MGM in 1940 was just the movie factory to turn out a smart, compact version of the Jane Austen novel, with Greer Garson in fine form and Laurence Olivier possibly slumming but also contributing a flawless performance. Robert Z. Leonard’s direction is invisible but does no harm; adaptors Aldous Huxley and Jane Murfin telescope events…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. You’ve probably never heard of these films, but the upside is that watching them alone at home won’t require a mask. According to the one-sheet, in 1965’s Nightmare in the Sun, Ursula Andress…
The Flesh and the Fiends Blu ray Kino Lorber 1960 /95 min. Starring Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, George Rose, Billie Whitelaw Cinematography by Monty Berman Directed by John Gilling The Flesh and the Fiends lives up to its name and then some. The setting is Scotland but the squalid streets and charnel houses suggest Dickens’…
“It neutralizes mesons somehow. They’re the atomic glue holding matter together!” For most of the 1950s George Pal’s Martian invasion tale reigned as the top Sci-fi spectacle about an alien invasion. All the money went into the visuals, beautifully turned out by Byron Haskin and Gordon Jennings. Paramount’s much-awaited full restoration job does the picture…
What’s the best Ecological Thriller of all time? Finally available in a good Region A disc is Val Guest and Wolf Mankowitz’s thrilling, realistic account of our world turned topsy-turvy, and perhaps plunging into a fiery oblivion. The violent shifts of climate and weather patterns echo today’s global warming chaos. Newspapermen Edward Judd and Leo…
The Thief of Baghdad Blu ray – All Region Colosseo Film 1961 /100 min. Starring Steve Reeves, Georgia Moll, Arturo Dominici Cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli Directed by Arthur Lubin When he shuffled off this mortal coil in 1995, Arthur Lubin’s New York Times obituary was titled “Arthur Lubin, 96, Director Of ‘Mr. Ed’ TV…
Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: Groundhog Day can never be touched. The “time loop” narrative conceit that brilliant Harold Ramis classic pioneered has been co-opted onscreen quite frequently over the past decade. It’s popped up in a horror franchise (the cheerfully re-watchable Blumhouse horror comedy confection Happy Death Day…
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break Blu ray Kino Lorber 1941 /77 min. Starring W.C. Fields, Franklin Pangborn, Leon Errol Cinematography by Charles Van Enger Directed by Edward Cline If Larsen E. Whipsnade ever laid eyes on Harold Bissonette, his mouth would water. Bissonette, a mild-mannered grocer for whom no good deed goes unpunished,…
Lindsay Anderson’s third ‘Mick Travis’ movie is a crazy comedy eager to overstep lines of cinematic decorum. Britain in 1982 is a country at war with itself, torn by elitist snobbery and working-class revolt. Union grievances cripple the functioning of a major public hospital, on a day when the Queen is set to visit. A…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. We’re still cooped up at home, and now we’re missing Carl Reiner, too. Comedy icon Carl Reiner passed away on June 29th at the age of 98 years. He pulled televised comedy through…
The director of this unblinking account of the genocide in Belarus in 1942 and 1943 said that “people in America can’t watch my film. They have thrillers but this is something different.” He certainly got that right. A young farm boy is a witness to and victim of horrendous barbarism inflicted on a civilian population……
Abbott & Costello perform at full strength in this very good, very silly jungle safari comedy. It’s definitely for kids and nostalgic fans — with equal parts slapstick, cornball repetitive vaudeville gags, and Lou Costello’s weirdly endearing infantile schtick. An impressively beautiful restoration has pulled it back from the pit of Public Domain ugliness. Plus…
Bring back the Age of Aquarius! Olive Films returns with the company’s best Signature Edition ever. The show is an excellent choice for a special edition, as seen by the simply terrific interviews in its battery of added value featurettes. Top creative contributors have been tapped for some great memories. Rather than filming a simple…
Vincente Minnelli took time out from expensive MGM shows like Gigi to knock off this tale about the London debutante season, a light-comedy Cinderella story without satire or social comment. Young Sandra Dee and John Saxon come off well, but the show belongs to stars Rex Harrison and especially Kay Kendall, whose comedy timing and…
Bert I. Gordon rides again with an excellent encoding of one of his more popular sci-fi monster-ramas. Pert ‘n’ perky June Kenney is so brave that she keeps going back to ‘that old cave outside of town’ despite not knowing how many giant spiders are on the loose. Teenagers in their thirties and their…
It’s a Larry Blamire film, and it’s composed of entirely NEW and UNIQUE elements: a lonely mansion, strange servants, the reading of the will, weird heirs, death threats, snoopy reporters, a midnight seance, mysterious locked rooms, the clutching hands of a phantom menace, and the ultimate terror, Kogar the mighty ape. All new, right? This…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. The shut-in can’t end until you’ve seen these films, so get moving. We find ourselves this week pandemically pondering movies which are so far off the radar, air traffic controllers believe them to…
The beguiling short-story feel of Paul Dano’s intimate family drama makes us share the experience of a teenager whose parents are ‘going through a rough patch’ that may break up the only security he’s known. The performances of Jake Gyllenhaal, Carey Mulligan and especially young Ed Oxenbould are low-key and high-intelligence; each seems a study…
Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection Blu ray Severin Films 1965 – 1989 / 2841 min. Starring Russ Tamblyn, Regina Carrol, Lon Chaney Cinematography by Gary Graver, Vilmos Zsigmond, László Kovács Directed by Al Adamson, David Gregory The titles grab you by the collar like a desperate carny barker – Psycho A Go-Go, Blood of Ghastly…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. They are the walrus. This week’s wine-and-movie pairings focus our pandemic-weary lens on Japanese kaiju films. Kaiju is a Japanese word meaning “strange beast.” It does not refer to Two Hands Wine and…
Will there even be an Olympics in our foreseeable future? Kon Ichikawa’s 1964 masterpiece is still the most spectacular/intimate film about human athletics ever, a celebration of the human body and its abilities. An epic for people that don’t necessarily like sports, it’s less a documentary of the event than a collection of moving impressions….
Guest reviewer Lee Broughton returns with a review of a previously hard to find Gallic Spaghetti Western. Filmed in the Dolomites mountain range and primarily existing as a vehicle for the French rock ‘n’ roll singer Johnny Hallyday, this might well be Corbucci’s best looking Western. The respected French actresses Francoise Fabian and Sylvie Fennec…
Don’t call them Bad Movies — when something’s this enjoyable, other verbal put-downs are more appropriate. This low-grade German sexploitation horror pic spent its full budget on its roster of frisky Berlin showgirls. After years of study, experts have finally proven that it was filmed with a camera. Severin’s special edition does justice to a…
Romantic comedies became coy sex chase comedies in the early 1960s, once Doris Day made ‘professional virgin’ a Hollywood career. This mistaken identity/crossed prevarications farce is better than most, thanks to charming performances by Jane Fonda and Rod Taylor, and a fine script by Norman Krasna, from his play. The story doesn’t dance around the…
MURDER USA Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week’s Blood of the Vines is a real killer. “Murder USA” hangs over the trio of classic films which get the wine pairing treatment this time. Hired henchmen who handle…