A fresh 4K encoding reveals a finer visual texture on Ivan Passer’s highly-respected film, which features career-best performances by its stars. Disaffected 20-somethings in Santa Barbara investigate a murder and then try to blackmail a corporate CEO; it’s a superb coda to the ’60s counterculture generation. John Heard is the maimed, one-eyed veteran already judged…
In what some consider the best classic crime film to come from France, writer-director Claude Sautet and writer José Giovanni give star Lino Ventura the role of Abel Davos, a convicted crook in a squeeze play. When he tries to return to Paris, he’s forced to abandon his wife and boys as both the law…
Powerhouse Indicator dips into the Columbia library for a Warwick Films production from Albert R. Broccoli and Irving Allen. It’s an international genre blend that would seem a stab at the perfect mainstream box office formula — crime violence, a tough American star, a sexy European star, upbeat music and comic relief around the fringes….
John Ford went to Africa and brought home a fine remake of a 1930s pre-Code hit, with its original star Clark Gable. Clark has his hands full juggling leading ladies of the next generation, Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly. Gable is still the he-man center of attention; his advancing age is not a restrictive factor,…
René Clément all but invented the resistance movie in France and returned to the topic several times. This story of an American flier and a Frenchwoman avoids political sentiment and escapist excesses, concentrating on Simone Signoret’s luminous performance as a woman facing the worst that Occupied France could dish out. It’s a multi-language production, filmed…
Upscale country-club noir: James V. Kern’s well-directed psychological drama has become semi-obscure for a number of reasons but has been resurrected in decent shape, yielding a handsome show with some unusual casting. Trying once again to play against type, Robert Young is a troubled architect who may have a murderous skeleton in his closet; cheerful…
Not every John Boorman film landed on target, but this fantastic take on the Arthur legend is a big winner. Beginning the story a generation back with Uther Pendragon deepens our understanding of Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot. Excess romantic pathos is dropped in favor of a return to the mystical roots that would underpin epics…
The stylized visuals in this RKO mini-masterpiece are more extreme than any of the German expressionist classics said to have influenced it. A cub reporter experiences a nightmare of crazy injustice, a psychological payback for his own testimony that convicted a killer on circumstantial evidence. The pale and forlorn face of Peter Lorre haunts this…
Warners’ new 4K remaster of William Wyler’s towering Road Show blockbuster is a feast for the eyes and ears; rich encoding will put the word ‘epic’ back into the home theater experience. Wyler’s tasteful direction of that costume-actor-for-all-eras Charlton Heston makes most Biblical epics look tawdry. That chariot race is an action set-piece that will…
John Milius’s all-star gangland gundown epic is great fun for fans of gun action and the America’s number one Public Enemy Number One. Stars Warren Oates and Ben Johnson hail from Sam Peckinpah’s stock company, but the roll call of supporting gun thieves is just as stellar: Harry Dean Stanton, Geoffrey Lewis, John Ryan, Richard…
It’s outrageously violent and eye-openingly explicit — the second Johnny Weissmuller / Maureen O’Sullivan jungle epic is wall to wall animal attacks, tribal carnage and woo-woo erotic scenes that push the limits of pre-Code tolerance. MGM spent a pile of money on tricky animal trainers and clever special effects to depict spectacular battles and gruesome…
Easily the most prescient picture of the 1970s, Paddy Chayefsky’s warning of broadcast horrors to come couldn’t be more relevant to today’s news media communication morass. Corporate values turn a venerated TV news institution into an infotainment sewer, years before the advent of brain-snatching Reality TV. The satire is hilariously spot-on with its targeting of…
Michael Crichton proved himself smarter than the Hollywood system with this neatly conceived, modestly produced moneymaker. Everyone remembers Yul Brynner’s psycho robot gunslinger, in an amusement park automated for violent thrills and robot sex. Nobody remembers that this might be the movies’ first mention of a ‘computer virus,’ although the ensuing Robot Roll Call Revolt…
These pre-Code comedies of manners were America’s talking-picture introduction to ‘the Lubitsch touch.’ They’re spirited bedroom farces, even though the innuendo and pliable sexuality all happens standing up with both feet on the floor. French song & dance man Maurice Chevalier became the international ambassador for French oo-la-la suggestiveness. Co-starring are Jeanette MacDonald, Miriam Hopkins,…
Understanding pre-Code movies gets easy after seeing MGM’s sultry romance set in an exotic, sweaty rubber plantation. The big draw is cock o’ the walk Clark Gable, who gets to flex his mustache with both Mary Astor and newly-crowned sex star Jean Harlow. Director Victor Fleming is at his best, and so is that rain…
Stunning in HD, this A+ western is a total knockout in crisp 4K. Glenn Ford and Van Heflin’s performances as a ruthless outlaw and a reluctant deputy take Elmore Leonard’s raw-boned shotgun ordeal to the top of the genre, circa 1957. Those Arizona locations look amazing, with all that dramatic break o’ dawn lighting. Plus…
A thinking man’s nuclear apocalypse movie — from 1948? Science fiction fans will find Otakar Vávra’s highly original response to the worldwide atomic panic to either be too intellectual … or the most intelligent anti-nuke picture ever. Made in Czechoslovakia before the communist coup, it’s free of Soviet propaganda … the message is humanist,…
It’s fundamentally a dum-dum ’90s disaster picture, an action-jeopardy roller coaster ride tailored to compete with the Roland Emmerichs and the Michael Bays … and we liked it. Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton and director Roger Donaldson put it across so well that we don’t mind the silly science or the cute dog; the special effects…
Quite a few films noir approach perfection: this almost-perfect RKO production was abused by Howard Hughes, only to bounce back as one of Hollywood’s most notable ‘sleepers’ — word-of-mouth made it into a solid box office hit. Gravel-throat detective Charles McGraw is suspected of being on the mob’s payroll, a charge that is tested when…
It’s an epic seen through the eye of an artist. We know the past of Europe through great paintings, but Stanley Kubrick uses fine art as a filter to stylize a bygone era. His adaptation of the Thackeray novel uses new approaches to low-light cinematography. We are witness to a rogue’s progress through troubled times;…
Italo pioneer in Gothic horror Ernesto Gastaldi stepped up to directing with this not-bad murder thriller for the Euro exploitation market circa 1965. It’s Giancarlo Giannini’s first film, as an heir to a fortune with inconvenient psychological issues … he can’t say for certain that he isn’t a latent sex killer apt to strike any…
John Huston’s final work is a personal production filmed under ideal conditions, with an ideal Irish cast. Screenwriter Tony Huston adjusts the acclaimed short story for film but keeps it more or less intact — a single dinner party covers most of the running time. Anjelica Huston is James Joyce’s Gretta and Donal McCann is…
Is it a filmic disaster or just your average post-punk Riot grrrl Sci-fi epic that got lost in the margins? Lori Petty nails the title character with a stylishly manic-defiant hellraiser battling the forces of repression. Naomi Watts and Ice-T co-star, but the functioning auteurs may be production designer Catherine Hardwicke and costumer Arianne Phillips….
‘Kill the Bible!’ — according to Cecil B. DeMille, that’s the agenda of Godless atheists destroying America’s youth. His beautifully directed yet jaw-droppingly exploitative ‘meller-drammer’ condemns teenagers to a hellhole reformatory, for more defiance, escapes, and a typically spectacular DeMille crisis. That’s not counting the scene where cross-shaped ‘electrocution stigmata’ are burned into the young…
As long as we’re feeling restless … we return to 1971, and a Peter Watkins political fantasy that arrived looking for trouble. The invocation of a forgotten Cold War security act motivates police to target anti-war dissidents with a murderous initiative. The premise of this grim desert ordeal always seemed farfetched, paranoid … but maybe…
Edward Yang’s sentimental family masterpiece is back, now in 4K Ultra HD. It’s New Taiwan Cinema at its best, and an ideal introduction to Asian cinema for those averse to action and fantasy. One year in the life of a home in Taipei begins with a wedding and ends with a funeral; the emotional journey…