The first MGM film from the noir team of Anthony Mann / John Alton is a crime exposé of the migrant farmworker issue. Ricardo Montalban is excellent as a Mexican immigration cop, and co-star George Murphy makes a traumatic impression in one of the most sadistic scenes in classic film noir. Hardcore noir addresses a…
The Sidney Lumet classic graduates to the 4K bracket, with a new transfer. Pictures like this taught a generation of American kids that our system of justice was alive and vital — even if Reginald Rose’s tense drama suggests that twelve inconvenienced jurors can also behave like a Lynch Mob. Star Henry Fonda continued his…
Dennis Hopper’s self-indulgent romantic hit man thriller is too interested in modern art and cinematic detours to give its own storyline a fair shake. The supporting cast and celebrity walk-ons are fun; star Jodie Foster does the heavy lifting with a difficult character to play. Kino’s disc has both versions — the theatrical cut is…
Pitched somewhere between spy thrills, camp satire and art nouveau nostalgia, Basil Dearden’s assassination adventure didn’t launch a comic book fantasy phase, even if it resembles the graphic-novel thrillers that now dominate the movies. Diana Rigg and Oliver Reed do their utmost to elevate the joky script, and almost succeed . . . and plenty…
Severin’s latest deluxe collector’s box gathers a quartet of ‘Gothic holdovers,’ Italo productions that persist with spooky castles, strange noblemen and aggressively passionate leading ladies. They range from the B&W ’60s to the more permissive screens of the early ’70s, when contemporary-set Giallos took over. The group includes an oddity, a rarity and a garish…
We finally caught up with this bold yet misconceived Robert Rossen drama, a desert trek in which Army major Gary Cooper must deal with 5 mutinous Medal of Honor nominees. It’s a lengthy discourse on bravery versus cowardice, held together by the fine actors Rita Hayworth, Van Heflin, Tab Hunter and Richard Conte. A lot…
A Jean Rollin film scores a first 4K disc release before Bava, Franju or Fisher; we review the Blu-ray edition. Once again dipping into free-form softcore Ero-horror, the French filmmaker imposes his improvisatory style on a fairly conventional vampire story, embracing the lesbian trends of the day (night). Should we be surprised that Rollin is…
A gritty combat drama with Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Harry Guardino? Why wasn’t this on Blu ten years ago? Don Siegel directs an entertaining ‘infantry squad in trouble’ thriller with his expected hard-edged, unsentimental attitude. Bob Newhart excels via an audience-pleasing comic bit but Bobby Darin’s co-starring position is diminished by the aggressive McQueen….
This Ingmar Bergman masterpiece still works, and its profundity is only part of the bargain. Max von Sydow is the returning knight who discovers that ‘you can’t go home again,’ especially not when the Plague is loose. Existense is chaotic on all levels in this corner of the medieval world; our knight must play a…
Get set for another intriguing Russian import from Deaf Crocodile Films. Karen Shakhnazarov’s tale interweaves history with our essential human identity: if the truth of past events remains hidden, how can we know who we are? Star Malcolm McDowell is Timofeyev, an asylum inmate convinced that he’s killed two Tsars, at different times in history….
The four The Next Generation feature films under the Rick Berman flag maintain the character fun of the TV series while working awfully hard to deliver high-quality space opera for the 1990s. Fans get what they want, plus at times a decent sense of humor. An obvious mission was to extend the characters of Jean-Luc…
William Wyler’s breakthrough movie gives John Barrymore one of his better sound-era dramatic roles, in a strong, incisive pre-Code adapted from Elmer Rice’s play set in a high-powered New York Law office. Attorney George Simon has done well by defending the rich, and eases his conscience by helping people from his roots down on Second…
One of the last of the classic Weimar silents, Joe May’s melodrama is only partly expressionist; Günther Rittau’s terrific camerawork tells a ‘street’ story of crime and sex with minimal dialogue. Gustav Fröhlich is the green Berlin street cop and Betty Amman the vamp who sullies his badge; the story takes place in 24 hours…
Something of a missing link in the filmography of Marlene Dietrich, this immediate postwar French production pairs her with one of her great amours, Jean Gabin. Almost forgotten now, it has qualities other Dietrich films don’t, starting with her taking a character role rather than one that plays off her glamorous silver screen image. It’s…
Daniel Petrie and Ellen Burstyn’s excellent film elevates a genre we normally disdain — the Ethereal Cereal do-you-believe Spiritual Awakening picture. Call this one intelligent, thoughtful, insightful, respectful and emotionally extra-effective. It pushes all the right buttons and finds a conclusion that doesn’t make us roll our eyes. Burstyn’s commitment, Petrie’s direction and the input…
Here’s a hard-to-see WW2 real-life drama that holds up rather well. Jeffrey Hunter plays radioman George Tweed, the lone U.S. sailor holdout when Guam Island was taken by the Japanese right after Pearl Harbor. The production is modest but the story is told with a winning honesty — it’s a basic survival tale that avoids…
We never miss an opportunity to see John Heard perform. A ‘difficult’ movie that nonetheless made its mark, Joan Micklin Silver’s adaptation of Ann Beattie’s novel looks at modern romance through a realistic lens, relatable to young adults in the late 1970s: people are problematic constructs with built-in barriers to Happily Ever After outcomes. John…
Frank Capra’s big push to reestablish his exalted pre-war reputation saw him applying ‘Capracorn’ to a Pulitzer-winning Broadway comedy-drama about modern politics. Airplane industrialist Spencer Tracy is groomed to run for the White House by newspaper czar Angela Lansbury and political kingmaker Adolphe Menjou. Tracy’s wife Katharine Hepburn frets to see her husband become a…
What a difference a digital remaster makes! Marilyn Monroe’s self-produced English comedy leaps back to life with a new restoration of Jack Cardiff’s stunning color cinematography. Monroe’s a delight co-starring with Laurence Olivier, amid the stuffy formal-dress diplomacy and giddy midnight seductions. Adapted from a formal stage play, the farce of manners is far more…
Hal Barwood & Matthew Robbins put everything they had into a medieval sword ‘n’ sorcery epic, filmed in England and finished in California by the best artists at ILM and VCE. It’s basic gee-whiz sorcerer- George vs. The Dragon material, but more brutal than expected. Word of mouth about some unnecessarily gory scenes tipped off…
Here’s the eager New York independent production that snagged Parker Posey for her first starring role — as a Manhattan party animal who eventually finds stable footing as a (gasp) librarian. Life is tough when you can’t make the rent. This latter-day Holly Golightly has problems with flaky instability, but the guy selling falafel downstairs…
John Frankenheimer’s big-scale terrorism conspiracy tale benefits from the director’s no-nonsense attitude to action. Thomas Harris’ first novel spins on a ‘high concept’ gimmick that surely launched a studio bidding war: what if somebody blew up the entire Super Bowl, in mid-game? Robert Shaw, Steven Keats and Marthe Keller play well with the tense effort…
Is it a train wreck or an unrecognized masterpiece? Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt topline this enormous, enormously profane epic of silent-era Hollywood — that immediately earned the scorn of critics decrying it as a gross distortion of historical reality. Word Of Mouth focused on the film’s blizzard of gross bodily functions, which surely inspired…
‘Washed up’ at MGM, Joan Crawford bounced back with one of the smartest, best-judged career rethinks in Hollywood history. As James M. Cain’s independent housewife-careerist she soars to heights of California success, only to be brought down by runaway maternal blindness. Michael Curtiz guides a pack of indelibly selfish characters — Jack Carson’s slimy business…
This Mickey Spillane noir tale has its good points: star Anthony Quinn gives a solid ‘tough guy’ performance, sizing up a quartet of thrill-crazy Spillane dames that promise no end of trouble. The surprisingly clever script dares to exploit the gimmicks of both amnesia and plastic surgery — without insulting our intelligence. Peggie Castle is…
Hollywood’s postwar shift to social consciousness addressed familiar issues like bigotry and discrimination. On his way to making his gargantuan, serious epics, famed director George Stevens paused for this almost entirely forgotten contemplation of American anxiety in the business rat race, with a side order of alcoholism and potential adultery. Ray Milland is the troubled…