Croatian animation wizard Dušan Vukotić co-wrote and directed this Sci-fi comedy that gently elbows the genre. It unspools like a children’s film for adults, teasing nudity, exaggerated violence, etc.. The Fun and Games play with a Philip K. Dick idea — the fertile mind of a frustrated Sci-fi writer can morph reality. The aliens he…

Spinout Blu-ray Warner Archive 1966 / 2.35.1 Starring Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, Deborah Walley Directed by Norman Taurog Elvis Presley contained multitudes but he was most recognizable as the hillbilly genius of the recording booth and the walking-talking mannequin on a Hollywood assembly line. He starred in 31 movies between 1956 and 1969, making three…

Strikingly original & endlessly creative, Charles Laughton’s solo directorial effort continues to stun audiences with the expressive power of pure cinema. It’s an ‘American Primitive’ mix of storybook candor and nightmare imagery; the performances are styled after an earlier era of direct drama. Davis Grubb’s theme is more relevant than ever — the conflict of…

Spaghetti westerns are are still popular, especially with high-quality releases like this available. This 1967 pseudo-Django oater is from the boxed set Blood Money – Four Western Classics Vol. 2. It’s concocted to appeal to the fans of Sergio Leone. Gianni Garko is a handsome if colorless bounty hunter hero, and the notorious actor Claudio…

Tagging Carl Franklin’s superb crime thriller as a neo-noir isn’t enough; it’s practically perfect despite being made at a direct-to-video production level. Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams and Billy Bob Thornton give some of the best performances of the 1990s. We also marvel at Thornton and Tom Epperson’s screenplay, which advances some good thinking about race…

Ruthless spy thrills, big-star glitz plus pretensions of political importance: Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway find career-sustaining momentum in this slick, top-talent espionage tale on the fashionable end of post- Watergate paranoia. It’s a box office winner for director Sydney Pollack, who gives the show his special energy — he was Robert Redford’s most consistent…

The old TV Guide blurb nailed it: “Hidden in a radioactive cloud, a creature from outer space awaits its next victim.” CineSavant braves the freezing heights of the Trollenberg to wildly over-analyze this curiously fascinating bit of Brit Sci-fi, made on the cheap yet an over-achiever for imaginative suspense and jolting Jump Scares. Forrest Tucker…

“Anything Goes in Wichita!”  In the second half of his starring career Joel McCrea turned to westerns, favoring ‘kinder and gentler’ scripts when possible. This civilized telling of part of the Wyatt Earp story was McCrea’s first collaboration with producer Walter Mirisch. It’s an Allied Artists ‘A’ picture right down the line, and a special…

Jacques Deray’s Yankee-style Buddy picture was a smash in France, with its stellar pairing of Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo. The expensive epic is a gangster picture suitable for James Cagney, but set in 1930 Marseille and stressing elaborate period costumes, automobiles and fancy décor. Our boys take turns admiring the attractive female stars, punching…

This 2016 restoration helps Eugene O’Neill’s seagoing story retake its place as one of John Ford’s most accomplished pictures. John Wayne stars as part of an ensemble — Ford’s direction and Gregg Toland’s cinematography are the stars. A crew of ordinary merchant seaman must sail into wartime waters. O’Neill provides the ironic character studies, and…

All hail the lowly output of Hollywood’s Poverty Row, where mediocrity ruled and good work was rarely rewarded. This potboiler about an avaricious slayer of ‘inconvenient’ suitors is memorable for its low-rent charm and rather vague performances — although glamorous leading lady Leslie Brooks is quite capable with both gun and knife. We celebrate this…

After Hours Blu-ray Criterion 1985 / 1.85 : 1 Starring Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Linda Fiorentino Directed by Martin Scorsese “After hours” usually means a late night at the office, but it also portends the Witching Hour, a time of day when spells are cast and ordinary objects—like a set of house keys or a…

The Puppetoon Movie Volume 3 Blu-ray – Region Free Puppetoon™ Productions 1936-70 / 1.37:1 Starring Duke Ellington, Woody Herman Directed by George Pal Though separated by 73 years, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and George Pal’s Puppetoons were each created with stop-motion animation—an arcane process developed in the 19th century and requiring the obsessive dedication of…

They said ‘We’ll always have Paris,’ but for three weeks in 1944 the survival of the City of Light was in grave doubt. This gigantic all-star national epic didn’t please everyone yet will dazzle viewers willing to accept the city itself as the star. Working from a screenplay by two Americans, director René Clément shows…

Everyone’s favorite gun-down & sing-along John Wayne western is also Howard Hawks’ cagy comeback in an industry that had left him behind. Hawks stitched together favorite ‘pieces’ of his 1940s hits and imposed the structure of an impromptu TV sitcom. Accompanying the box office powerhouse Wayne is a comedian-crooner still proving his worth as an…

Abraham Polonsky’s ode to corruption in the American success story is one of film noir’s most artistic achievements as well as John Garfield’s best film. It’s realistic in tone, yet its dialogues are stylized almost to the level of poetry. A hotshot lawyer goes too far while lobbying for a ‘slightly illegal’ racket. Blinded by…

Five Films Directed by Budd Boetticher.   “Pure western heaven” is the catchphrase for Budd Boetticher’s perfectly-scaled ruminations on ethics and actions in an imperfect wilderness. The five RANdolph-brOWN features here present Randolph Scott’s range rider as an icon of masculine nobility. The new 4K encodings transport home theaters to a lost era of horse-opera…

Sidney Lumet directs his first on-location New York crime picture, giving the escapist heist thriller a taste of paranoid cinema to come. Released after ten years in stir, thief Sean Connery launches into an immediate raid on a swank 5th Avenue apartment building, not realizing that a Brave New Surveillance World is watching and recording…

Those joyous School Days of intimidation, threats, and Murder!  The helpful extras on this new Blu release explain how this tale of cold-blooded malice in a British ‘public school’ ( = a private school with a steep tuition) is deeply rooted in UK culture. This film version brilliantly directed by John Mackenzie reflects a restrained,…

As his career wound down Akira Kurosawa found new champions among Hollywood’s young ‘film student’ generation, several of whom helped him secure financing for important film projects. Warner Brothers backed this utterly personal film of poetic expression, containing several ‘short stories’ illustrated with fanciful visuals. Kurosawa’s ‘dreams’ include a mythical fable, a haunted tale of…

William Wyler’s perennial charmer is 100% undiluted entertainment: Gregory Peck and the new star Audrey Hepburn share a Roman fairy tale that’s also a tourist’s dream. A runaway Princess takes in the town like a galavanting Cinderella, not realizing that she’s being set up for an image-damaging photojournalism exposé. The show is a hands-down joy…

Soundies: The Ultimate Collection Blu-ray Kino Lorber 1940-46 / 1.33:1 Starring Dorothy Dandridge, Hoagy Carmichael Directed by Josef Berne, William Forest Crouch, Reginald Le Borg In 1940, The Mills Novelty Company introduced their newest brainchild—a vending machine that served up Duke Ellington instead of  Coca-Cola. It was called the Panoram and resembled a jukebox the…

Robert Wise’s Italy-filmed epic looks better than ever on Blu, showcasing a fine cast and imaginative special effects. It’s a straight telling of Homer’s The Iliad with just a drop of Cold War attitude — this time the Greeks are the unreasonable aggressors. Neither Rossana Podestà nor Jacques Sernas excited the critics of ’56, but…

James Coburn’s starring film career began with projects he deemed ‘far-out’ — and writer-director Bernard Girard promptly hooked him on this eccentric thriller about an infallibly seductive con-man. It’s a low-key, non-violent puzzle picture about a perfect heist, and also a guessing game that skips from San Francisco to Denver to Boston to Los Angeles,…

Elia Kazan hits 4K with an extras-lean but visually stunning edition of this early CinemaScope feature, now rated ‘PG.’  It’s James Dean’s first and best starring role, and with Kazan in charge the actors push the ‘drama’ accelerator to the floor. It still holds up, with top-billed Julie Harris doing everything Dean does, but effortlessly…

The Pied Piper Blu-ray Deaf Crocodile 1989 / 53 Min. / 1.37:1 Starring Oldrich Kaiser, Jirí Lábus Written by Kamil Pixa Directed by Jiří Barta In 1897’s Dracula, Bram Stoker warned of a plague in human form, and it was Renfield who sounded the alarm: “Rats, rats, rats! Hundreds, thousands, millions of them, and every…