A highlight of this year’s awards season becomes a handsome, rewarding Criterion release. Joachim Trier’s drama finds power in the intersection of ‘normal life,’ ambition in the arts, and the way family secrets meld with national history. Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinseve command our attention as a father and daughter split by ‘art and resentment,’…
Spaghetti westerns were the rage in 1969, as long as the action was constant and the body count high. An Italo producer made a lucrative deal with MGM for a ‘Dirty Dozen western’ with the name star Peter Graves. International success was guaranteed with the casting of Japanese star Tetsuro Tanba. The Dario Argento story…
1963’s critics favored this ‘cerebral’ Sci-fi offering but the main draw was its mysterious heroine, a new bride who may be an invader from beyond the stars. Fave actor John Neville is the Think Tank boffin who doesn’t understand why his wife isn’t like other women … just for starters, she doesn’t have a pulse….
Director Richard Fleischer’s crime thriller passed the test with RKO’s new owner Howard Hughes, possibly because of its clever story hook: a mannequin is made of a fugitive serial killer, to better understand the killer’s motives. Otherwise its Fleischer’s creative, snappy direction that raises the picture above the category of ‘B’ filler product. Lady reporter…
George Pal’s production had a hard nut to crack, adapting a highly misanthropic adult novel to serve as a family attraction for all ages. On its own terms it works, with an engaging cast and creative visual effects. Tony Randall’s charm is a huge asset, while Arthur O’Connell and especially Barbara Eden ace their parts….
Nope, it’s not a stealth Karloff horror feature, but another of his underworld roles … actually, a semi-underworld role in a nifty ensemble thriller about a Night Club with connections to The Mob. Karloff is Happy MacDonald, and Everybody comes to ‘Happy’s Club’ — including the drunken Lew Ayres and Broadway sharpie George Raft. Showgirl…
James Garner takes a spin as the world-weary detective Philip Marlowe — “unassailably virtuous, invariably broke.” An updating of Raymond Chandler’s The Little Sister takes Marlowe to 1969 Hollywood, but the story remains the same: blackmail, gangsters and ice pick murders. Gayle Hunnicutt and Sharon Farrell are the Quest sisters, Bruce Lee a kung-fu hoodlum…
Douglas Fairbanks’ miracle film of the silent era is back in a new restoration from Photoplay Productions, with a bounty of extras; we can marvel that this 102 year-old masterpiece is in such good condition. The physical production was mounted on a massive scale, right in the middle of Hollywood: enormous sets, fantastic designs and…
Brian DePalma’s wild skit + provocation comedy cemented his status as a capable, meaningful filmmaker just before he turned to a commercial career dedicated to the screen effects of Alfred Hitchcock. This new release brings this early Robert De Niro tale, which now resembles an alternate-universe prequel to Taxi Driver, to disc in a new…
VCI showcases a pair of independently produced films noir, one a decent programmer and the other one of the best of its kind. Borderline puts Fred MacMurray and Claire Trevor in the middle of drug smugglers led by (who else?) crooked Raymond Burr; D.O.A. drops Edmond O’Brien into a nightmare, when he finds he’s been…
The depressed streets of postwar Tokyo are the hunting ground for detective Toshiro Mifune, who lost his service automatic on a streetcar and is desperate to retrieve it. Soulful old cop Takashi Shimura gives him guidance and encouragement; an unhappy showgirl knows how to find the gun, but won’t talk. Akira Kurosawa’s prime goal is…
Spectacular! Colorful! Action-packed! A big production, big stars, but where’s the movie? James Goldstone’s pirate picture has energetic action and little else; we salute Robert Shaw and Genevieve Bujold, who generate the star personality needed to keep it on its feet. A bounty of screen talent is marooned in unflattering roles: James Earl Jones, Peter…
Paramount’s catch-all comedy makes zero sense but has a great attitude. It showcases a number of eager funnymen from vaudeville and silent comedies: W.C. Fields, Andy Clyde, Ben Turpin, Hugh Herbert, Billy Gilbert. Top-billed Jack Oakie is in love with Klopstokian lass Angela; all of her fellow citizens are super-athletes, so he brings a bunch…
This noir tries something different: an art expert must play detective to find out why everybody thinks he’s gone insane. Who knew that the most dangerous noir creeps are to be found skulking around a museum gallery? Ex- Warner contractee Pat O’Brien tries out RKO for size, with a screenplay that goes in for arty…
A shining 4K encoding underscores the heat in Lawrence Kasdan’s ode to cold-blooded murder, committed in the name of sex and greed … and just maybe, love. William Hurt and Kathleen Turner became overnight stars in some of the hottest scenes ever to hit mainstream theaters; Richard Kline’s steamy images and John Barry’s seductive music…
It’s a new branded line for Kino Lorber — English thrillers from the 1940s and ’50s, remastered and looking good. Jean Simmons is tormented by a greedy lover & husband in ‘Cage of Gold,’ and a fanciful Edgar Wallace mystery sees Scotland Yard trying to prevent a murder by a diabolical criminal called ‘The Ringer.’…
Cornel Wilde’s first film for his own production company is a stone classic and a genuine cult item, an organized crime tale that blends sex and sadism as did few films of its day. Richard Conte’s perverse seduction of Jean Wallace is hot stuff, and the creative direction of Joseph H. Lewis and extreme lighting…
Rescued from post-Code censorship, Sinclair Lewis’s critique of medical ethics makes an interesting subject for director John Ford. Ronald Colman and Helen Hayes star; Myrna Loy had a major role until the censors obliterated most of it. But now she’s back: taken from Ronald Colman’s personal print, this 2024 restoration recovers (finally) the original theatrical…
Criterion takes on the anti-nuke horror film that hits closest to home. Lynne Littman’s harrowing film stays small-scale and Big Emotion, charting the slow extermination of an innocent family. A little California town loses contact with the rest of the world, and hope fades as the awful reality sinks in. Jane Alexander, Lukas Haas and William…
Former blacklistees Walter Bernstein and Martin Ritt turned their career experiences into a powerful picture; the bankability of star Woody Allen is surely what got it produced. Allen plays not his usual New York schlemiel but a clueless everyman who ‘fronts’ for a writer friend denied work by the blacklist. He ends up fronting for…
We finally caught up with this superb French crime thriller about a gang of cultured crooks that trip up on their own sense of sophistication. Kingpin Charles Vanel collects a fortune from four partners to initiate a drug deal; but one of the group is cheating with his ante and another intends to steal the…
Some movies appear to approach perfection. Ernst Lubitsch ditched operettas for saucy pre-Code romance with this winning, hilarious look at high class thievery and honest lust. Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins are larcenous high-society outlaws, preying on continental swells that can afford to be bilked for millions. Kay Francis is the wealthy widow who teaches…
The FUN never stops in this pre-Code Paramount variety show, with a rudimentary plot, bizarre performers and plenty of risqué humor. It’s the 1933 equivalent of Wild and Crazy — with a sensational cast, some of whom need explaining: W.C. Fields, Rudy Vallee, Stuart Erwin, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Cab Calloway, Bela Lugosi, Baby…
Sebastián Silva’s domestic drama is Upstairs-Downstairs for the 21st century, a story that involves class difference and social isolation, yet doesn’t push the usual buttons of comedy or tragedy. When the exhausted maid of an upscale Chilean family begins behaving strangely, we fear that this beautifully-acted film may be turning into a horror picture. We…
We once again have sprung for a pricey Mario Bava import — this time to finally be able to hear this Italian show with its original Italian-language audio. That’s basically what’s covered in this abbreviated review of an all-time CineSavant favorite. Can you hear Alessandro Alessandroni’s sitar yet? “Adesso è il momento giusto — Di…
There’s nothing like discovering a ‘new’ movie by a favorite star. Cary Grant took time out from playing cinematic arm candy for Mae West to try his luck starring as a reluctant mobster. The gangland context is a turf war between illegal gambling ships. Benita Hume is Cary’s love interest, with Jack La Rue as…