Two for the Road Blu-ray Twilight Time 1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date January 10, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95 Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney, Eleanor Bron, William Daniels, Claude Dauphin, Nadia Gray Cinematography: Christopher Challis Art Direction: Marc Frederic, Willy Holt Film…
Gas-s-s-s – Or – It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It. Blu-ray Olive Films 1970 / Color / 1:85 widescreen/ 79 min. / Street Date October 18, 2016 / Gas-s-s-s / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring: Elaine Giftos, Robert Corff, Cindy Williams, Bud Cort, Ben…
Twilight Time, bless ’em, hands us another treat to go with their 3-D discs of Man in the Dark, Miss Sadie Thompson and Harlock Space Pirate 3-D — and this time it’s a fun bit of 1950s horror — with a hot pair of short subject extras. The Mad Magician 3-D Blu-ray Twilight Time 1954 /…
Revenge of the Blood Beast Blu-ray Rarovideo 1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 79 min. / Il lago di Satana, La sorella di Satana, The She-Beast / Street Date January 17, 2017 / 29.95 Starring: Barbara Steele, John Karlsen, Ian Ogilvy, Mel Welles, Lucretia Love Cinematography: Gioacchino Gengarelli Film Editor: Nira Omri Original…
David and Bathsheba Blu-ray KL Studio Classics 1951 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 116 min. / Street Date January 10, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring: Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, Raymond Massey, Kieron Moore, James Robertson Justice, Jayne Meadows, George Zucco, Francis X. Bushman, Gwen Verdon Cinematography: Leon Shamroy…
Something Wild Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 850 1961 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 17, 2017 / 39.95 Starring: Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Mildred Dunnock, Jean Stapleton, Martin Kosleck, Charles Watts, Clifton James, Doris Roberts, Anita Cooper, Tanya Lopert….
The Accountant Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. 2016 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 128 min. / Street Date January 10, 2017 / 35.99 Starring: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, John Lithgow, Jean Smart, Andy Umberger, Alison Wright, Robert C. Treveiler, Mary…
The Keys of the Kingdom Blu-ray Twilight Time 1944 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 137 min. / Street Date December 13, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95 Starring: Gregory Peck, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Rose Stradner, Roddy McDowall, Edmund Gwenn, Cedric Hardwicke, Peggy Ann Garner, Jane Ball, James Gleason,…
The Barefoot Contessa Blu-ray Twilight Time 1954 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95 Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Marius Goring, Rossano Brazzi, Valentina Cortese, Elizabeth Sellars, Warren Stevens, Enzo Staiola, Mari Aldon, Bessie Love. Cinematography:…
The Internecine Project Blu-ray Kino Lorber Classics 1974 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 89 min. / Street Date January 3, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring: James Coburn, Lee Grant, Harry Andrews, Ian Hendry, Michael Jayston, Christiane Krüger, Keenan Wynn, Julian Glover. Cinematography: Geoffrey Unsworth Film Editor: John Shirley Original…
Battleground Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1949 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 118 min. / Street Date January 10, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Marshall Thompson, Don Taylor, James Whitmore, Douglas Fowley, Leon Ames, Guy Anderson, Denise Darcel, Richard Jaeckel, James…
What happens when a prosecutor tracks down one of the most evil criminals of the century, only to find that politics and corruption prevent him from issuing an arrest warrant? This is the true story of the hunt for the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann — not from the POV of the Israeli agents that…
The restoration of a newly rediscovered director’s cut of the 1931 The Front Page prompts this two-feature comedy disc — Lewis Milestone’s early talkie plus the sublime Howard Hawks remake, which plays a major gender switch on the main characters of Hecht & MacArthur’s original play. His Girl Friday / The Front Page Blu-ray The…
It’s icky, drippy and grindingly gross — and will make your forehead itch — but Abel Ferrara’s Bowery-set dime store horror opus has withstood the test of time. It’s a decent enough psychodrama, if one can set aside all the psychological-philosophical booshwah that’s leaked into horror criticism. Oops, Savant’s guilty of that too. The Driller…
Is this a genuine classic? I think so. Sure, it’s the old story of the blind girl in jeopardy, but it’s been worked out so well. Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna and Jack Weston shine in a keen adaptation of Frederick Knott’s play, which could be titled, Dial C for Can’t See Nuthin.’ Wait…
How could England have won the war without him? Horatio Smith sneaks about in Nazi Germany, liberating concentration camp inmates right under the noses of the Gestapo. Leslie Howard directed and stars in this wartime escapist spy thriller, as a witty professor too passive to be suspected as the mystery spy. ‘Pimpernel’ Smith Blu-ray Olive…
It sounds like a winner — Albert Finney and Martin Sheen team up for a daring subterranean bank robbery in the heart of London. The locations, the sets and the production are all first class. So what happened? Susannah York and Jonathan Pryce are in on the heist as well. Loophole (1981) Blu-ray KL Studio…
Does your memory go as far back as 2010, or have too many catastrophes and cataclysms blurred your vision? Peter Berg’s tense account of the BP Gulf Oil Spill debacle covers twenty hours of technological peril, as Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell battle idiotic executives and a badly-cemented oil well that’s fixing to blow sky…
The immensely popular singing trio provides an extremely pleasant eighty minutes of musical nostalgia – with plenty of full-length performances but also the full variety of their music through the years. Interviews with the principals give us the back story, light but not superficial, while film clips show their political activism through the years. 50…
Don’t mess with the one-armed man — did you know that at 56 years, Spencer Tracy could whup Ernest Borgnine to a frazzle? John Sturges knocked this one out of the ballpark and booted his career into high gear. It’s well remembered… but does anyone remember that the subject is the murder of a Japanese-American?…
The story didn’t end with the Miracle in the Hudson — hero pilot Sully Sullenberger is tried by an investigative committee. Clint Eastwood’s film examines and re-examines the 2.5 minutes, as the bureaucrats make the case that 155 passengers were unnecessarily put at risk. Sully Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD Warner Brothers Home Video…
Ray Harryhausen eases up for his second color Dynamation feature, restricting the stop-motion and instead utilizing traveling mattes to make a more juvenile adventure movie for smaller kiddies. The big draw is the beautiful music score by fantasy favorite Bernard Herrmann. The 3 Worlds of Gulliver Blu-ray Twilight Time 1960 / Color / 1:66 &…
One of the better-remembered ’80s sci-fi horror thrillers is back in an improved Blu-ray with a pile of extras. Dennis Quaid gets to act with Max von Sydow Christopher Plummer, Eddie Albert and Kate Capshaw, as they deal with a Cronenberg-like device that can invade human dreams. Dreamscape Blu-ray Scream Factory (Shout! Factory) 1984…
or, Savant picks The Most Impressive Discs of 2016 Above, from 1989: In Bronson Caverns, Savant and the intrepid Todd Stribich encounter an omen from the menacing future. I guess 2016 is going down on the record books as an, ‘interesting’ year, for reasons that are all too evident. Whenever some sage survivor has to…
Federico Fellini’s best non-narrative feature is an intoxicating meta-travelogue, not just of the Eternal City but the director’s idea of Rome past and present. The masterful images alternate between nostalgic vulgarity and dreamy timelessness. Criterion’s disc is a new restoration. Fellini’s Roma Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 848 1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120…
It’s a powerful plea against the death penalty, but also an Oscar bid for a fiery actress. And don’t forget the cool jazz music score. On top of this Robert Wise adds a formerly- taboo sequence, a realistic depiction of an execution in the gas chamber. Of such things were gritty, hard-hitting reputations made. I…