Articles by Charlie Largent

The Lady Eve

The Lady Eve Blu ray  Criterion 1941/ 94 min. Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest Cinematography by Victor Milner Directed by Preston Sturges In The Lady Eve a wealthy ophiologist named Charlie Pike and a sexy card shark named Jean Harrington fall in love. It’s a rapid-fire romance fueled by equal portions of love and lust…

The Flesh and the Fiends

The Flesh and the Fiends Blu ray Kino Lorber 1960 /95 min. Starring Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, George Rose, Billie Whitelaw Cinematography by Monty Berman Directed by John Gilling The Flesh and the Fiends lives up to its name and then some. The setting is Scotland but the squalid streets and charnel houses suggest Dickens’…

The Thief of Baghdad

The Thief of Baghdad Blu ray – All Region Colosseo Film 1961 /100 min. Starring Steve Reeves, Georgia Moll, Arturo Dominici Cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli Directed by Arthur Lubin When he shuffled off this mortal coil in 1995, Arthur Lubin’s New York Times obituary was titled “Arthur Lubin, 96, Director Of ‘Mr. Ed’ TV…

Never Give a Sucker an Even Break

Never Give a Sucker an Even Break Blu ray  Kino Lorber 1941 /77 min. Starring W.C. Fields, Franklin Pangborn, Leon Errol Cinematography by Charles Van Enger Directed by Edward Cline If Larsen E. Whipsnade ever laid eyes on Harold Bissonette, his mouth would water. Bissonette, a mild-mannered grocer for whom no good deed goes unpunished,…

Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection

Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection  Blu ray  Severin Films 1965 – 1989 / 2841 min. Starring Russ Tamblyn, Regina Carrol, Lon Chaney Cinematography by Gary Graver, Vilmos Zsigmond, László Kovács Directed by Al Adamson, David Gregory The titles grab you by the collar like a desperate carny barker – Psycho A Go-Go, Blood of Ghastly…

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland  Blu ray  Kino Lorber 1933 / 1.33:1/ 76 min. Starring Charlotte Henry, W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper Cinematography by Bert Glennon, Henry Sharp Directed by Norman Z. McLeod Written by Harvey Kurtzman with art by Jack Davis, Mad‘s 1954 parody of Alice in Wonderland stands as a succinct critique of Paramount Pictures’s 1933…

Destry Rides Again

Destry Rides Again  Blu ray  Criterion 1939 / 1.33:1/ 95 min. Starring Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart Cinematography by Hal Mohr Directed by George Marshall America’s favorite boy next door meets the Weimar Republic’s preeminent vamp in George Marshall’s Destry Rides Again. James Stewart plays Tom Destry, the self-effacing straight-shooter who cleans up a lawless backwater…

The Bat

The Bat  Blu ray  The Film Detective 1959 / 1.85:1/ 80 min. Starring Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead Cinematography by Joseph Biroc Directed by Crane Wilbur Released during the dog days of summer in August of 1959, The Bat was an air-conditioned summer treat for the  eight year-old unprepared for a blood and thunder horror movie –…

Reflections in a Golden Eye

Reflections in a Golden Eye  Blu ray  Warner Archives 1967 / 2.35:1/ 108 min. Starring Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Brian Keith, Julie Harris Cinematography by Aldo Tonti Directed by John Huston “There is a fort in the South where a few years ago a murder was committed.” That’s an oddly detached way to begin a…

Alastair Sim’s School for Laughter

Staring down his prey with sunken eyes and a sinister smile, Alastair Sim was the fiend Charles Addams never got around to drawing. Sim was a quick-change artist who didn’t need makeup to transform from a grasping monster into your favorite uncle – it’s why he remains the greatest interpreter of Ebenezer Scrooge. Whether playing…

The Head

The Head  DVD – Region 2 Only – No English Audio or Subtitles Delta Music & Entert. GmbH & Co. KG 1959 / 1.33:1 / 97 min. Starring Michel Simon, Horst Frank, Karin Kernke Cinematography by Georg Krause Directed by Victor Trivas A scientist who operates out of a starkly Modernist laboratory of glass and…

The Great Gildersleeve Movie Collection

The Great Gildersleeve Movie Collection DVD Warner Archive 1942, ’43, ’44 / 1.33:1 / 62, 63, 64, 63 min. Starring Harold Peary, Jane Darwell, Freddie Mercer, Nancy Gates Cinematography by Frank Redman, Jack MacKenzie Directed by Gordon Douglas, Tim Whelan Like the transition from silent movies to the talkies, the progression from radio to film…

The Uninvited

The Uninvited Blu ray Criterion 1944 / 1.33:1 / 99 min. Starring Ray Milland, Gail Russell, Ruth Hussey Cinematography by Charles Lang Directed by Lewis Allen The story of a lonely young woman and the ghosts in her life, Dorothy Macardle’s Uneasy Freehold was published in 1941 and brought to the screen in 1944 as…