Murder, He Says Blu ray Kino Lorber 1945 / 1.33:1 / 94 min. Starring Fred MacMurray, Marjorie Main, Peter Whitney Cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl Directed by George Marshall The Snopes family were a collection of Southern-fried scoundrels introduced by William Faulkner in 1940’s The Hamlet—over the course of three novels and several short stories, the…
The Mad Magician Blu ray Powerhouse Films/Indicator 1954 / 1.85:1 / 73 min. Starring Vincent Price, Donald Randolph, Eva Gabor Cinematography by Bert Glennon Directed by John Brahm For Vincent Price, revenge was a dish served cold and in 3-D. In 1954, just a year after his three-dimensional rampage in Andre DeToth‘s House of Wax,…
Indicator delivers another in their long line of fan-friendly box sets with Hammer Volume Five – Death and Deceit (a subhead that could be applied to the majority of the studio’s output). This latest release would be for Hammer completists only were it not for the extras that shine a bright light on a few overlooked artists…
Film Movement, a self-described “film service” that traffics in esoteric theatrical and home video product has released two notable examples of post-war British comedy with Whisky Galore! and The Maggie – both are seafaring satires directed by Alexander Mackendrick featuring some of Ealing Studio’s most memorable players. Whiskey Galore!/The Maggie Blu ray Film Movement 1949, 1954…
The Great McGinty Blu ray Kino Lorber 1940/ 1:33:1 / 82 min. Starring Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff Cinematography by William C. Mellor Written and Directed by Preston Sturges If the story of a unscrupulous crook who rises to great political power hits a little too close to home these days, consider that in 1940’s The…
Two on a Guillotine Blu ray Warner Archives 1965/ 2:35:1 / 107 min. Starring Connie Stevens, Dean Jones Cinematography by Sam Leavitt Directed by William Conrad Imagine shock-meister William Castle directing a Disney movie and the result might be something like Two on a Guillotine. William Conrad, narrator of Rocky and Bullwinkle and star of television’s…
The Oscar Blu ray Kino Lorber 1966/ 1:66:1 / 120 min. Starring Stephen Boyd, Tony Bennett, Elke Sommer Written by Harlan Ellison Directed by Russell Rouse Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success is a great movie with two career-best performances from Burt Lancaster as a malignant gossip columnist named J. J. Hunsecker and Tony Curtis…
Night Tide Blu ray Powerhouse/Indicator 1960/ 1:85:1 / 86 min. Starring Dennis Hopper, Linda Lawson Directed by Curtis Harrington During the early fifties, an anxious era that leaned on fanciful songs like Faraway Places, Beyond the Sea and Robert Maxwell’s Ebb Tide, Curtis Harrington wrote a similarly dreamy fable called The Girl from Beneath the Sea. The 34…
Viy Blu ray Severin Films 1967/ 1:37:1 / 78 min. Starring Leonid Kuravlyov,Natalya Varley Directed by Konstantin Ershov, Georgiy Kropachyov Anything can happen in a horror movie and that was one of the reasons despots from Stalin to Khrushchev banned the genre from their homeland for the better part of a century. Education and propaganda,…
Cobra Woman Blu ray Kino Lorber 1944/ 1:33 / 71 min. Starring Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Sabu Directed by Robert Siodmak In the early 40’s Universal Pictures was still best known for its shadowy black and white horror shows. That all changed in 1944 when the studio produced the kind of candy-colored dreamland not seen…
The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh Blu ray Disney Movie Club 1964/ 1:66 / 151 min. Starring Patrick McGoohan, George Cole, Michael Hordern Directed by James Neilson One part Walt Disney, one part Patrick McGoohan – a bittersweet recipe if ever there was one. The notoriously brusque Irishman was immune to the crowd-pleasing sentimentality that shaped…
In the fall of ‘64, while Hollywood was gently satirizing the battle of the sexes with Send Me No Flowers and What a Way to Go!, Europe was at work in the trenches, peppering art houses with piercing dramas like François Truffaut‘s The Soft Skin and André Cayatte’s dual release, Anatomy of a Marriage: My Nights…