06.25.10 | Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD BeatPrint this Post
Our Man Flynn: Errol Flynn may have best been known for his portrayals of Robin Hood, the Earl of Essex, General Custer and “Gentleman” Jim Corbett. But Flynn brought his rugged and often dashing demeanor to other roles as well, such as those contained in TCM Spotlight: Errol Flynn Adventures, a five-disc set showcasing the Tasmanian-born star. Included here are Desperate Journey (1942), in which he teams with fellow RAF pilot Ronald Reagan to escape the Nazis in Poland after their plane is downed; Edge of Darkness (1943), in which Flynn and Ann Sheridan are resistance fighters battling the Axis in a Norwegian fishing village; Northern Pursuit (1943), with Errol as a Mountie tracking down Nazi Helmut Dantine in the Canadian wilderness; Uncertain Glory (1944), with Flynn as a condemned murderer fleeing a Parisian prison following a British air raid; and Objective Burma! (1945), where the actor leads paratroopers trying to put the kibosh on Japanese forces in Burma. The amazing thing to us was how he got all of these films done in such a short span of time!
Be Our Guest: Disney’s 1991 classic Beauty and the Beast is getting the deluxe DVD and Blu-ray treatment, so the first animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award can be seen in a whole new light. Belle, Gaston, the Beast, and the rest of the crew will come vividly to life in the digital formats. On DVD, it comes as Beauty and the Beast (2-Disc DVD) and Beauty and the Beast (Diamond Edition) and on Blu-ray as Beauty and the Beast (Diamond Edition) . The songs include Belle, Be Our Guest and the Oscar-winning title track.
Olive’s Oil Well: The best news of the year for fans of classic titles just got real as newcomer Olive Films has announced the initial quintet of interesting efforts from the Paramount library. They are:
Dark City (1950): A top-notch noir with Charlton Heston in his first starring role as a guy whose poker buddy dies under mysterious circumstances, and who then finds himself targeted by his pal’s vengeful, menacing brother. A terrific cast also includes a pre-Dragnet Jack Webb and Henry Morgan, Mike Mazurki, Ed Begley, Lizabeth Scott, Viveca Lindfors, and Don DeFore, all under the direction of William Dieterle (Portrait of Jennie).
Union Station (1950): A thriller that makes expert use of L.A. locations, showcasing William Holden as a railroad detective trying to track down a kidnapped blind girl and the culprits behind the act. Rudolph Mate (The 300 Spartans) directs; Barry Fitzgerald, Nancy Olson and Lyle Bettger co-star.
Appointment with Danger (1951): Crackerjack crime saga with Alan Ladd as an investigator for the postal service trying to find two killers responsible for killing a colleague. Fast-paced dialogue and the presence (again) of Webb and Morgan add to the suspense of the final film of Ladd’s celebrated noir cycle (The Glass Key, This Gun for Hire), this one helmed by Lewis Allen (The Uninvited).
Crack in the World (1965): Dana Andrews is an ailing scientist who believes drilling into the Earth’s core will help bring much-needed heat to help the world. But rushing his groundbreaking experiment because of his illness can also lead to disaster, in this intelligent sci-fi saga directed by Andrew Marton (The Thin Red Line).
Hannie Caulder (1971): After she is raped and her husband is killed, frontier woman Raquel Welch seeks help from bounty hunter Robert Culp in tracking down the motley trio responsible for the crimes. And what a creepy crew they are: Jack Elam, Ernest Borgnine and L.Q. Jones. An underrated sagebrusher with Raquel at the peak of her beauty, a knockout cast (which also includes Diana Dors, Christopher Lee and Stephen Boyd) and a terrific score by Ken Thorne.
And, of course, Olive has a lot more in store!
Nice Heist: Rescued from obscurity by Blue Underground is Machine Gun McCain, a 1969 crime thriller that helped bring together John Cassavetes, Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands, three figures linked to the beginnings of the indie film movement. Shot by an Italian crew under the guidance of director Giuliano Montaldo (Grand Slam) in Las Vegas, the film tells of criminals Cassavetes and Rowlands who, upon leaving prison, hatch a plot to rob a new casino in Glitter Gulch. The problem is that the backing for the crime is coming from mobster Falk. Also playing parts in the increasingly complicated proceedings are gorgeous Britt Ekland and crime kingpin Tony Kendall. The action is pretty bloody, the music is by the great Ennio Morricone and there are some terrific shots of Vegas and its then-mighty casinos.
Criterion Corner: From the always interesting Criterion Collection comes two documentaries from director Terry Zwigoff. Crumb (1995), an intimate portrait of cartoonist R. Crumb, the eclectic cartoonist behind Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, comes in a special edition featuring 50 min. of unused footage and audio commentaries from Zwigoff and Roger Ebert, plus a booklet. Louie Bluie (1985) offers an affectionate survey of the life of Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong, member of the last all-black string band in America.
Also coming from Criterion: L’Enfance Nue (1968): Maurice Pialat’s (Loulou) drama about the troubles facing a foster child in France; The Secret of the Grain (2007), an epic, moving survey of a French-Arab family from director Abdellatif Kechiche; Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu, including the early works The Only Son (1936) and There Was a Father (1942); Black Narcissus (1947), Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s stunning examination of tensions—sexual and otherwise—in a remote convent in the Himalayas; Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (1948), the gorgeously filmed backstage dance drama/fantasy; and Black Orpheus (1959), Marcel Ophuls’ gorgeous reworking of the Orpheus and Eurydice story set in the Rio Carnival.
Silents Are Golden: Issued by Criterion, 3 Silent Classics by Josef Von Sternberg presents a trio of historically significant movies from the future Marlene Dietrich collaborator. Underworld (1927), penned by the Oscar-winning Ben Hecht, is an early gangster effort with George Bancroft as a hood and Evelyn Brent as his girl. The Last Command (1928) stars Emil Jannings in a mighty, Oscar-winning performance as a Russian general who leaves his motherland only to be hired to co-star in a movie about the Communist Revolution; and The Docks of New York (1928), in which Bancroft saves dancer Betty Compson from suicide, a feat that sparks romance between the two. The pristine quality prints are supplemented by new musical scores by Robert Israel and the Alloy Orchestra and a special booklet.
Also in the realm of silents comes Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Ultimate 2-Disc Edition), a new pressing of one of Keaton’s greatest triumphs. The 1928 tale of a college kid coming home and trying to be taught the tools of the trade of his steamboat captain father—and finding romance with the daughter of his dad’s arch-rival—now includes a version with alternate takes and a “making of” documentary.
Another from the Keaton department isLost Keaton: Sixteen Comedy Shorts 1934-37, in which his shorts from Educational Pictures have been collected on a two-disc set. The films were made after MGM fired the star in 1933 and include such titles as The Gold Ghost, Palooka from Peducah, The Timid Young Man and Grand Slam Opera.
Kino, one of the great dispensers of silent fare, is bringing out Fantomas: Five Film Collection, a multi-disc compilation of director Louis Feuillade’s silent serials, produced from 1913 through 1914. These adaptations of the popular crime fiction series offer Rene Navarre as the villainous Fantomas and Edmund Breon as Inspector Juve, his arch-rival. A master of deception and disguise, Fantomas actually appeared in scores of stories before Feuillade (Les Vampires) brought him to the big screen.
Universally Wanted: Universal has been inconsistent with their library titles of late, but they have put an interesting batch of new-to-DVD movies together for release. Among them are:
'night, Mother (1986): Marsha Norman’s Pulitzer Prize winner gets apowerhouse movie adaptation with Sissy Spacek as the suicidal daughter of Anne Bancroft.
Cross My Heart (1987): Winning romantic farce with Martin Short and Annette O’Toole as a dating couple experiencing their third night out, and now find themselves dealing with the half-truths they’ve told each other in the recent past.
The Allnighter (1987): Three sexy coeds led by The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs gear up for one big last splash at their surfside California college. In the process they find romance, sexy thrills and lots of videotape footage!
Going Berserk (1983): John Candy joins SCTV cronies Joe Flaherty and Eugene Levy for this wacky comedy in which John plays a limo service owner/drummer who is brainwashed by a cult to kill his politician future father-in-law.
The Greek Tycoon (1978): In this entertaining (and trashy) roman a clef about the life of Aristotle Onassis, Anthony Quinn plays the millionaire, with Jacqueline Bisset as Jackie Youknowwho and James Franciscus as a handsome politician. J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone, Cape Fear) directs.
Foreign Fare: This summer seems to be particularly fine in terms of foreign films that are not only worthwhile, but highly recommended. Among the most promising are these titles:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009): A disgraced journalist is called on by a wealthy family to find out what led to the disappearance of a teenage relative a generation ago. The wordsmith joins forces with an eccentric young computer expert to unearth long buried secrets in this knockout thriller based on the best-selling book by Stieg Larsson. (A Hollywood remake by David Fincher is already on the boards.)
The White Ribbon (2009): One of this year’s nominees for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, Michael Haneke’s disturbing black-and-white saga centers on an idyllic village in Germany just prior to WWI, where the children learn special lessons from their elders that may have an effect on them later.
A Prophet (2009): Also Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Film, this French and Italian language prison drama centers on a young Arab immigrant who learns the ways of crime and uses it to become a powerful ganglord once out from the slammer.
Ajami (2009): Another nominee for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award was this powerful drama from Israel that depicts struggles in a neighborhood in which Jews, Muslims and Christians live and deal with violence on a daily basis.
There are several notable entries from South Korea being issued on DVD:
The Good, the Bad and the Weird (2008): A Korean Western? You bet! Set in Japanese-occupied Machuria in the 1930s, this homage to Sergio Leone tells of a group of bandits who think they’ve uncovered a map to treasure, while others believe they have top secret plans for a railway built by the Japanese Army.
May 18 (2007): An intense retelling of the 1980 Gwangju massacre of thousands of students and protestors in South Korea.
Seven Days (2007): After her daughter is kidnapped, a lawyer (Lost’s Sunjim Kim) is forced by the anonymous culprits to defend a man on a murder charge in this top-notch suspenser.
The Bong Joon-ho Collection includes The Host (2006), a terrific shocker that mixes monster movie thrills, sentiment, political commentary and unexpected laughs; Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), in which a grad student with a pregnant wife attempts to do something about a yapping dog in his apartment complex; and Mother (2009), in which the single parent of a mentally challenged kid accused of murdering a school girl pulls out all the stops to find the real killers. All titles are also available separately.
Jolly Roger: Roger Corman’s New World hits keep a-comin’, thanks to Shout Factory! It only makes sense that Piranha (1978), Joe Dante’s gory and spoofy water terror classic, gets the DVD and Blu-ray treatment, what with Piranha 3-D coming to theaters in August. Joining those little fanged sea monstrosities on DVD and Blu-ray is Humanoids from the Deep (1980), a diabolical tale of mutated monsters who terrorize teens and impregnate women in the Pacific Northwest. Also tagged for release is the double bill of Deathsport/Battletruck. In 1978’s Deathsport, David Carradine is a loincloth-clad futuristic warrior who rides a motorcycle and helps Claudia Jennings find her daughter. In 1982’s Battletruck, a woman join forces with a rebellious biker to take on her evil father, who uses a truck to pillage scared citizens in a petroleum-needy futuristic world. Exploitation fans should enjoy all of these to the core.
Speaking of recent AMPAS honoree Corman, worth mentioning is Best of the B's Collection 2, a blast of great sleazoid cinema past from New World’s early ‘70s output. Included in this set are The Student Nurses, Private Duty Nurses, Night Call Nurses, The Young Nurses, Candy Stripe Nurses, The Student Teachers and Summer School Teachers. Loaded with violence, nudity and a smidgeon of social conscience, these films represent drive-in thrills and spills of a bygone era. Such directors as George Armitage (Miami Blues) and Jonathan Kaplan (The Accused) got their early assignments in these films. The collection also includes great trailers in the bold Corman marketing mode.
Reel Life: A few acclaimed documentaries are slated to make their way to DVD. We highly recommend:
Nollywood Babylon (2008): Who knew that the Nigerian film industry was one of the biggest of the world? Why is that, and what goes on behind the scenes? Find out what role witchcraft plays in the movie production world. Learn why the films usually are made for the home market and meet the country’s most prolific filmmaker, a man who cranks out films in two weeks.
Don’t You Forget About Me (2009): For a completely different look at the film industry, this documentary examines the films and career of John Hughes, a Hollywood golden boy who dropped out of the limelight after amazing success to quietly retire. Made before the filmmaker’s untimely death last year, the film features interviews with actors and producers who worked with him and includes attempts by the doc’s filmmakers to track him down.
The Art of the Steal (2010): This controversial true-life effort looks into the debate over the incredible art collection of the Barnes Foundation, a trove of impressionist and modernist work willed to be kept in near-seclusion in a Philly suburb but sought by powerful movers and shakers to be moved to more commercial digs on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
