to be that well known and that well-to-do financially without making some people a bit
resentful or dismissive.
With great fame
comes expectations of an unreasonable size. You can’t blow people away with the
thrills of Jaws or the sense of
wonder inherent in Close Encounters of
the Third Kind or E.T. The
Extra-Terrestrial and then make a mere “good†movie; you’re expected to score
a slam dunk, a home run and a touchdown
every time you’re given the ball. As a result, some very good Steven Spielberg
films have been shortchanged over the years by those who wanted him to reach
Olympian peaks each time they plunked their cash down at the box office. Moviegoers
have pigeonholed him according to their own personal tastes and fond memories, and
often have stubbornly resisted venturing with him into new territory. Much as
“those wonderful people out there in the dark†are loathe to admit it, history
has shown that audiences let down filmmakers far more often than filmmakers do
the audience. Of course any director worth their salt is going to go in unexpected
ways once in a while or try out new genres or techniques, which is what makes
movie going something exciting. Believe me, if you had a mild initial response
to such movies as Empire of the Sun,
Amistad, or Munich, I recommend
you see them again. These are all strong,
impressive, moving works with something to say about the human condition. If
they do not tower as highly or with as much resonance as, say, Schindler’s List, that’s to be forgiven.
That’s an awful lofty peak to reach, after all.
I don’t need this
constant reassurance of greatness with Spielberg or any filmmaker for that
matter. I know he’s good; quite good. Even when I’ve come away disappointed
from one of his efforts, I know I wasn’t watching a hack on a downward spiral,
but a singular talent whose capabilities were still evident even within the
missteps. Such are all the best filmmakers. And Spielberg really is one of the
best. It’s been evident from the start; it was even evident in his television
work, in the handful of series episodes and movies he made for the small screen
before he ventured towards the larger canvas of motion pictures.
I remembered
pretty vividly the segment of the Night
Gallery pilot he directed long before I even realized who Steven Spielberg
was. Blind Joan Crawford’s justifiable punishment for her abominable behavior
was dramatized in a lean but eerie fashion: her sight is restored for a brief
period only to find herself waking up during a New York blackout. Her
accidental stumble through a window was dramatized by dropping a plate of glass
and watching it shatter in slow motion. A great touch. Watching the segment
again, all these years later, there’s nothing in this credit to suggest that
its director had never before taken on a professional directing job prior to
this, nor that he had only recently turned 22 years of age. His work was that
of a professional with decades of experience behind him.
Although
their characters have become iconic, the now classic fantasy monster films of
Universal Studios have suffered a reputation of creakiness, cheap thrills, poor
characterization and logic gaps. While the images of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula,
Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein monster, and Elsa Lanchester’s Bride of
Frankenstein dominate magazine covers, notebooks, posters, mugs and other
collectibles, the series of movies that introduced these characters seems to
get very little respect from film historians. A step in the right direction to
correct this is the excellent new book The Monster Movies of Universal Studios
by James L. Neibaur, published by Rowman and Littlefield. In this fascinating
new study, the author puts Universal’s horror series into proper historical
context. Unlike other books on the subject, Neibaur has limited his focus to
films that feature one or more of Universal’s line-up of monsters. This book concentrates
on the classic era, with the range of focus highlighting movies from 1931
through 1956. Any movie made by
Universal Studios during this period with Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the
Mummy, the Invisible Man, the Wolf Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon
is discussed in-depth with a chapter devoted to each feature, twenty nine movies
in all. These include all of the sequels and films that blended fantasy and
comedy elements when Universal paired up their monsters with their house comedy
duo Abbott and Costello. The book is an impressive work of film scholarship and
shines a spotlight on classic Hollywood moviemaking by looking at one of the longest
film series at a major studio.
Readers
disappointed that Neibaur didn’t discuss such mystery and horror offerings from
Universal during this period such as The Old Dark House and Murders in the Rue
Morgue (both 1932) shouldn’t be. The focus on the monsters makes the book a one-
of- a- kind study devoted to characters that seem to always be taken for
granted. While Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Black Cat (1934) is celebrated for it’s
daring, unconventional storyline, the films that feature the monsters seem to
get lumped in with low budget movies from a later era. In fact, movies such as
The Invisible Man (1933), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Dracula’s
Daughter (1936) share more in common with The Black Cat than just being made at
the same studio. The author restores these films to their proper place as
valuable works of cinematic art.
This
isn’t to say that when there are jumps in narrative logic, especially evident
in the later movies, Neibaur doesn’t point them out. However, even these
assembly line B films are given more respect in this book then in previous
studies of the Universal genre catalog. The usual pattern of writers discussing
movies made during the Great Depression and World War II is to highlight the
escapism and lighthearted nature that many of those films exhibit. Examples
that prove this pattern include the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers cycle at RKO, the
Topper films, etc. In this work Neibaur presents a different argument- that the
monster series presented something very real to fight against, a threat that
personified the evils of economic crisis and foreign fascism. Given this
argument, it is somewhat less hard to believe that the horror series at
Universal would decline in popularity after the war ended.
In
addition to the nation’s and the world’s economy fluctuating during the time of
the Monster films covered in this book, it was also true that there were money
problems at Universal as well. First, Universal founder Carl Laemmle Sr.
borrowed too heavily and lost control of the studio. It was then decided at
that time that the horror series would continue as B films, relegated to a more
factory mode of filmmaking. Whereas Universal’s monster series began with cinematic
artists such as Tod Browning and James Whale helming Dracula and Frankenstein
(both 1931), the series ended with Jean Yarbrough directing She-Wolf of London
(1946) in a decidedly non-flourished way, with cost cutting in mind. The
contrast couldn’t be more evident as She-Wolf is a film with a Scooby-Doo like
ending, a far cry from the earlier films that embraced supernatural elements
such as vampirism, invisibility, lycanthropy or fantastic science that brought
life to the dead through lightning or tana leaves. It’s interesting to note
that when the B movie factory mode of the series finally ran its course, a
happy ending was not in the cards.
Though
heavyweights Columbia and Universal produced as many serials as Republic
Pictures from 1929-1956, the latter studio is generally best known for its
exciting sound-era chapter-plays.
Universal and the less widely known Mascot Pictures were in the game the
earliest; both studios began releasing their sound serials in 1929. Mascot would only last six years or so.
Universal – choosing to concentrate exclusively on the production of feature
films – effectively got out of the serial business in 1946. Republic and Columbia hung on to the production
of chapter-plays the longest; they released their final serials in 1955 and
1956, respectively.
Republic
wasn’t only a serials factory. The
studio was in the low budget feature filmmaking business as well, busily
churning out a dizzying array of westerns, adventure pictures, and mysteries. They would test the box-office potentials of
the horror film market during the 1940s with limited success. As a second-tier “Poverty Row†studio,
Republic would enjoy a less distinguished track record in the horror film realm
than, say, Monogram Pictures. The latter
studio would occasionally tap the talents of such moonlighting film ghouls as
Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, George Zucco, and Lionel Atwill. Dutifully exploiting the popular culture
trends of the day, Republic would soon move into the production sci-fi serials
beginning with King of the Rocket Men
(1949). In the next five years the
studio would knock out a number of similar themed serials with The Invisible Monster (1950), Flying Disc Man from Mars (1951), Radar Men from the Moon (1952), and Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952).
Lee
Sholem’s Tobor The Great (1954), now
out on Blu Ray from Kino-Lorber Studio Classics, was one of Republic’s earliest
non-serial feature films of the “Silver Age†of Sci-Fi. Though more of a timepiece curiosity than a
great film, old-school sci-fi fans – at least those with long memories - will
welcome Tobor The Great as a valuable
addition to their private collection. The year 1954 was, to be sure, a good one for devotees of sci-fi
cinema. Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea managed to garner the studio two
Academy Awards. Universal unleashed The Creature from the Black Lagoon in
glorious 3-D and, not to be outdone, Warner Bros. released a swarm of giant
radioactive ants collectively known as Them!
on the city of Los Angeles. Tobor The Great is not even remotely as
entertaining nor well crafted as the three above mentioned films, but it’s
arguably no better or worse than such other 1954 efforts as Devil Girl from Mars or Roger Corman’s Monster from the Ocean Floor.
It’s
obvious that Republic’s target audience for Tobor
The Great was the juvenile market. We’re introduced early on to Brian “Gadge†Roberts (Billy Chapin), a ten
year old whiz kid who is a prodigal student of mathematics and the sciences. We soon learn that young Brian’s proclivities
for the disciplines are at least partly inherited. The boy and his mother Janice (Karen Booth) have
been living comfortably in the home of his maternal grandfather ever since the
boy’s father had been killed while serving in Korea.
Gadge’s
grandfather happens to be the kindly Professor Arnold Nordstrom (Taylor
Holmes), a research scientist working for the C.I.F.C., an acronym for the Civil
Interplanetary Flight Commission. The commission’s principal concern is with helping guarantee America’s front-runner
status in space travel, rocketry, and guided missile launches. The professor, an expert in astrophysics and
aerodynamics, studiously labors away in a secreted wine cellar repurposed as a modern
subterranean experimental laboratory.
Titling a film is no
trivial matter, especially from a marketing perspective. As history has proven,
there have been numerous films made which have little more to offer than a cracking
title. A really sharp one can help sell the poorest product, conversely a
stellar piece of movie-making can be undermined by something uninspired. When
you're trying to make your movie stand out in a marketplace awash with
alternatives, an attention-grabbing title is a crucial consideration and you'll
probably be aiming for something that harbours intrigue, allure, and is capable
of fostering curiosity and anticipation. When it was first unleashed
theatrically in 1985, Howling II: Stirba –
Werewolf Bitch was certainly an attention-grabber. Whether the film itself
turned out to be good, bad or indifferent, as enticing titles go the suffix Stirba – Werewolf Bitch sure did the
job, sending out a premium come and see me
you know you want to invitation with the promise of a no-nonsense serving
of lycanthropic flesh-munching and raunchy bodice-ripping, elements on which it
most certainly delivered. So, given that said title was suitably
efficacious, one has to wonder why someone later thought it was a good idea to
alter it to Your Sister is a Werewolf,
a moniker conveying more than a whiff of lightweight teen comedy – perhaps
something akin to the same year's Michael J Fox headliner Teen Wolf – as opposed to that of spicy horror movie. C'est la vie.
Following the funeral of
his sister Karen, Ben White (Reb Brown) is approached by occult scholar Steffan
Crosscoe (Christopher Lee), who informs him that his sibling was a werewolf and
submitted herself willingly to death. Dismissing these claims as balderdash,
White's scepticism is quashed when he witnesses a werewolf attack first hand.
Crosscoe subsequently tells White that the 10th Millennium of lycanthrope queen
Stirba (Sybil Danning) is imminent and on that night, beneath the glow of a
full moon, all werewolves will reveal themselves. To avert this catastrophe
Stirba must die. White and journalist Jenny Templeton (Annie McEnroe) set off
with Crosscoe to Transylvania to seek out the location of Stirba's coven and
destroy her. However, Crosscoe is withholding a personal reason for wanting the
werewolf queen dead.
Any sequel to Joe Dante's
1981 epic The Howling was going to be
facing an uphill struggle in terms of emulating its verve and director Philippe
Mora's Howling II: Your Sister is a
Werewolf certainly lives up to expectation on that account. Which isn't to
imply for one moment that it isn't entertaining; there's a lot of fun to be
had here, even if much of it is of the so-bad-it's-good variety. The draw
here for many viewers will be the significant participation of Christopher Lee.
For such an erudite man, Lee made some curious film choices throughout his long
and varied career; one supposes that in such a competitive profession – and one
burdened by rife unemployment – regardless of how demeaning it might be work
was work. Howling II wasn't among Lee’s
more questionable judgment calls but neither is it up there among the myriad of
cherries populating his CV. Regardless, consummate professional that he was, he
never gave less than 100% and with Howling
II he brings a degree of gravitas and worth to a film whose biggest crime
is not so much being bad as being rather unremarkable. Given what Lee brings to
the show, it's a shame that co-stars Reb Brown and Annie McEnroe prove so
unengaging. It would be easy to blame the slightly hackneyed dialogue – the
script was a collaborative effort between Gary Brandner (who also authored a
number of “Howling†novels) and Robert Sarno – but when you consider that
Lee managed to work his lines into something halfway decent that's not really a
valid excuse. The odd thing is that both Brown and McEnroe are competent enough
performers, as can be witnessed in some of their other films, so quite why
they’re so ineffectual here is frankly baffling. Regardless, any shortcomings are
compensated for by fine turns from the striking Sybil Danning in the titular
Stirba/sister role, Judd Omen as her swarthy aide Vlad and a sizzling Marsha A
Hunt (who's hotter than a jalapeño both in and out of her clothing). Brief but
noteworthy input too from Jimmy Nail and Ferdy Mayne, although the latter's
transformation into beast of the night is memorable for the wrong reason, his freaky
but unthreatening make-up and the fact he's wearing a flat cap combining to provoke
inadvertent chuckles.
The
trailer tells you everything you need to know about “The Belko Experimentâ€,
writer James Gunn’s bloody trip to the dark side of the corporate
workspace.You know there’s going to be
a serious body count… you know there’s going to be some wicked humor… and you
know that somewhere you’re going to see Michael Rooker.But HOW things unfold is what makes Belko
such an entertaining ride.Think “Office
Space†meets “Texas Chainsaw Massacreâ€â€¦
Aptly
directed by Greg McLean (“Wolf Creekâ€), “The Belko Experiment†chronicles a
(final) day in the life of the staff of a rather bland American company set up on
the outskirts of Bogota, Colombia. It’s
a typical workday until an anonymous intercom voice tells them they have two
hours to kill thirty of their co-workers or sixty of them will be “sacrificedâ€. The execs laugh it off as a prank - until the
back of a staffer’s head explodes, thanks to an “anti-kidnapping†locator they’ve
all had implanted. Soon Belko
descends into “Lord of the Fliesâ€, for
real. Factions form, alliances are
made and friendships are erased by the basic urge to survive. The movie is
helped along by a terrific cast which blends relative newcomers with seasoned
pros: John Gallagher, Jr. plays a
workplace everyman trying to stop the carnage and protect his colleague/girlfriend
(lovely Adria Arjona). Tony Goldwyn is
outstanding as Belko’s COO who morphs from cool boss to killing machine so he
can make it home to his wife and kids. He doesn’t want to kill his direct reports…
he just has to. John C. McGinly
is deliciously evil as a leering workplace creep who methodically tries to
raise his “body count†using a meat cleaver. And yes, Michael Rooker is short but sweet as Belko’s stoic maintenance man
trying to find a way out of the hermetically sealed building.
It’s
a testament to writer/producer James Gunn’s growing power in Hollywood that
this film is getting a wide theatrical release in today’s megabuck franchise landscape. “The Belko Experiment “feels like a 1990s
action/horror film, which is a good thing: in the 1980s and 90s, small,
entertaining genre films routinely got theatrical releases – great movies like “Surviving
The Gameâ€, “Trespass†and “Southern Comfort†all delivered the thrills
audiences wanted without costing tens of millions to produce. Most of them actually made a profit, unlike
today when almost every big budget release is a huge gamble - James Bond, Star Wars and Guardians
franchises excepted! Today those small 1980s/90s movies would be relegated to
streaming or other platforms if they found a distributor at all.
After
the special “Employee Appreciation Day†screening Cinema Retro attended in
Santa Monica, key cast and crewmembers talked about making the film. Fanboy favorite James Gunn said he wrote the
script in a “two week fugue state†of 18-hour days. John C. McGinley commented that what drew him
to the script was the fact that “the choices each character made determined their
survival.†He drew a parallel to 9-11 as
his brother worked in the Twin Towers and when an anonymous PA voice told his
floor to stay put after the first plane hit, he and other colleagues knew
enough to immediately take the stairs to safety. On a lighter note, Tony Goldwyn admitted that,
as an actor, he wanted in after reading a script that featured exploding heads!
In
person, Gunn is amiable and funny and managed to carve out a little time for
fans, many of who showed up with bits of “Guardians of the Galaxy†memorabilia
to be signed. Other cast members posed
with attendees and all the actors seemed genuinely happy to see each other for
the first time since their Bogota shoot. It made for a surprisingly happy ending after 90 minutes of onscreen carnage.
The Belko Experiment opens nationwide on
March 17th. Be prepared to never look at a tape dispenser the same
way…
Roger
Corman's work both as a director and a producer has often been characterized as
exploitation, quickly and cheaply produced product that promised some cheap
thrills – be they violence or sex – for the theater-goers' admission. It was
certainly not an accusation he would ever shy away from. But that didn't mean
that he didn't ensure that there wasn't at least a certain level of craft to be
found in his films. And sometimes, even a bit of art sneaks through the process.
Such
is the case with “Boxcar Bertha,†the second feature from filmmaker Martin
Scorsese. Corman was looking for
something that could serve somewhat as a sequel to his recently released
“Bloody Mama†when his wife discovered the fictional account of a woman who
rode the rails of the South during the Depression. The story and resultant film
had more than a few echoes of Arthur Penn's “Bonnie And Clyde†and while Corman
has never admitted that this was the case in this instance, he has been known to
surf the wave of another film's popularity all the way to the shore.
While
the film's Deep South- during- the- Depression setting is a far cry from
Scorsese's Little Italy New York City upbringing, he certainly works hard to
make the film his own. Although a bit rough around the edges – the first couple
of minutes features a somewhat jarring sound effect miscue when a plane lands
in a grassy field accompanied by the sound of tires screeching on concrete and
the film boasts two different title sequences for some reason – it is easy to
see Scorsese starting to define elements that he will work with throughout his
career. The film's story is somewhat episodic, a feature of his next film,
1973's “Mean Streets.†Examining the psyches and characters of those on the
opposite side of the law is a tendency that was probably engendered in Scorsese
by the Warner Brothers crime films and socially conscious dramas of the 1930s
that he has stated his love for in the past. And the film's climactic
crucifixion certainly had to appeal to the Catholic in him, even if it the
Christ imagery isn't set up in anyway in the preceding eighty-some minutes.
(Incidentally, it was during the “Boxcar Bertha†location shoot in Arkansas
that star Barbara Hershey gave Scorsese a copy of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel “The
Last Temptation of Christ†which he adapted to some controversy in 1988.)
Australian lobby card.
Of
course, there are the requisite exploitation elements. Gun fights break at with
the required regular intervals and a train explosively slams into a car left on
some tracks at one point. And of course there's some nudity. By all accounts,
Scorsese was irritated that some nudity had to be inserted into his first
feature, “Who's That Knocking At My Door?†(1967), in order to get a
distribution deal. Here, when both Hershey and David Carradine as her labor
leader-turned-bank robber lover lose their clothes, it feels somewhat casual,
perhaps an influence of the European cinema Scorsese is also a fan of. It
certainly doesn't live up to the expectations set by the stars who claimed in a
Playboy interview at the time of the film's release that their love making
scenes were real and not simulated.
Twilight
Time's Blu-ray transfer of “Boxcar Bertha†is a solid looking 1080p
transfer. The disc doesn't come with too much else besides some rather
exuberant liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo and an isolated score
soundtrack movie music fans should appreciate. Those who complain that modern
trailers give away too much of the film that they are advertising will be
dismayed to see that the practice was alive and well in 1972 with the “Boxcar
Bertha†trailer included here. (This release is limited to only 3,000 units.)
I recently wrote in relation to a review of "The Big Show" that circus movies have gone the way of the Model T. You can add to that another genre of film that used to be a Hollywood staple- the safari movies in which the hero was a great white hunter. Changing social attitudes make it unlikely we'd ever again cheer some rock-jawed leading man as he unloads some hi caliber bullets into a grazing elephant or a lazing hippo. The last word on such films was Clint Eastwood's woefully underrated (and woefully under-seen) 1990 film "White Hunter, Black Heart", which was loosely based on the hunting obsessions of director John Huston during production of "The African Queen". Nevertheless, jungle-themed adventures are still the stuff of cinematic thrills in the minds of retro movie lovers. One of the best is "Rampage", a 1963 opus directed by Phil Karlson and based on a novel by actor/screenwriter Alan Caillou. Robert Mitchum stars as Harry Stanton, known in zoological circles as the world's most eminent tracker of wild game. The Wilhelm Zoo in Germany makes him a proposition: they will finance his trip to Malaysia to track down and capture the Enchantress, a legendary one-of-a-kind animal that is said to be half-leopard and half-tiger. Part of the deal is that Harry must also return with two tigers. Harry is told he will be traveling with Otto Abbot (Jack Hawkins), an internationally famed hunter of exotic prey. Harry is invited to meet Otto at his opulent home which is unsurprisingly decorated with trophies of his more notable expeditions into the wild. However, Harry's eye goes immediately to Abbot's girlfriend Anna (Elsa Martinelli), an exotic beauty many years younger than Otto. It's clear that Abbot takes great pride in his relationship with Anna and he enjoys seeing Harry looking at her with pangs of desire. It turns out that Anna was a young girl of fourteen who had no family and who was facing a harsh life on the streets. Harry "adopted" her, presumably for humanitarian reasons but, in fact, he was grooming her to be his lover. Out of gratitude for the opulent life Abbot has afforded her, she has complied even though it is clear she would rather have a relationship with another man. It only takes a moment for she and Harry to lock eyes before both of them realize they are drawn to each other.
At first the journey to Malaysia goes well enough. While Harry personally loathes the killing of exotic animals, he respects Abbot for his achievements. However, en route to their destination, it becomes clear to Abbot that Harry and Anna are becoming increasingly flirtatious. He even tells her that she has his permission to have a fling with Harry as long as it's a short-term affair and she continues to regard him as her "real" lover. However, Harry and Anna aren't interested in a quickie sexual thrill...both of them want to build a relationship. Things become more tense when they arrive in Malaysia and begin hunting the tigers and the Enchantress. Abbot attempts to kill a a charging rhino and finds it takes him two shots to do so, which apparently is a no-no in the world of big game hunting. The failure to bag the rhino with one shot becomes a metaphor for Harry's diminishing virility. To prove he still has what it takes, he foolishly attempts to capture the Enchantress in a cave and ends up being badly mauled. It falls to Harry to capture the beast. By the time the group is back in Germany, tensions are raw. Both Harry and Anna admit that they did make love and Anna tells Abbot that, while she respects him, she has never loved him. Driven to madness at the thought of losing Anna, Abbot lures Harry into the storage room where the Enchantress is locked in a cage. He frees the animal with the expectation that it will kill Harry but, instead the beast leaps from the train and hides somewhere in Berlin. With an all-out hunt on for the dangerous animal, the film predictably finds Harry, Abbot and Anna facing off against each other as well as the Enchantress.
"Rampage" is certainly dated. It's the kind of movie where the two male antagonists-to-be dress in tuxedos for their initial meeting and drink cocktails while the leading lady saunters about the house in a lavish gown. However, the movie was ahead of its time in terms of addressing the issue of animal conservation. The film makes a poignant plea through Mitchum's character to stop the wholesale annihilation of entire species. In that respect, the film joins a few other from this era that spring into mind that were similarly-themed: John Huston's "The Roots of Heaven" (1958), Howard Hawk's Hatari! (which also starred Martinelli) and Ivan Tors' "Rhino!" (1964). Despite intelligent direction by Phil Karlson and a compelling screenplay, the movie exists to showcase its three glamorous stars. Mitchum is solid as the thinking man's tough guy, Hawkins is old world elegance and superficial charm and Martinelli has the kind of traditional sex siren persona that is all but invisible in today's film industry. The movie also benefits from some exotic locations (apparently filmed in Hawaii, not Africa) and an impressive score by Elmer Bernstein (even if the title track sounds like a combination of Monty Norman's theme for "Call Me Bwana" combined with "The Banana Boat Song".) There's even a very welcome appearance by Sabu as a guide for the hunting expedition. (He would tragically pass away shortly after filming at age 39.) The movie is unusually frank for its day in its treatment of sex. Mitchum and Martinelli practically undress each other with their eyes and this aspect lends increasing tension to the inevitable mano a mano showdown between rivals Mitchum and Hawkins. "Rampage" is largely off the radar screens of retro movie lovers but that's all the more reason why the DVD release through the Warner Archive is highly recommended. (Note: the DVD contains no extras but is region-free.)
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In the estimation of many film scholars the 1970s was the most adventurous and liberating period in the history of the medium. The new freedoms in regard to sex, violence and adult themes that had exploded in the mid-1960s became even more pronounced in the '70s. Among the most daring studios to take advantage of this trend was United Artists. The studio had been conceived by iconic actors in the silent era with the intent of affording artists as much creative control over their productions as possible. UA had continued to fulfill that promise, producing a jaw-dropping number of box-office hits and successful film franchises. The studio also disdained censorship and pushed the envelope with high profile movie productions. The daring decision to fund the X-rated "Midnight Cowboy" paid off handsomely. The 1969 production had not only been a commercial success but also won the Best Picture Oscar. A few years later UA went even further out on a limb by distributing "Last Tango in Paris". The studio fully capitalized on the worldwide sensation the movie had made and the many attempts to restrict it from being shown at all in certain areas of the globe. Like "Midnight Cowboy", "Tango" was an important film by an important director that used graphic images of sexual activity for dramatic intensity. Unfortunately, not every filmmaker who was inspired by these new freedoms succeeded in the attempt to mainstream X-rated fare during those years that the rating wasn't only synonymous with low-budget porno productions. Case in point: screenwriter John Byrum, who made his directorial debut with "Inserts", a bizarre film that UA released in 1975 that became a legendary bomb. The movie has been released on Blu-ray by Twilight Time as a limited edition (3,000 units).
The claustrophobic tale resembles a filmed stage production. It is set primarily in one large living room in a decaying Hollywood mansion. The time period is the 1930s, shortly after the introduction of sound to the movie industry resulted in the collapse of silent pictures (Charlie Chaplin being the notable exception.) The central character, played by Richard Dreyfuss, is not named but is referred to as "The Boy Wonder". From our first glimpse of him we know we are seeing a man in trouble. He is unkempt, dressed in a bathrobe and swizzling booze directly from the bottle. We will soon learn that he was once a respected mainstream director of major studio films and was revered by Hollywood royalty. Now he is a has-been who has resorted to making porn movies in 16mm in his own home. (Yes, Virginia, people liked to watch dirty movies even way back then.) He is entertaining a visitor, Harlene (Veronica Cartwright), a perpetually cheery, bubble-headed young woman who was once a respected actress but who, like Boy Wonder, has fallen on hard times. She is now a heroin addict who earns a living by "starring" in Boy Wonder's porn productions. They make small talk and some names from the current movie business are bandied about. Harlene tells Boy Wonder that a rising star named Clark Gable is said to be an admirer of his and wants to meet him. Instead of responding favorably to this news, Boy Wonder seems unnerved by it. The implication is that he is locked in a self-imposed downward spiral and lacks the self-confidence to attempt a real comeback. Harlene also needles him about his sexual prowess. It turns out that the king of porn films has long been impotent for reasons never explained. As they prepare to film some scenes Harlene's male "co-star" (Stephen Davies) arrives. He is nicknamed Rex, The Wonder Dog, which seems to bother him especially when the Wonder Boy uses it to intentionally disparage him. Like Harlene, Rex is short on brains but is physically attractive. Boy Wonder seems to have a real resentment towards him, perhaps because Rex is a powerhouse in bed while he can't get anything going despite directing naked people in sex scenes. It becomes clear that if Boy Wonder and Rex don't like each other. Boy Wonder ridicules Rex for performing sex acts on male studio executives who he naively believes will help him become a star. However, their relationship looks downright friendly compared to the interaction between Harlene and Rex. When Rex is a little slow in becoming physically aroused, Harlene mocks him mercilessly. This results in him essentially subjecting her to a violent rape which thrills Boy Wonder, who captures it all on film. Harlene doesn't appear to be any worse for the wear, however, and blithely says she's going off to a bedroom to rest.
The household is next visited by mobster Big Mac (Bob Hoskins), the man who finances Boy Wonder's film productions. He is accompanied by his financee Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper), a pretty young woman who seems to have a particular interest in the forbidden world of pornography. Big Mac and Boy Wonder also hate each other. Big Mac berates Boy Wonder for making his porn flicks too esoteric and artistic for their intended audiences who just want a cheap thrill. However, for Boy Wonder the porn films represent the last opportunity he has to demonstrate the cinematic style and camera angles that once impressed critics and the public. In the midst of their arguing, it is discovered that a tragedy has occurred: Harlene has died from a heroin overdose. Everyone seems nonplussed by the news and Big Mac's only concern is to ditch the body somewhere quickly. Turns out Rex has a part time job in a funeral parlor and can arrange for a gruesome plan in which they dump her body inside a grave that is being prepared for another person's funeral the next day. The plan is to dig a bit deeper, bury Harlene, then place a layer of dirt over her and have the "new" body placed on top of hers. As Big Mac and Rex leave to "undertake" this sordid task, Boy Wonder finds himself alone with Cathy Cake. She wants to use the time to have Boy Wonder film her in her own personal porn movie since Big Mac would never let his "fiancee" do so with his knowledge. She finds the idea of sex on film to be a stimulant but Boy Wonder won't have any of it. He knows that Big Mac's volatile temper and ever present bodyguard could result in him being the next corpse in the house. Cathy Cake tries another tactic and feigns interest in Boy Wonder. He lets his guard down and gradually is seduced by her. She even manages to cure his impotence but the tryst turns ugly when she learns he has not filmed it. Boy Wonder soon discovers that his renewed pride and self-respect is to be short-lived when it becomes clear that Cathy Cake actually loathes him and was only using him in order to fulfill her porn movie fantasy. The ploy works to a degree- her attention to Boy Wonder reawakens his sexual prowess but when she learns the camera wasn't rolling, she cruelly tells him that she only used him for selfish purposes. With this, Big Mac and Rex return from their horrendous errand and catch Boy Wonder in bed with Cathy Cake. The situation becomes dangerous with Big Mac threatening to kill Boy Wonder and things only deteriorate from there.
According to the informative liner notes by Julie Kirgo that accompany the Blu-ray, Richard Dreyfuss seemed to have a personal obsession with this film. He was very involved in all aspects of its production and remained defensive about the movie after its harsh reception from critics. The movie's complete rejection by reviewers and the public might have hurt his career but Dreyfuss already had "American Graffiti" and "Jaws" under his belt. Soon he would also star in another blockbuster, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" followed by his Oscar-winning performance in "The Goodbye Girl". The fact that so few people ever saw "Interiors" actually worked to his advantage. However, whatever motivated him to become involved in this bizarre project remains a mystery. It's an ugly tale about ugly people doing ugly things to each other. If there is a message here, I didn't receive it. There isn't a single character you can identify with or sympathize with. They are all self-obsessed cynics with no redeeming traits. That leaves us with whatever values the performances afford us and it's a mixed bag. Dreyfuss is miscast. He was twenty nine years-old when he made the film and, despite his sordid appearance which ages him considerably, he is still far too young to portray a once-great movie director who has fallen on hard times. John Byrum's direction of Dreyfuss is unsteady. At times he encourages him to underplay scenes while at other times he has Dreyfuss chew the scenery mercilessly. Similarly, Stephen Davies plays the brain-dead hunk Rex with flamboyantly gay characteristics one minute then suddenly transforms into a heterosexual stud the next. Bob Hoskins in what would become his trademark tough-guy gangster mode but gives a solid performance. The best acting comes from the two female leads with Veronica Cartwright especially good as the ill-fated Harlene. Jessica Harper also does well in her thankless role. Both women seem at ease in doffing their clothes and playing much of their scenes in a provocative state. Cartwright even goes full frontal for the violent sex scene with Rex while Harper spends almost the entire last act of the film being photographed topless. Curiously, the willingness to appear nude onscreen was considered the epitome of female emancipation in films during the 1970s but the practice has largely become frowned upon in more recent years. In fact the days are long gone when virtually every major actress had to appear naked on screen. Today, female emancipation is the ability to play erotic scenes on screen without having to be completely compromised.
(The following reviews pertain to the UK Region 2 releases)
When
I'm in the right mood I adore bit of film noir. I admire the diversity of its
storytelling, I love every facet, from the hardboiled private eyes, duplicitous
dames and characters that seldom turn out to be what they first appear, to the
alleyways bathed in inky shadows, ramshackle apartments and half-lit street
corners they inhabit. How can you not get drawn in by the sheer delight of Edward
G Robinson playing a second rate psychic trying to convince the authorities he
can see the future in The Night Has a
Thousand Eyes? Or amnesiac John Hodiak on a mission to discover his own
identity, in the process getting embroiled in a 3-year-old murder case and the
search for a missing $2 million in Somewhere
in the Night? Yes, indeed, there's nothing quite like a hearty serving of film
noir on a Sunday afternoon to soothe those end-of-the-weekend blues.
Newly
released to dual format Blu-ray and DVD in the UK – carefully restored by UCLA
Film and Television Archive following several years of sleuthing by the Film
Noir Foundation – are a couple real crackers. I'd seen neither before but both have
quickly found a spot among my favourites.
First
up is 1949 United Artists picture Too
Late for Tears (also known under the re-release moniker Killer Bait), directed by Byron Haskin
from a Roy Huggins
story (first serialised in the 'Saturday Evening Post'). The plot hinges on a
bag packed with an ill-gotten $60,000 worth of banknotes. Husband and wife Alan
and Jane Palmer (Arthur Kennedy and Lizabeth Scott) are drawn into a deadly
game when someone in a passing car hurls a briefcase full of cash into the back
of their open top saloon – cash so hot it's "a bag o' dynamite", as
Alan sagely recognises it. He’s insistent that they hand it over to the cops,
but Jane is having none of it; their ship has come in and she intends to hop aboard.
Initially she swings Alan round to her way of thinking but it's not long before
the intended recipient of the money (Dan Duryea) shows up to claim it back.
Jane, tougher than she at first seemed, is determined to keep it even if doing
so means resorting to murder.
Despite
striking support from the slinky Kristine Miller and an urbane Don DeFore, this
is 100% Lizabeth Scott's parade. She's breathtaking as the ice cold blonde schemestress
with a loaded shooter in one hand and a clutch bag full of seductive ploys in
the other; as femme fatales go they don't come much wilier. Huggins' script is
awash with mistrust and the razor sharp repartee born thereof: "Looking
for something?"/"My lipstick"/"Colt or Smith &
Wesson?". The twists come thick and fast as Jane's scruples, if ever she
had any, are casually discarded as she calculatingly works to finagle the cash.
With a sucker punch of a final twist that doles out the roughest of justice, Too Late for Tears is a little gem.
Next up, a Universal Pictures release: Norman Foster's San Francisco based Woman on the Run, a tad lighter in tone
but equally gripping. Out walking his dog one night, artist Frank Johnson (Ross
Elliott) witnesses a murder – but the killer sees him too. With little faith in
police witness protection, Johnson does a runner. Believing that he's really trying
to escape their failing marriage, Frank's wife Eleanor (Ann Sheridan) sets out
to find him. Assisted by intrepid reporter Dan Legget (Dennis O'Keefe), eager
to scoop a front page exclusive, Eleanor follows a trail of clues that reveal
things about Frank she never knew, all the while dodging the police (who believe
she'll lead them to her husband, the only person who can identify the killer), and
blindly unaware she’s being watched by the killer himself, intent on eliminating
the sole witness to his crime.
Working
from a screenplay he co-wrote with Alan Campbell, Foster (who went on to direct
episodes of Batman and The Green Hornet for television) keeps
the action moving along at a fair old lick, never afraid to punctuate the mood
with a splash of comic relief; the Johnson's dog is called Rembrandt, because
"It's the nearest we’ll come to owning one". Although it initially
feels like folly when the story’s ace twist is played midway point, it’s in
fact a very shrewd move; arming the audience with such vital knowledge serves
to ratchet up the suspense thereafter to almost unbearable levels. Boasting
some fantastic San Francisco location work and climaxing amidst the after-dark
amusement park thrills of Santa Monica's Ocean Park Pier (a finale which
delivers squalling tension to rival the theme park located climax to Hitchcock
classic Strangers on a Train,
released the following year), if you dip into only one noir thriller this year,
be sure that it's 24-carat keeper Woman
on the Run.
Guy Hamilton and Roger Moore on the set of "The Man With the Golden Gun" in Thailand, 1974.
BY LEE PFEIFFER
Cinema Retro mourns the loss of director Guy Hamilton, who has passed away at age 93. Guy was an old friend and supporter of our magazine and a wonderful talent and raconteur. Hamilton, though British by birth, spent much of his life in France. After WWII, he entered the film industry in England and served as assistant director to Sir Carol Reed, working on the classic film "The Third Man". He also served as AD on John Huston's "The African Queen". Gradually, he moved up the ladder to director and helmed such films as "An Inspector Calls", "The Colditz Story" and "The Devil's Disciple", the latter starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier. In 1964 Hamilton was hired to direct the third James Bond film "Goldfinger" and made cinema history. Hamilton found the perfect blend of humor and thrills and the film started the era of Bondmania that would see Sean Connery boosted to the status of international superstar. He also directed the Michael Caine spy thriller "Funeral in Berlin" for Bond producer Harry Saltzman in 1967. He worked once again for Saltzman on the ambitious epic WWII film "Battle of Britain" in 1969, a highly complex film to make given the logistics of recreating dogfights in the skies over England.
Bond producers Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli reached out to Guy Hamilton again in 1971 to direct "Diamonds Are Forever", the film that marked Sean Connery's return to the James Bond series after a four year absence. The film was an enormous success but it also initiated a swing toward more overt humor, which reflected Hamilton's personal vision of the series. When this writer asked him over a dinner in London many years ago if he felt that the increase in jokes and gags was an artistic mistake, Hamilton insisted it was not, although he acknowledged that he had probably alienated some of the more traditional Bond fans. In fact, Hamilton said that his initial plans for the script of "Diamonds Are Forever" would have seen Bond in Disneyland battling SPECTRE agents dressed as famous Disney characters. Hamilton's emphasis on laughs in the Bond films perfectly paved the way for the Roger Moore era which began in 1973 with "Live and Let Die". Hamilton was retained to direct that film as well. Moore agreed with Hamilton's emphasis on overt humor and that angle would largely define the Moore films which lasted through "A View to a Kill" in 1985. Hamilton would direct Moore's second Bond film, "The Man With the Golden Gun" in 1974. He was initially scheduled to direct "The Spy Who Loved Me" but due to his residency in France, tax complications ensued regarding his ability to work for an extended period in England. Ultimately, Lewis Gilbert directed the film. Hamilton's post-Bond era movies included the Agatha Christie thrillers "The Mirror Crack'd" and "Evil Under the Sun", as well as "Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins" and "Force Ten From Navarone". Of the latter, I once asked him if the disappointing movie went wrong during filming. Characteristically, Hamilton told me that it had a lousy script from day one and he knew it would be a lousy movie. However, he was winding down his involvement in the film industry and agreed to do the movie because the producers purchased a beautiful home for him in Spain. He said it was truly "an offer I couldn't refuse".
As age took its toll, Hamilton made fewer trips outside of Spain. However a few years ago, Cinema Retro's Dave Worrall and Gareth Owen accompanied Hamilton to an outdoor screening of "Goldfinger" in London. He had the satisfaction of seeing how well received his movie was even after half a century. Guy Hamilton was the epitome of the British gentleman and a skilled filmmaker as well. His contributions to the movie industry, and the James Bond series in particular, are secure in film history.
"The Strangler" is a long-forgotten 1964 low-budget exploitation movie originally released by Allied Artists. It has developed a bit of a cult following among retro movie lovers who will be delighted that the film has come to DVD through the Warner Archive. The movie was designed to capitalize on the notorious Boston Strangler murders that were in the news at the time. However, what sets the movie apart from other cheap thrills productions is the fact that it is intelligently scripted and presents its villain as a highly complex character, filled with nuances and psychological tortures. Victor Buono, who had made a sensational film debut the previous year in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", gets a rare starring role as the titular character. He's Leo Kroll, a meek, obese young man who barely makes a living as a lab assistant in big city hospital. He's quiet, unassuming and superficially friendly even though he has no real friends in his life. Our first glimpse of Leo is rather startling. We see him inside the apartment of an attractive young woman who is undressing, not knowing that she has a stalker on the premises. Leo suddenly emerges and strangles her with her own stockings. We learn that Leo is behind similar serial murders of young women in the area but the police are at a dead end. Leo's private life is pure hell. He lives with his aging mother (Ellen Corby) who controls virtually every aspect of his life. She even ensures that their apartment is a shrine to herself, adorned with numerous photos of her. When the film opens, she is confined to a hospital room and expects Leo to visit her every night right after work. When he takes a night off to indulge in his murderous past time, his mother's abrasive accusations of neglect seem to bother him more than the heinous crimes he has committed. He clearly hates and resents his mother. She never fails to remind him that he is a loser: overweight, homely and friendless. She tells him that she is the only person he can rely on and trust. She also warns him against getting involved with women, saying that any girl who would date him had to be after his money. Leo also has a peculiar fetish- he likes to leave dolls at the scene of his murderS, each representing the woman he has just killed. He obtains them by winning a game of chance at a local arcade where his skill at the game seems to impress the girls behind the counter, one of whom, Tally (Davey Davison), he clearly has a crush on, which inevitably puts her on Leo's endangered species list.
There weren't many diverse roles that Buono could play in his career. Generally, the baby-faced actor was stuck portraying varying incarnations of a "man child". However, he did carve out some memorable performances playing largely comedic villains in shows like "Batman", "The Wild, Wild West" and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.". He worked steadily, occasionally landing a mature role in major films such as "Robin and the Seven Hoods" and "Four For Texas" in which he appeared with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Buono, who died young at age 42 in 1982, arguably gives the best performance of his career in "The Strangler", making a man who commits despicable acts seem almost sympathetic. When he finally asks a woman he barely knows to marry him, her rejection of him is truly a heartbreaking scene. Leo ends up on the short list of police suspects but manages to elude arrest. He even demands to take a lie detector test, which he passes due to the fact that he has no feelings of guilt whatsoever. His motive for murder isn't even to alleviate the sexual repression he feels. It's simply his way of dealing with mommy issues. Each woman he slays is a stand-in for the mother he deplores. Under the highly competent direction of Burt Topper, "The Strangler" boasts some impressive performances by a largely unknown cast. The police sequences, which highlight David McLean as the over-worked cop assigned to crack the case, ring with authenticity. The B&W film also has good cinematography and creative use of lighting effect. Yet it is Buono who dominates the production with a performance that would have won critical raves if it were seen in an "A" list production. The film is consistently entertaining and at times highly suspenseful. The Warner Archive release is top-notch but lacks any extras. A commentary track on this title would be most welcome for a future edition.
Just
when everyone thought director Brian De Palma’s work couldn’t get more
controversial than 1983’s Scarface,
out came 1984’s Body Double, which
was simultaneously praised and reviled. Just as they had with 1980’s Dressed to Kill, feminist groups
protested Double with even more
vitriol due to the picture’s perceived violence against women. Many critics and
audiences dismissed the movie as merely a small step above porn, given the fact
that much of the plot does deal with Hollywood’s “other industry†that was soaring
to new heights in the mid-80s thanks to the rise of home video and VHS. And
yet, Body Double is now a certified
cult classic, a De Palma fan favorite, and, frankly, in this reviewer’s
opinion, one of his most accomplished and stylish efforts.
Still
working in full Hitchcock Homage Mode, De Palma borrowed some of the plot of Vertigo, in which a killer uses a
look-alike woman to fool our hapless and naive protagonist into believing the
lady is someone else. With Pino Donaggio’s lush orchestral score accompanying
the action, one is indeed reminded of Bernard Herrmann’s romanticism from that
1958 film. The suspense is plotted and paced in the manner of the Master of
Suspense, and the picture also contains much of Hitch’s penchant for dark humor
and satire.
Craig
Wasson (remember him?) plays Jake, a struggling Hollywood actor who is recently
separated from a cheating wife. He’s also claustrophobic, which of course plays
into the plot. He meets another actor, Sam (Gregg Henry) at an audition; Sam
graciously allows Jake to house-sit at a fancy home in the hills while Sam goes
on tour. The bonus for Jake is the eye candy that can be viewed with a
telescope—every night, a woman across the way performs a tantalizing striptease
in a window. Jake falls for the woman (former Miss USA, Deborah Shelton) and he
also unwittingly witnesses her brutal murder.
Enter
Holly Body, a porn star (winningly played by Melanie Griffith in one of her
first major roles), who might be somehow involved with the killing. Naturally,
Jake sets out to solve the crime and insinuates himself into Holly’s world in
order to do so. As we learn on the disc’s supplements, De Palma had considered
casting a real porn star in the part—but Hollywood would have turned its back
on him. Griffith convinced him that she could
do the required “moves,†and her casting is a revelation.
Thus,
this is a story about voyeurism and victims, reality and illusion, truth and
trickery. Hitchcock often explored the same themes; in De Palma’s hands, Body Double becomes an exercise in visual
style and storyline thrills. It’s also a scathing and humorous poke in the eye
at Hollywood itself, especially the world of cutthroat auditioning and casting.
The
film is very explicit; apparently De Palma once again had to fight the censors
for the film to receive an “R†rating. Griffith unabashedly did her own nude
scenes, even the celebrated peep-show dance through the telescope (which is set
to Donaggio’s mesmerizing trace music).
Body Double got an extra
publicity boost with the inclusion of the hit song “Relax†by Frankie Goes to
Hollywood; a music video running regularly on MTV at the time contained tied-in
clips from the film.
Twilight
Time’s Blu-ray looks and sounds fabulous. Stephen H. Burum’s cinematography is lavish
and colorful, very conducive to the HD format (1080p). Shot in and around
Hollywood, the locations are familiar, such as scenes in the famous restaurant,
Barney’s Beanery on Santa Monica Boulevard, the Beverly Center, and the Rodeo
Collection mall on Rodeo Drive.
Supplements
include four well-done featurettes on the making of the film, with interviews
with De Palma, Griffith, Shelton, and Dennis Franz, who plays a film director
molded on De Palma himself. There’s also an isolated score track; Pino Donaggio
collaborated several times with De Palma—Body
Double may be his best team-up with the filmmaker. The audio is 5.1 DTS-HD
MA.
Twilight
Time’s release of Body Double is
limited to 3000 copies.
(Note: this title is sold out at the Twilight Time web site. However, it is available from dealers on both Amazon and eBay.)
Not
to be mistaken for the cannibal monstrosity from Umberto Lenzi with which it
shares its title, Eaten Alive is a
1976 tale of terror set in the Louisiana swamps and was directed by Tobe Hooper
in the wake of his phenomenal success with The
Texas Chain Saw Massacre two years earlier. From the outset Eaten Alive shares its predecessor's
mien of ill ease (though not to such stomach-tightening effect), but little of
its wicked humour. Indeed it's an all-round far crueller film and positively bubbles
over with bloodshed.
Producer
Mardi Rustam – who also wrote the story with colleague Alvin L Fast, TCSM's Kim Henkel then adapting it for
the screen – was aiming to ride the tidal wave of Jaws' success; what the results lacked in quality (certainly if
Rustam felt truly inspired by
Spielberg’s film) was voraciously compensated for with lashings of cheap
thrills and squalid chills.
The
story kicks off with a very fresh-faced Robert Englund attempting to abuse 'the
new girl' in a grimy brothel. Immediately deciding that prostitution isn't for
her, the young lass packs her bags and sets off on foot into the night. But
it's very much a case of ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ when she
stumbles across the remote Starlight Hotel and its creepy proprietor Judd
(Neville Brand); after attempting to assault her, he prongs her to death on the
tines of a pitchfork and feeds her corpse to the huge crocodile he keeps in an
enclosure in the back yard. It’s a brutal and extremely graphic sequence but
one via which Hooper adeptly alerts the audience that he's upped the ante to
deliver something rather more visceral then he did with TCSM (which for all its notoriety is a largely bloodless affair,
functioning primarily on a psychological level). The rest of the movie’s
runtime pivots on Judd serving up hotel guests as crocodile chow for no
discernible reason beyond the fact he's mad as...well, as a box of baby crocs.
Given
the unbridled success of Hooper's earlier film, it's no surprise that Eaten Alive is often given short shrift
and indeed it is inferior, mainly due
to sluggish pacing and the fact it was shot in its entirety on a soundstage;
although the hotel exteriors –wreathed in swirling mist and bathed in a
quease-inducing red glow – have an appealingly stylised look, it's also
painfully obvious one is looking at a studio-bound set, replete with the tell-tale
hollow sound resulting when interiors feebly posture as exteriors. However, if you
can look past this handicap, and claustrophobic dread coupled with sleaze by
the bucketful float your boat, then there's plenty on offer here to keep you
entertained.
The
cast alone is worth tuning in for. Complementing Brand's frenetic turn as the
maniac hotel manager there are fun appearances from legends Mel Ferrer (whose
career had certainly seen better days) and Addams
Family icon Carolyn Jones (almost unrecognisable as the decrepit Madam of a
brothel). Also on hand are Stuart Whitman as a local sheriff oblivious to the
carnage being perpetrated on his patch and TCSM's leading lady Marilyn Burns, who fortuitously discards her
frightful wig early on but still ends up bound and gagged by our resident psychopath...
the poor girl didn't have a lot of luck in Hooper's films, did she? There's
also a bizarre turn from William Finley as a disgustingly sweaty guest with a
penchant for barking like a dog, giving Brand strong competition in the most deranged
character stakes.
Alternatively
lurking under titles such as Horror Hotel,
Starlight Slaughter and Legend of the Bayou, when Eaten Alive was issued in the UK on VHS
in the early 80s under the moniker Death
Trap it immediately drew unfortunate attention that earned it a place among
the infamous 'video nasties' and it was withdrawn from circulation. Previous DVD
releases have reportedly been pretty much substandard across the board (although
I haven't seen any of them to be able to comment fairly). But one thing's for
sure: Arrow's new uncut Blu-ray/DVD combination package is anything but substandard, in fact it's absolutely
terrific, doing Robert Caramico's stylish cinematography more fitting a service
than one could have ever imagined possible.
As
if such a superior, uncut presentation of the film alone doesn't make this one a
worthwhile purchase, Arrow has bundled in an impressive collection of
sweeteners. There are new interviews with Tobe Hooper (who also appears in a
blink-and-you'll-miss-it introduction tagged onto the start of the movie), supporting
actress Janus Blythe and make-up artist Craig Reardon, as well as older ones
with Hooper, Robert Englund and Marilyn Burns. Mardi Rustam provides an
informative commentary and there's also a 20-something minute featurette that
delves into the life of the Texas bar owner upon who the film is loosely based,
as well as a healthy selection of trailers, radio and TV spots, plus a gallery
of poster art and lurid lobby cards. A final gem appears in the form of a
gallery of original 'comment cards', collected from attendees at a preview
screening of the film back in 1976, with the incentive for filling them out being
a reward for the best 'new title' suggestion. Most of the remarks are pretty
uncharitable, with an amusing standout being the one on which the viewer
sarcastically requests to be informed of any subsequent title change so that
he/she doesn't inadvertently go to see it again!
A
wonderful, eclectic hodgepodge collection of vintage 3-D, tests, shorts,
animation and trailers has been released on Blu Ray recently by Flicker
Alley. 3-D Rarities, released on the Flicker Alley label, is for film and nostalgia buffs, alike. This is a wonderful snapshot of 3-D motion
picture photography from early tests in the 1920’s up through 1962, and arrives
in time to honor the 100-year anniversary of the exhibition of 3D films.
3-D
wasn’t just a brief fad in the 50’s but was found in sporadic use for specialized
presentations up through then. Early
surviving shorts show us wonderful glimpses of Washington DC and New York City,
with wonderful perspective. Two company
films follow, Thrills For You and New Dimensions.Thrills
for You was produced by The Pennsylvania Railroad for exhibition at the
Golden Gate International Exposition in 1940 in San Francisco. This B&W wonder gives a viewer an all too
brief look at railroading in its heyday from GG1 electrics, steam engines and
the lounge cars (although why an East Coast Railroad would promote itself on
the West Coast and not in its own territory is beyond me). New
Dimensions is an eye popping Technicolor feast of animation, produced for exhibition
at the 1940 Worlds Fair. Perfectly
synchronized with music and effects, a Chrysler is assembled one piece at a
time.
As
the collection moves into the 50’s, the disc contains 3-D trailers for: It Came From Outer Space; Hannah Lee; The
Maze and Miss Sadie Thompson. Shorts include special intros for the
first 3-D film, Bwana Devil, hosted
by Lloyd Nolan (with a guest appearance by Beany & Cecil); Stardust in Your Eyes, which played
with Robot Monster and features
comic Slick Slaven, doing impressions, telling some jokes and singing a tune or
two.
Doom Town is a very odd take
on the Atom Bomb and tests that were being done at Yucca Flats. Somewhat flippant in its tone and very
critical of this new super weapon, it only played a few bookings and
disappeared from view. Another great
short is the Casper cartoon Boo Moon,
another Technicolor visual feast.
What
is most noteworthy (and appreciated) is the restoration/cleanup work that has
been done on these films. Many were
transferred from the only surviving elements and had properties such as color
fade, shrinkage and other damage. The
bane of 3-D presentations was always the potential of a technical foul-up that
even one frame could produce. The images
here are extremely clean and have been color corrected and registered in place
to be able to deliver a comfortable 3-D viewing experience (and will always be
in sync when viewed from this Blu-Ray). Kudos to Bob Furmanek at the 3-D Archive for
finding these gems as well as Greg Kintz for the digital restoration. They both
deserve a big hand for their efforts.
An
abbreviated version of the contents have just completed a successful run at New
York’s Museum of Modern Art and will be showing up in special engagements
across the country this summer.Please
check http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/3-d-rarities
for further information about this project and others.
Bonus Materials Include:
- Introductions by Leonard Maltin and Trustin Howard.
- Essays by Julian Antos, Hillary Hess, Thad Komorowski, Donald McWilliams, Ted
Okuda, Mary Ann Sell and Jack Theakston.
- 3-D photo galleries - Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), New York World's Fair
(1939), Sam Sawyer View-Master reels (1950) and 3-D Comic Books (1953).
- 3-D footage directed by Francis Ford Coppola from The Bellboy and the
Playgirls (1962).
- Commentary tracks by Thad Komorowski and Jack Theakston.
TO WATCH THE 3-D VERSIONS OF THESE FILMS, YOU NEED:
- 3D HDTV
- COMPATIBLE 3D GLASSES
- BLU-RAY 3DTM PLAYER OR PLAYSTATION 3 SYSTEM*
- HIGH-SPEED HDMI CABLE
The reversible sleeve features the original, magnificent poster art by Frank McCarthy.
NOTE: THIS REVIEW PERTAINS TO THE UK RELEASE
BY DARREN ALLISON
The Train 1964 Directed by John
Frankenheimer, Starring Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield and Jeanne Moreau. Arrow
Blu-Ray release date: 11th May 2015
John
Frankenheimer ‘s The Train is a realistic and engrossing account of the sabotaging
of a Nazi endeavour to smuggle a trainload of art treasures out of France
toward the end of World War II. Burt Lancaster gives a fine performance as Labiche,
leader of the French railway-workers' resistance – and the man chosen to lead
the sabotage and protect “the national heritage and pride of France!†Paul
Scofield's Nazi, Von Waldheim, is also excellent as the colonel who rants and
rages, almost to the point of obsession, in order to see that nothing stops the
train from completing its criminal mission.
Lancaster
dominates this movie, his strength; agility and sheer gutsy determination
provide a genuine sense of realism. Observing Lancaster (in his sheer physical
capacity) is enough to take one’s breath away. Watch those long (often single)
takes of him sliding down railway gantry ladders, and running along the
trackside before jumping on to the moving train – and you would be hard pushed
to feel anything but respect and admiration for his work. The Train is full of
astonishing action, collisions, and stunning set pieces – take for example the
air strike on the rail yard, an amazing and meticulously executed scene
containing some of the most realistic explosions and carnage.
Throughout
the thrills and spills, Lancaster also finds time for a little romance with Christine,
a tight-lipped, angry widow who runs a railroad-side hotel and played rather
nicely by Jeanne Moreau. But don’t let
this put you off for a minute, the romance is never given time to dominate or
overshadow the film’s narrative. The Train truly remains one of the great films
of the sixties. Frankenheimer’s camera often gives the film a documentary style
and the stark black and white photography does nothing but enhance the bleak
atmosphere of the times. Maurice Jarre’s
music score also adds extra depth to the movie without ever getting in the way
or overshadowing those realistically essential railroad sounds.
Arrow’s
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the film is quite superb. There
are good, deep blacks where required, often giving the film an almost noir
quality. It is also virtually free of any dust, dirt or speckles, and leaves
the previous MGM DVD looking very poor in comparison. The audio comprises of a
nice clear uncompressed 1.0 mono PCM track. Additional audio delights come in
the way of a commentary by director John Frankenheimer which is both engaging
and informative. In addition to that, Arrow has also gifted us with an optional
isolated score by composer Maurice Jarre. So there is plenty to be had in terms
of audio supplements.
Further
extras include: Burt Lancaster in the Sixties – a newly-filmed interview with
Lancaster’s biographer Kate Buford, tracing the actor’s career throughout the
decade. For me, the real winning bonus
material is in the Blu-Ray’s archival footage. This includes a French
television news report on the making of The Train, containing interviews with
the locals of Acquigny. There is also an
original interview with Michel Simon who was so memorable in the role of the
stubborn railroad resistance fighter Papa Boule. Plus, there is some wonderful
footage of The Train’s gala screening in Marseilles. The original theatrical
trailer is also included and rounds off a tidy and generous collection of extra
material.
Packaging
consists of a sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by
Vladimir Zimakov. I have to say, I’m not a fan of the new artwork which is a
little too abstract for my taste, especially in comparison to the beautiful
original poster art, which is thankfully contained on the reverse. I do admire
Arrow’s policy of a reversible sleeve, and can’t knock anyone who at least
provides a choice...
There
is also a very good collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Cinema
Retro contributor Sheldon Hall and is illustrated throughout with original
stills and artwork.
For
genuine fans of great sixties movies, it’s an essential piece of art for your
collection.
