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…
Terry Gilliam’s fantasy epic is back in the super 4K Ultra HD format, which makes his achievement look all the more spectacular. Two hours of unceasing visual miracles, delightful personalities and wickedly civilized humor begin when a pack of cosmic workers purloin a celestial map and become time-traveling thieves. A young hero joins them and…
‘Fate’ is a frequent player in classic noir, but this spooky 1948 charmer crosses noir atmosphere with a semi-supernatural vibe — enforced by a top performance from Edward G. Robinson, plus the eerie presence of Gail Russell, She Who Possesses the Saddest Eyes in Hollywood. A showbiz mentalist suddenly experiences foreshadowings of deaths to come,…
Sky High + The Big Diamond Robbery. The top cowboy star of the silent era and his wonder horse Tony were once the idol of a million kids — and now they’re back again in remastered editions. SKY HIGH is mostly filmed around, over and deep inside the Grand Canyon — in 1922. THE BIG…
A domestic Blu-ray arrives of Mark Robson’s Korean War rumination, from the pen of James Michener and fleshed out 100% by Paramount’s crack visual effects team. Superstar leads William Holden and Grace Kelly illustrate a hard lesson of modern warfare — even in ‘asymmetrical’ high-tech combat there is no guarantee of survival. Charles McGraw, Fredric…
We can hardly believe this — a nearly perfect 4K encoding of this all-time favorite monster epic has arrived, with only a few weeks’ notice. The sharp, brightly colored image finally reflects Freddie Young’s rich textures, returning the word ‘artful’ to writer-director-designer Eugène Lourié’s family-friendly yarn about a city-smashing ‘Irish sea fairie.’ Talk about childhood…
Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter shake up the notion of English propriety, as butler Dirk Bogarde ‘invades and subverts’ the life of his employer James Fox, through subtle psychological manipulation and the seductive power of his supposed ‘sister,’ a very young Sarah Miles. Wendy Craig is the confused fiancé in this serious, sinister and fascinating…
Howard Hawks presents ancient history as a lavish spectacle: tens of thousands of extras build a giant pyramid on the extra-wide CinemaScope screen, aided by the excitement and mysticism of Dimitri Tiomkin’s exotic music score. So convincing is the recreation, we almost believe the tomb-sealing sci-fi mechanics that shift stone blocks weighing tons, in just…
Roger Donaldson’s smartly scripted and produced 1984 remake of history’s most famous high-seas mutiny gets a lavish treatment on this two-disc Blu-ray set, with hours of extras about its filming and the shifting historical consensus about what took place down Tahiti-way in 1789. You just can’t keep the swabbies below decks eating hardtack, when they’re…
Are doors finally opening for the remaining hold-outs in classic Eurohorror? All-Region fans can rejoice at the availability of Mario Bava’s La frusta e il corpo in a Blu-ray encoding that finally reflects il maestro’s fine color lighting design. Christopher Lee puts in a stellar appearance and the sleek & expressive Daliah Lavi brings a…
Gaumont has done right by this orphaned opus from France’s silent film genius Abel Gance — his follow-up to Napoléon is a supremely hubristic science fiction epic that’s half social hysteria and half mystical insanity. Gance casts himself as a Christ figure who reunites the world in the face of an impending astral collision; his…
When does ‘tough and brassy’ become ‘camp and kitsch’? No longer a Gorgeous Young Thing, Joan Crawford walked a narrow line when reinventing her screen image. Her best noir after Mildred Pierce is this underworld pastiche that turns the notorious Virginia Hill into Gangland USA’s most glamorous, high-toned mobster girl. The extreme histrionics never stop,…
Finally, a chance to review this deserving suspense thriller. Incredibly realistic scenes on the high seas are a highlight of Richard Lester’s docudrama-styled tale of a mad extortion plot against an ocean liner with 1200 passengers. Forget Disaster Movie clichés and dumb dramatics — it’s a fast-paced struggle to save lives by bomb specialists Richard…
When does a comedy of manners stop flattering the audience, and begin criticizing it? Jean Renoir’s acknowledged masterpiece was rejected on its premiere in 1939, when France society was too nervous to find humor in its satirical needling. It remains one of the most genuinely sophisticated movies of its kind. Everyone shares in the same…
There’s a new name for ‘Murder’: Diane Tremayne. Few noirs put the blame on Mame more firmly than Otto Preminger’s All-in-the-Family tale of cold-blooded killing. RKO’s star Robert Mitchum is excellent as a mellow guy blinded by romance, but Jean Simmons’ warm / icy performance brings it all to life. The behind-the-scenes production story surely…
This one is reviewed ‘just for the record’ — we have a soft spot for train-wreck science fiction losers. ‘What went wrong?’ ‘Did anybody even care?’ Accomplished director Pietro Francisi has the two classic Hercules movies to his credit, but this artless exercise would demolish anybody’s reputation . . . it must have been a…
Warners’ prestigious adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s Pulitzer-winning novella gives Spencer Tracy an actor’s showcase. His Cuban fisherman Santiago engages in an existential ordeal, a one-man battle with a giant marlin. Credited director John Sturges made sense out of a confused production, retaining much footage shot by uncredited Fred Zinnemann. The result is a little messy,…
Orion’s smart, sharp action thriller compresses ‘Manchurian Candidate’ and ‘Day of the Jackal’ into a 24-hour race to prevent a political assassination. Director Andrew Davis gets a chance to lead big stars through a convincing paranoid nightmare: Gene Hackman is still action-ready at 59, while Tommy Lee Jones impresses as a formidable bruiser; Joanna Cassidy…
Pop feminism proved a potent box office draw with this stylish, star-studded outlaw road trip from Ridley Scott; a big convertible has never looked better on the beautiful highways of the West. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon are escapees from male oppression that find themselves a latter-day Bonnie & ‘Claudine.’ The resolution of their dilemma…
“All Hu-mans there is no escape!” Ro-man is now on the loose in Blu-ray 3-D, anaglyphic 3-D and plain old 2-D if so desired. A years-long effort culminates in an extras-rich disc release of one of the most entertaining ‘bad movies’ ever, a tale of intergalactic warfare and sacrificial heroism … all played in Bronson…
“Hello Old Sport!” A show once seemingly missing forever has surfaced on a Blu-ray from Australia. The elusive Alan Ladd version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary masterpiece is watered-down high art strained through a film noir filter. Ladd embodies the spirit and attitude of Jay Gatsby despite the imposition of ‘clarifying’ explanations and laughable moral…
William Wellman’s weirdly morbid thriller from the pre-Code years has been newly remastered, after the discovery of a quality print. The legendary Dorothy Mackaill’s luck goes from bad to worse as she finds herself trapped in a Caribbean hell-hole, to be victimized by lecherous outcasts and corrupt officials. The sordid story takes prostitution, perversion and…
We like to defend pre-Code movies at CineSavant, but this one is almost pure Smut — or at least what passed for smut in 1934. It concerns a sleazy Health magazine with a sleazy ‘perfect body’ contest promotion . . . and Paramount’s publicity people used a similar contest to promote the movie. Robert Armstrong…
Joseph Losey’s first feature is an anomaly — a million-dollar Technicolor semi-fantasy about tolerance, anti-conformism and pacifist activism, made just as Hollywood was commencing a purge of liberal writers and directors. Young Dean Stockwell is excellent as the serious, puzzled boy whose hair turns bright green overnight, making him socially suspect. The odd ‘Franz Kafka-lite’…
A stunning movie that conveys the pure spirit of a vintage fairy tale, Aleksandr Ptushko’s story of royal intrigue is charming to the Nth degree, with pure-hearted characters and as many ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ moments as a classic Disney picture. It’s suffused in magic, not the show-off kind, but the deep-spirit visual wonder found in…