The Ladykillers 4K ULTRA HD + Blu-ray Kino Lorber 1955 / 91 min / 1.37:1 & 1.66:1 Starring Alec Guinness, Katie Johnson, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers Written by Alexander Mackendrick, William Rose Photographed by Otto Heller Directed by Alexander Mackendrick British comedy has always depended on an understated quality, and nothing was as understated as…

The Warner Archive’s latest MGM Technicolor bon-bon is this strained musical bio — Mickey Rooney as Lorenz Hart? — that nevertheless can boast an impressive revue lineup of performances: Judy Garland, Betty Garrett, Lena Horne, Mickey Rooney, Mel Tormé et al. The showstopper is one of Gene Kelly’s earliest ‘music ballet’ extravaganzas — he dances…

Corporate culture had been around for years when the ‘Office Hell’ genre arrived, and this sleek fable from cubicle-land is both one of the best and one of the least seen. The much abused office temps Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow and Alanna Ubach don’t have the luxury of cubicles, or even desks of…

No sooner do we dig up an old review for this horror masterpiece, than StudioCanal remasters it with a 4K scan and Kino adds some quality extras — just in time to start off the CineSavant Halloween season. College professor Peter Wyngarde refuses to believe that his missus Janet Blair has secured his high academic…

Jackie Chan’s legendary ‘Project A’ pictures reach 4K in a boxed set as lavish as home video can get. Chan’s pals Sammo Hung and Biao Yuen, and the amazing Chan Stunt Team assemble two of the most frenetic, athletic & death-defying comic action thrillers ever; the first is a Marines-vs-pirates epic and the second a…

The Lost Picture Show Blu-ray Vinegar Syndrome 1966-1974 / 843 min / 1.37:1 & 1.85:1 Starring Robert Dix, Rene Bond, Ray Molina Written by Walter M. Berger, Oliver Drake Photographed by Bruce G. Sparks, Glen Tracy Directed by Walter Burns, Joe Sarno, Al Zugsmith A grungy mix of sex, violence, and mushroom clouds, Vinegar Syndrome‘s…

“Space Flight: A Fantastic Story.”  As ’50s kids we assumed that Soviet claims of ‘firsts’ in space science were a pack of lies. But this once- incredibly obscure 1936 silent feature dramatizes the space travel theories of a visionary Russian scientist who first published in the 1880s. The year is 1946 when the space ship…

Patricio Guzmán’s 3-part ‘you are there’ documentary of the beleaguered presidency of Chile’s Salvador Allende goes into great detail to show how a democratically-elected government can be destroyed from within. Guzmán’s cameras witness terrible events leading to the military attack on the presidential palace on September 11, 1973. It’s an amazing achievement — the film…

It’s still the best gangster film of the post- Godfather era. Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren are a striking couple at the top of London’s crime scene; Hoskins’ Cockney fireball Harold Shand is about to transform his crooked lifestyle with Mafia money and a land development scheme. Becoming the Posh Prince of the City has…

Kino’s 21st noir series entry gives us two winners and a not-bad contender. Fritz Lang’s Cloak and Dagger with Gary Cooper and Lilli Palmer is a grim spy chase to keep atom secrets out of enemy hands; the weird Shack Out on 101 with Terry Moore, Lee Marvin and Frank Lovejoy sees a Malibu diner…

All of the Warner Archives’ newly-remastered MGM musicals are terrific, and this 1950 musical bio with Fred Astaire is no exception. His dancing partner is Vera-Ellen, and he’s backed up by Red Skelton playing a dramatic role. Looking smashing in Technicolor are Arlene Dahl and Gloria De Haven, and Debbie Reynolds and Carleton Carpenter make…

Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader teamed several times, and this harrowing nightmare about Ambulance EMTs trying to wade through the chaos of drug & gang-ridden Manhattan is an effort that deserves more praise. Nicolas Cage’s EMT Frank is flipping out under the stress of the work and a guilt complex he can’t shake. He tries…

The Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants, Kingdom of the Spiders Blu-ray Kino Lorber 1976-77 Starring Ida Lupino, Joan Collins, William Shatner Written by Bert I. Gordon, Alan Caillou Photographed by Reginald Herbert Morris, John Arthur Morrill Directed by Bert I. Gordon, John Cardos Underestimate Bert I. Gordon at your peril, his movies…

Lolita Starring James Mason, Peter Sellers, Sue Lyon, Shelley Winters Written by Vladimir Nabokov and Stanley Kubrick Photographed by Oswald Morris and Gil Taylor (title sequence) Directed by Stanley Kubrick The headline was inescapable; “How did they ever make a movie of Lolita?” Thanks to the persistence of the Hollywood hype machine, the paying public…

Wim Wenders’ tale of one man’s attainment of personal harmony is halfway between documentary and drama, with a strong dose of clear-headed philosophy. A focus on a Tokyo toilet attendant becomes a positive, life-affirming meditation on coping with the modern world’s false goals and confining ‘lifestyle demands.’ The star Kôji Yakusho won a Best Actor…

Enjoy one of Jean-Pierre Melville’s finest, remastered on 4K and looking good. It’s a complicated story of thieves betraying thieves, the wrinkle being the contrast between weary ex-con Serge Reggiani and the slickest of slicksters, Jean-Paul Belmondo. ‘Doulos’ is slang for ‘informer,’ but Belmondo appears to be engaged in a massive con job, framing his…

One of the most accomplished Czech fantasies comes to Blu-ray — nostalgic pulp fiction set in 1900 Prague. Yankee detective Nick Carter finds himself in a life & death struggle against his old arch-nemesis ‘The Gardener,’ the seductive femme fatale Irma, and a monstrous carnivorous plant with the fearsome name Adéla. Cartoonish inventions and weird…

Fans of westerns will love Robert Benton’s takedown of wild west mythmaking: Civil War draft evaders Jeff Bridges and Barry Brown learn the hard lessons of frontier outlawry, scavenging their way across Kansas and falling prey to established outlaws. The experience could be called character-building, except for the part about starvation and getting one’s head…

It’s a paranoid murder thriller without shoot-outs or car chases. The ‘we’ administer an entirely corrupt system of law and justice that has held for hundreds of years. And heaven help those that rock the boat. Gian Maria Volontè’s academic seeks the truth about his two slain friends, but is distracted by his attraction to…

Doubt and uncertainty have a life of their own. John Patrick Shanley’s film of his powerhouse play studies the cloud of suspicion over a priest in a church school who refuses to kowtow to unreasoning persecution … or are the schoolmaster’s instincts correct, and the priest’s gentle ways with his students evidence that he’s a…

Yet another eye-opener from 1960s Japan — the story of a young woman’s downfall is told with truth and conviction, with an especially powerful performance from star Miyuki Kuwano. Director Noboru Nakamura’s intimate account is bathed in the neon of the vice district; the fine script makes us realize how easily girls are ensnared in…

It’s the most over-analyzed and over-interpreted western ever. Postwar politics may be quicksand, but it’s still about Gary Cooper’s Marshall Kane getting caught in a three-way taffy pull: how does The Code Of The West prioritize his conflicting pledges to his community, to law and order, to plain survival, and to his Quaker bride Grace…

This big hit from the yuppie decade launched a career that won’t die: with digital de-ageing, Tom Cruise can now throw out that portrait in his attic. What other 62 year-old enters via parachute at the Olympics? Paul Brickman brought the pubescent sex fantasy to the mainstream, with the spectacle of Cruise dancing in his…

Burt Reynolds was among the first American actors to ‘do a Clint Eastwood’ and rush to Rome, but in his case the career boost didn’t happen. Sergio Corbucci turns out a Spaghetti with neither rhyme or reason, just continuous action, stuntwork and slaughter. Burt’s impressive athleticism is a kick but what really brings us back…

This excellent true story of political bribery in Tennessee has a genuine heroine at its center. Sissy Spacek plays a governor’s aide set up to grease pardons for violent offenders, who blows the whistle in her own defense. Jeff Daniels is the fixer running the scheme; attorney and future Senator Fred Thompson became a film…

Take a trip to the ’50s roots of French crime cinema, now redubbed ‘French noir.’ Obsessed with American cars and movies, Jean-Pierre Melville nevertheless brings original flavor and philosophy to his first thriller. ‘Bob the Gambler’ is a friend to all in the Paris underworld and a gent when it comes to women. But he’s…