Horrors of the Black Museum Blu-ray VCI 1959 / 93 Mins. / 2.35.1 Starring Michael Gough, Shirley Anne Field Written by Aben Kendel, Herman Cohen Photographed by Desmond Dickinson Directed by Arthur Crabtree A dull novelist but an inspired serial killer, Edmond Bancroft collects rare artifacts with that special someone in mind—just now he’s gifted…

“Feed Me!”  Female ghosts and man-eating plants!  It’s another good disc of Roger Corman favorites, especially for collectors hungry for an improved presentation of Corman’s comedy classic The Little Shop of Horrors, the hilarious off-the-wall original. Also looking good is his semi-pirated ‘add-on’ entry to the Poe cycle THE TERROR, starring Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson…

In this racy MGM pre-Code, the stock market crash dumps society playgirl Joan Crawford into the working class. She toils at a newspaper but her brother consorts with bootleggers — and both of them are targeted by gangster Clark Gable. Sparks fly in Crawford & Gable’s first screen teaming, which has a bit of everything…

Robert Aldrich’s second hardboiled detective tale is filtered through Steve Shagan’s style of whining nostalgia. Cop Burt Reynolds wants to fix his problematic relationship with call girl Catherine Deneuve, but he’s caught up in an ugly case involving sex trafficking, corruption and a dead teen runaway. Eddie Albert and Ben Johnson provide different kinds of…

Terrence Malick and Néstor Almendros rewrote the rule books for imagery and narrative on this story of quiet desperation in the agrarian America of a bygone age. We discovered Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard; Linda Manz joined the ranks of cult names. Days of Heaven 4K 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray The Criterion…

The Criminal Acts of Tod Slaughter Blu-ray – Region Free Powerhouse Indicator 1935-1940 / 1.33.1 Starring Tod Slaughter, Eric Portman, Marjorie Taylor Written by H.F. Maltby, A. R. Rawlinson Photographed by Hone Glendinning, Ronald Neame Directed by George King, Milton Rosmer, David MacDonald In 1934 a young filmmaker named George King jumpstarted his career with…

‘The Fight on the Island’  Nine years before Bertolucci’s The Conformist, Jean-Louis Trintignant played another right-wing zealot dispatched on a murder mission. Filmed in Paris and Normandy, Alain Cavalier’s gem of a thriller depicts anti-democratic militant terror subversives in action in France, at the same time that the notorious OAS was active. Romy Schneider takes…

It says so in the song: when Barbarella and I get together the planets all stand still!  Arrow and Paramount bring Roger Vadim’s intergalactic bande-dessinée to 4K, for the enjoyment of Home Theaters equipped for the high-resolution format. Jane Fonda’s fille de l’espace spreads Free Love to the ends of the Galaxy, while thwarting Milo…

Everybody likes this picture. James L. Brooks’ major hit movie, adapted from the novel by Larry McMurtry, charts the rocky relationship of a Texan mother and daughter. Audiences loved the clashing personalities and quirky interaction between stars Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and especially Jack Nicholson as the discipline-problem ex- astronaut next door. Name an award,…

Adventuresome crime generates high thrills in Michael Crichton’s entertaining heist picture, adapted from his own novel set in 1855. Charming crook Sean Connery, light-fingered ‘screwsman’ Donald Sutherland and saucy Lesley-Anne Down pull off a slick caper in the age of gaslight and Victorian elegance. The lavish production puts Connery through some incredible real-life stunts atop…

Have you heard The Word, NASA?  The other name for Mars is Death. The nifty screenplay by Sci-fi scribe Jerome Bixby lends the horror chills a basic logic, when Marshall Thompson & Shawn Smith battle a Martian stowaway on board a homebound spaceship. This Kino disc of the monsterrific ’50s favorite improves the transfer and…

Hollywood’s first talkie version of the Nathaniel Hawthorne classic was also the final film of silent superstar Colleen Moore. The dramatization of the Puritan ABCs (what do the B & C stand for?) is also a post-Code downer, putting the shame firmly on Mame Hester Prynne even as it exposes the hypocrisy of colonial intolerance….

An MIA ‘film prodigal’ has been returned to the fold, thanks to this well-curated restoration and remaster. Long unavailable in good condition, we can finally enjoy Riccardo Freda’s Gothic masterpiece as it should be seen, in glowing color and with a choice of language tracks. The tagline “His candle of lust burnt brightest in the…

William Holden earned his Best Actor Oscar as J.J. Sefton, a POW who runs the rackets in the prisoners’ barracks, and whose cynical opportunism attracts the hatred of his fellow prisoners. Suspected as a traitor collaborating with the Germans, Sefton doesn’t hide his contempt for his comrades. Adapting this Broadway hit was a career-saver for…

This overlooked and orphaned drama presents Candice Bergen as an alienated newcomer to Chicago. James Caan contributes a carefully modulated performance, and Peter Boyle feels real in a part that we’d expect to be pitched for comedy. Writer Peter Hyams presents a dark tale of Woe in the City, director Herbert Ross emphasizes the gloom…

Sci-fi completists and diehard fans of ‘fifties TV fun will want to know about this remastered disc containing all 13 episodes of the short-lived 1959 TV series, starring Marshall Thompson as America’s ‘tom thumb in a suitcase’ superspy, and Arthur Franz as his full-sized secret agent partner. Vintage special effects see them battle oversized animals…

Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers Blu-ray Criterion 1925, 1927, 1932 / 70, 66, 64 Min. / 1.33.1 Starring Aileen Pringle, Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Wallace Ford Written by Tod Browning, Waldemar Young, Willis Goldbeck Photographed by Ira H. Morgan, Merritt B. Gerstad Directed by Tod Browning 1931’s Dracula remains Tod Browning’s most enduring film but it’s…

Tod Browning’s final fantastic film is . . . totally bonkers. Humans are reduced in size and dispatched like zombies to take revenge on a prison escapee’s enemies. It’s all to enable the escapee to reunite with his beloved daughter, so why not paralyze some chumps and condemn the puppet people to a strange living…

Behold this mindless monster duo from the Feelin’ Fine summer of ’59, Texas- produced and ready to tear up drive-in screens. THE GIANT GILA MONSTER is truth in advertising, plus you get hot rods, non-rebellious teen rebels, and gospel-folk ‘rock’ music to accompany the hungry lizard with the flippidy flippidy tongue. The second show is…

The Others 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Criterion 2001 / 104 Min. / 1.85.1 Starring Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Alakina Mann, James Bentley Written by Alejandro Amenábar Photographed by Javier Aguirresarobe Directed by Alejandro Amenábar If it’s possible for one movie to haunt another, then surely the spirit of Jack Clayton’s The Innocents walks alongside…

Wow, this truly inspirational film sees modern realities vanquishing a traditional way of life — and doesn’t pull the usual reverential heartstrings. Michael Powell’s breakout feature combines ethnographic docu-realism with the cinematic image-communication he learned in silent movies, and the result is a masterpiece — an adult art film that needs make no excuses. The…

Cujo Blu-ray 4K UltraHD Kino Lorber 1983 / 93 Min. / 1.85.1 Starring Dee Wallace, Daniel Hugh-Kelly, Danny Pintauro, Christopher Stone Written by Don Carlos Dunaway, Lauren Currier Photographed by Jan De Bont Directed by Lewis Teague If, as Charles Bukowski wrote, “Love is a dog from hell”, then Cujo qualifies as one of the…

Somebody at Universal-International had a good, fresh idea for a psychologically-based murder thriller — but was the studio system not conducive to creative experimentation? Ray Danton and Colleen Miller put their all into a story that feels like a rough draft for Psycho, with a main character doing his best to be ‘normal’ yet prey…

Paramount’s contribution to Halloween ’23 — and its signal of support for hard video media — comes in the form of this horror gift box with five very different flavors of Scary: Rosemary’s Baby,  Pet Sematary,  Crawl,  Smile  and a  ‘mystery title’ we’ve been asked not to reveal. All are in 4K with Digital codes;…

Black Sabbath Blu-ray Kino Lorber 1963 / 92 Min. / 1.85.1 Starring Boris Karloff, Michéle Mercier, Mark Damon, Written by Marcello Fondato, Alberto Bevilacqua, Mario Bava Photographed by Ubaldo Terzano Directed by Mario Bava Sam Arkoff and Jim Nicholson were not generally known for their altruism but as founders of American International Pictures, they would…

The Woman in Black 1989 / 103 Mins. / 1.33: 1 Starring Adrian Rawlins, Bernard Hepton, Pauline Moran Written by Nigel Kneale Directed by Herbert Wise CineSavant Revival Screening – Halloween Edition Born and raised in Victoria’s England, Miss Jessel and Janet Goss were women who loved too well and paid the price. They shared…