Wonder of wonders — Hammer’s massive boxed sets seem unreasonable until one sees the depth and breadth of the extras. Nigel Kneale’s original ‘organic invasion’ scare show hasn’t lost its power, thanks to Richard Wordsworth’s compelling performance and the dogged intensity of Brian Donlevy. The 4K encoding is superb; they’ve added the U.S. version plus…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week, we remember another fallen great, Claudia Cardinale. Cardinale starred with Burt Lancaster in The Leopard, a 1963 epic historical drama about the turbulent times in Italy during the 19th century. When…
Akira Kurosawa’s modern crime masterpiece takes the leap to 4K. It’s a kidnapping tale in a context of social friction — the perpetrator is maddened by the gap between haves and have nots. A superb detective story balances that irony with the commitment of an ethical businessman and a police force we wish we had…
Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter Hammer – 4K Ultra HD 1974 – 1.37:1, 1.66:1, 1.85:1 Starring Horst Janson, John Cater, Caroline Munro Written by Brian Clemens Directed by Brian Clemens Having established itself as the Cadillac of contemporary gothic horror by the early 60s, Hammer Studios suddenly found itself staggering into the 70s. Even the introduction…
A quarter of the twenty-first century is almost over, and there has been no lack of quality horror, filmic or otherwise, during that time. It seems like an appropriate time to take stock and being that this is a column about horror movies, I decided that a list of twenty-five films for 2025 seemed appropriate….
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week, we remember Robert Redford, the guy every guy’s wife says she would have married had she had the chance. One of Redford’s better films, which is a high bar, is The…
Here we take a ‘Missing on Blu’ Review break thanks to the Public Domain availability of a show we aren’t convinced was ever given a legit disc release, legit as in ‘authorized.’ England’s 1956 Michael Anderson version of George Orwell’s legendary book dropped (mostly) out of sight long ago, and this was the first time…
Warner Archive Collection: 50s Sci-Fi Collection Warner Archive – Blu ray 1953-1958 – 1.33:1, 2:35.1 Starring Paul Christian, James Whitmore, Hugh Marlowe, Allison Hayes Written by Lou Morheim, Ted Sherdeman, Edward Bernds, Mark Hanna Directed by Eugène Lourié, Gordon Douglas, Edward Bernds, Nathan Hertz While television in the 50s promoted a comforting vision of the…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week, we look at what is real and what is not, with an emphasis on what is not. There will be a wine pairing for each of the three films, if…
It’s a chronicle of defeat and doom, hopelessness and horror … yet director Kon Ichikawa turns it into an engrossing experience. Foot soldier Tamura is one of thousands of Japanese troops left behind after military defeats; surrender risks execution by partisan Philippinos, and the alternative is slow starvation in the hills. Desperation and madness take…
Crime movies have grown a lot more vicious since 1971, but few pack the hard crime impact of Mike Hodges’ gangster revenge tale. Michael Caine’s Jack Carter is a London hit man who returns to his roots in Newcastle, to sort out the sudden death of his brother. It leads to the expected trail of…
The blizzard looks real and the big stars are flashy, but Ross Hunter’s 70mm ode to supermarket best sellers still plays like a TV movie. Both airport manager Burt Lancaster and pilot Dean Martin are straying from their marriages, with Jean Seberg (sigh!) and Jacqueline Bisset (wow!). But the direction dotes on cute geriatric stowaway…
After a lifetime watching horror movies, I’ve come up with a few rules based on my observations. The first and most important one is: Nothing good ever happens in a basement. A subset to that rule is: Not as emphatic, but also skip the attic. I’d include a sub-subset, but I’ll let people figure out…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week we spotlight some not-so-ladylike ladies, and offer a wine pairing for each film. I should apologize in advance for all the nasty things we’ll be saying about the following women….
Four Sided Triangle Hammer – 4K Ultra HD 1953 – 1.33:1 Starring Stephen Murray, Barbara Payton, John Van Eyssen Written by Paul Tabori, Terence Fisher Directed by Terence Fisher Touted as Hammer Studio’s first brush with monsters and mad doctors, 1953’s Four Sided Triangle features a monster, alright—the green-eyed variety. The jealous guy in question…
Is this the best teleplay ever written by Rod Serling? It’s almost too good, even for him. Van Heflin, Everett Sloane and Ed Begley square off at the center of a business power squeeze, in a business world adopting ruthless new ground rules. Is it all about staying competitive, or is it corporate criminality? It’s…
A striking digital Technicolor restoration brings Ealing Films’ unique costume romance to vivid life. The tragedy of Princess Sophie Dorothea has a fine cast: Stewart Granger, Françoise Rosay, Frederick Valk, Peter Bull, Anthony Quayle, Michael Gough, Megs Jenkins, Miles Malleson, Guy Rolfe — plus superb work from ‘the voice’ Joan Greenwood, and a performance by…
Whoa! We saw this endlessly as kids and pretty much set it aside in favor of later revisionist westerns of the 1950s. Raoul Walsh’s pseudobio of George Armstrong Custer is nevertheless a stunning, action-filled epic with humor, romance and a smashing star performance by Errol Flynn. Olivia de Havilland bounces back as the faithful wife,…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week we pair wines with movies featuring ol’ Ski Nose himself, Bob Hope. Road to Utopia was released in 1946, but it was filmed three years earlier. It took so long…
This atom fear thriller grabbed audiences by the Conelrads. Albert Zugsmith spun Cold War hysteria into gold with this cheap but effective exploitation of nuclear war jitters. For once it really happens — ‘unnamed enemies’ overrun America with atom bombs, parachuting troops into cities even as the bombs fall. The absurd script sees excellent work…
Irwin Allen started a franchise with his 1965 TV show: there has even been a second TV series with Parker Posey as Dr. Smith. This very, very expensive 1998 space opera must be the result of millions of hours of digital labor, as the whole thing is a digital effect just as CGI wiped out…
Now back in a dazzling remaster, John Ford’s final feature is a ‘problematic masterpiece.’ The director reaches back to the expressionist 1930s for a grim tale of a Christian mission outpost overrun by savage bandits. His cranky traditionalism in this case sides 100% with core feminist values, thanks to Anne Bancroft’s sterling performance as an…
Aviation buffs will see plenty to admire in Basil Dearden’s drama of events at London’s Heathrow Airport. The show comes off as a low-stress precursor to our Airport, back when the notion of routine air travel was a glamorous and romantic novelty. It also functions as an institutional advert for British aviation and good PR…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, we pair wines with a trio of movies directed by John Ford. A 1960 movie that centers on race relations in America and stars an African-American actor? Yep, that’s Sergeant Rutledge….
Mr. Peabody and Sherman: The Complete Collection 1959 – 1.33:1 Universal – DVD Starring Bill Scott, Walter Tetley, Paul Frees, June Foray Written by Ted Key Directed by Jay Ward, Bill Scott Hector J. Peabody is an American-born multi-hyphenate who graduated from Harvard at the age of three and conquered Wall Street when he was…