Sony surprises us with another fine 4K upgrade for an unheralded classic in the Columbia library. It’s a shipwreck survival tale that challenges ship’s officer Tyrone Power with a series of impossible decisions. The most important is a heartbreaker: everyone will drown if the 9-person lifeboat continues to carry the 26 people presently clinging to…
This early starring feature for Jean-Paul Belmondo co-stars him with Christine Kaufmann in an episodic crime tale. One friend tries to spring another from prison, while contending with gangsters on his home turf. It’s uneven but has many excellent scenes, especially a midsection filmed in le taule. Also starring Michel Constantine and Béatrice Altariba, and…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week we get vengeful, as we pair wines with movies about getting even. Denmark produced Riders of Justice in 2020. In case you didn’t think the Danes had a good sense…
Pacifism goes Panavision and color in Richard Attenborough’s first directorial effort, a musical epic of the tragedy of World War One. The mirth and magic — and despair — comes from songs sung in the trenches, that were given alternate, irreverent lyrics by the soldiers themselves. An endless cast of English stars appear, in good…
Dan Duryea’s slimy killer fesses up to a cold-blooded murder, but insists that the victim’s wife Patricia Owens hired him to do it! This cheap English production is only fitfully competent but we were fascinated anyway … it provides more context to the story of a big film producer run out of Hollywood by the…
Harryhausen comes at last to 4K Ultra HD! We hoped that the improved scan would bring out more to see in the master animator’s brightest film, and our initial response is a big Yes. The video remastering people at Sony have done a good job, taking advantage of the newer format’s improvements while retaining the…
The creative part of this international genre hybrid was assembling its dynamite all-star cast. The concept is unbeatable: what kid doesn’t want to see Toshiro Mifune as a samurai, fighting to redeem his honor in the Old West? He tangles with outlaws Charles Bronson and Alain Delon, with Honeychile Ryder Ursula Andress thrown in for…
God help me, I liked Evil Dead Burn. I wasn’t expecting to. Don’t get me wrong: I loved the original Evil Dead trilogy, and after a while I even came around to the 2013 remake. The remake was a very different kettle of innards, steering far away from the Looney Tunes joy of possessed Bruce…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week, we are happy to feature three films from the late, great, Samuel Fuller. Unfortunately, I can claim no relation. We are happy to drink a toast to the man, with a…
