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CineSavant

Glenn Erickson's disc reviews: classic, cult and forgotten films on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD.

It's Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing together in a horror picture, a formula no shock feature fan can resist. Most of us remember staring at the beautiful full-color photo of Chris Lee in monster makeup in Denis Gifford's picture book about horror movies. Yet this has remained one of the pair's most obscure items, at least as a quality presentation. Powerhouse Indicator's expert added value items put all the rumors to rest, including the question that's been repeated through the years -- where's the legendary 3-D version? Or perhaps more to the point, was there really a 3-D version? And then there's the other question -- is the movie any good? I, Monster You’ve got to hand Powerhouse Indicator the prize for properly presenting and annotating their Blu-rays: even with an item as marginal as 1971’s I, Monster they don’t for a minute shirk from their mission. Milton Subotsky and Stephen Weeks’ underachieving horror picture is given every chance to be rediscovered and re-evaluated. Subotsky and Max J....
This CinemaScope musical remake of 1939's The Women is highly watchable, especially in this flawless digital remaster. The actresses that bare their claws, compete for husbands and just plain cat-fight are a choice batch, with favorites from the '50s (June Allyson, Agnes Moorehead) the '40s (Ann Sheridan, Ann Miller) the '30s (Joan Blondell, Charlotte Greenwood) -- plus a few wildflowers that bloomed cinematically for only a few years (Dolores Gray) and one that somehow managed immortality (Joan Collins). It's highly watchable despite, or maybe because of its criminally outdated recipe for marital bliss. Did women really go for this fantasy -- did anybody ever really live like this? The Opposite Sex We review plenty of genre product here, thrillers of all kinds — but CineSavant is just as intrigued by squaresville movies ( → ) even when made by a studio in denial. Who in 1956 still cared about MGM’s ‘tradition of quality?’  In terms of current trends and PC values  The Opposite Sex might as...
TV's 1979 Titanic movie comes to Blu in two versions. We liked it when new but didn't care for the cut-down theatrical version that hit DVD in 2002. Kino's disc completes a set of various film versions of the infamous 1912 disaster, and allows us the chance for a Titanic 'battle of the bands' -- we'll rate them from several criteria. The filmed-in-England production has a nicely-chosen soap opera cast: David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Anna Quayle, David Warner, Susan Saint James, Harry Andrews. S.O.S. Titanic With this 1979 TV version we now have five separate movie Blu-rays of the 1912 Titanic disaster; that’s not counting skits in Monty Python movies or the very similar ship-hits-iceberg romantic drama History is Made at Night (1937) by Frank Borzage. TV’s S.O.S. Titanic hit the airwaves on September 23 of 1979, and I remember...
And now for something we had read about but never before saw: Tod Slaughter's highly entertaining murder thriller is stylized in a vintage theatrical format, the Victorian blood & thunder barnstorming drama, originally from 1880 or thereabouts. Slaughter's refined gentleman is also a crazed killer with a bizarre modus operandi. Everything that happens is borderline preposterous, and all the better for it. It's not exactly a horror picture -- unadventurous fans may just see a creaky 80-year old movie -- but Tod Slaughter is one of a kind. Kino's new Blu-ray is a beautiful restoration with an informative and entertaining audio commentary. The Face at the Window Pretty much an unknown entity in the United States, Tod Slaughter was a household name in England, occupying his own special place in theatrical history. The actor ran his own theatrical company through much of the 1920s, featuring what were called ‘blood & thunder’ horror plays. He didn’t initially specialize in villains. Tod was the...
Why is it that, when a horror film achieves something special, both the critics and the public tend to elevate it above and beyond the 'lowly' horror genre? David Lynch's most humane and sympathetic film still makes our heads spin, and this new 4K remaster renders Freddie Francis's great cinematography at its best. Lynch extends and develops the visual nightmares of his experimental Eraserhead for this true-life classic. Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller and Freddie Jones all give indelible, emotionally-moving performances. How many horror pictures hold up hope for social decency and personal dignity? The Elephant Man It’s said that executive producer Mel Brooks found David Lynch to be so forthright and plain-spoken in his approach to film art, that when he first hired him to direct The Elephant Man he called him ‘James Stewart.’ Like a film-student version of It’s a Wonderful Life, Lynch experienced the daydream of every imaginative but...
It's a perfect movie for a dark time: Carlo Levi's famed novel about a political undesirable became a major Italian miniseries by the great Francesco Rosi, starring the now-legendary Gian Maria Volontè. In Mussolini's most popular years of make-Italy-great-again Fascism, a dissident is given an indefinite 'time out,' an exile to a small town in a corner of the country so remote and primitive that not even Christianity could fully change it. He expects nothing but receives revelations about his country, his life and one's place in society. It's meditative, it's illuminating, it's like a book one can't put down. It's also uncut, as opposed to the theatrical version that made a splash here in 1980, as simply Eboli. Christ Stopped at Eboli Thoughtful, serious films about the Italian countryside and its past traditions are respected and honored, but often a tough row to hoe. I admire the Taviani Bros. Padre Padrone and Olmi’s The Tree of Wooden Clogs but I can’t say they became favorites. Christ Stopped at Eboli is a different article altogether. It’s a story...
Witness one Robert Lippert, an American independent producer who flourished in multiple eras of Hollywood. We discuss his adaptation to changes in the movie biz in conjunction with a double bill DVD of two typical Lippert shows from the very early fifties, one produced in Hollywood and another in England. Robert Lippert is the proof that 'Life Finds a Way' in the movies as well, a sentiment reinterpreted as 'staying in the game.' I’ll Get You + Fingerprints Don’t Lie Most of Robert Lippert’s films are co-productions with filmmakers. The prolific Sigmund Neufeld is the credited producer for Fingerprints Don’t Lie. The micro-budgeted programmer isn’t even an hour long, yet it contains at least five minutes of unfunny ‘filler’ comedy material with Lippert’s favorite comic actor Sid Melton. Sid’s daffy news photographer Hypo Dorton can’t...
Universal's top-of-the-line Alfred Hitchcock classics make the jump to Ultra HD in a worthy update. We've seen these before but they're always different in a theatrical setting... and the quality is so amazing here, a big home theater setup can duplicate a theatrical experience. It might as well be a Robert Burks / John L. Russell cinematographer's film festival too, or an 'Editor George Tomasini Festival' -- that unheralded ace cut all four of these masterpieces. And fans of Psycho have an extra treat: a slightly longer original cut. The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection 4K Ultra HD Alfred Hitchcock became the most popular director ever as soon as the Hitchcock/Truffaut interview book reached America — adoration of his filmic technique launched a hundred thousand film students, including this writer. His personally-owned productions released by Paramount were difficult to see during the entire decade of the 1970s, which made rare showings of Vertigo into...