CineSavant

Blu-ray Night Passage James Stewart's final western of the 1950s is a high-gloss family show with more than its share of spirited desperados and adventuresome women. But it's really the split-up project that ended the productive Stewart-Anthony Mann filmmaking combo. The 'folksy' touches could only have come from Stewart himself, who hopefully didn't show up to parties with...

Blu-ray Our Hospitality Buster Keaton's first full feature is a real accomplishment, a little masterpiece that deftly balances comedy and drama. Buster's star appeal is on full display as an 1830 lad who returns to the hill country to resettle the old homestead and lands in the middle of a murderous feud -- with the girl he loves...

Blu-ray Army of Shadows Jean-Pierre Melville's most accomplished, most personal movie gets a new reissue. Ignored in 1969 and released in the United States only 37 years later, this somber look at the French resistance has never been equalled. Forget thrilling adventure tales with daring escapes, patriotic oaths and beautiful spies; Melville presents resistance activities in the Occupied territory...

Blu-ray Terminal Station & Indiscretion of an American Wife Don't do it Vittorio! The Italian master's last neorealist project was done 'in collaboration' with American producer David O. Selznick, who proceeded to crowbar his way into every directorial decision. The resulting 'creative differences' spoiled Signor De Sica's Italian version, but that wasn't enough. Selznick put it through a sausage machine for the American release,...

Blu-ray Their Finest Hour: 5 British WWII Classics Can a war movie be reassuring in a time of crisis?  Each of the films in this excellent collection stress people working together: to repel invaders, escape from or attack the enemy, and just to survive in sticky situations. All are inspirational in that they see cooperation, organization and leadership doing good work. See:  the...

Action of the Tiger Action of the Tiger Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date April 14, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring: Van Johnson, Martine Carol, Herbert Lom, Gustavo Rojo, José Nieto, Helen Haye, Anna Gerber, Anthony Dawson, Sean Connery, Yvonne Romain, Helen Goss. Cinematography: Desmond...

Blu-ray The Intrigue Look out, it's an X-Ray Death Ray!  We rushed this review out, and it's only 104 years late. One of the feature films on a new disc devoted to an unheralded woman filmmaker is The Intrigue, a nascent science-fiction thriller of the 'deadly invention' variety. It's all from 1916, when WW1 was being fought. Julia...

Abbott and Costello Go to The Black Lagoon A CineSavant Article  A mention in a book by Tom Weaver of an odd shared visual in two Universal-International movies of the 1950s prompts a quick frame-grab comparison, and also some thoughts about how movies were really made back when twenty dollars was probably considered a big budget expenditure. Some savant I am … I...

Blu-ray The Day of the Dolphin They swim, they play, and they talk. They love George C. Scott and call him 'pa.' Mike Nichols' paranoid sci-fi classic combines Lassie Go Home and The Manchurian Candidate. It works up a good guys versus bad guys conspiracy storyline -- until the message arrives that what the adorable dolphins Fa and Bee really need,...

Blu-ray Beau Geste It's a classic from the Golden Year of 1939, directed in fine style by Wild Bill Wellman and well cast with Paramount stars Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, and Robert Preston, and with Brian Donlevy as one of the movies' most hissable villains. The popular story has been remade and spoofed innumerable times, yet this remains...

3-D Rarities II 3-D Blu-ray isn’t going away, even as the equipment to show it becomes hard to find — and the 3-D Film Archive keeps reviving vintage features and getting them shown in special venues and on Blu-ray. This second Rarities disc gives us some interesting odd items, including a pleasing gallery of vintage 3-D ‘Realist’ stills,...

Blu-ray Show Boat (1936) One of the best and most melodic of filmic transpositions from Broadway, James Whale's beautifully directed movie showcases all-time great performances by Irene Dunne, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan, Hattie McDaniel, and Charles Winninger. If you didn't grow up with an awareness of this 1936 show, it's because it was tossed in a vault and kept...

Blu-ray The Bolshevik Trilogy 3 Films by Vsevolod Pudovkin Ready for some good old-fashioned artistic propaganda, Soviet-style Russian filmmakers tried to make film grammar into an emotional-intellectual science, and these pro-Revolution masterpieces by Vsevolod Pudovkin are terrific lessons in cinematic persuasion. The first two commemorate big moments in proletarian revolt. The third heads east to Soviet Mongolia for an even more powerful demonstration of...

Blu-ray Dodsworth It's 'Marriage Story' circa 1936. Talk about older shows that still pack a dramatic wallop... William Wyler's most celebrated '30s film is this Sinclair Lewis adaptation. The Production Code frowned on disrespecting the institution of marriage, but Wyler & writer Sidney Howard keep the divorce theme intact -- their well-off couple learn more about each...

Wow! That glorious original poster jumped out at us, making us ask why we couldn't see this classic-era Paramount horror picture starring the brilliant and glamorous Carole Lombard and directed by the maker of White Zombie. Well, it's finally shown up to answer that question on Blu-ray. This fairly insubstantial spiritualist vs. scientist spook show about a lady strangler returned from the dead is no classic but will of course be a major curiosity for horror buffs. It's short on real scares, but it does have a young Randolph Scott to race to the rescue at the finish. Supernatural Supernatural Blu-ray KL Studio Classics 1933 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 64 min. / Street Date April 7, 2020 / available through KL Studio Classics / 24.95 Starring: Carole Lombard, Randolph Scott, Vivienne Osborne, Alan Dinehart, H.B. Warner, Beryl Mercer. Cinematography: Arthur Martinelli Dialogue Director: Sidney Salkow Written by Harvey Thew, Brian Marlow...

Blu-ray Leave Her to Heaven Freddie Mercury sang that Love Kills, and that's apparently where Gene Tierney's coming from in this bizarre domestic noir. Dream wife Tierney is cultured, rich, and drop-dead gorgeous, but hubby Cornell Wilde should have read the small print about her manic possessiveness. Beautiful people, beautiful scenery and Technicolor so bright that even Alfred Newman's music...

Trail of the Screaming Forehead + The Lost Skeleton Returns Again Cult nonsense filmmaking finds its Ultimate in Larry Blamire's pair of monster-rally comedies, that parody classic cheapo sci-fi thrillers. The spot-on spoofery nails the genre's hyper-earnest characterizations and affectionately stilted acting. The only disconnect are the high production values lavished on these personal films: remastered for reissue, they look and sound almost too good for...

Blu-ray Manon We can depend on H.G. Clouzot to find people at their most desperate, at their worst. His updated adaptation of Manon Lescaut dissects the trauma of amour fou AND the hypocrisy, opportunism and political horror of postwar France. Resistance fighter Michel Auclair and provincial tart Cécile Aubrey are lovers caught in a web of vice...

Blu-ray The Cranes are Flying Some classic Russian films are impressive, others are interesting -- and this one takes our heads off, as if we were seeing great moviemaking for the first time. Soviet filmmaking under Stalin was locked in the grip of stifling bureaucratic sameness; Mikhail Kalatazov waited until the passing of Joe Stalin to direct with a degree...

Blu-ray Beau Brummell This remake of Warners' 1924 John Barrymore feature gives us Elizabeth Taylor in the Mary Astor role, Stewart Granger as the fashion dandy of the Restoration Period, and a scene-stealing Peter Ustinov as a lonely, needy Prince of Wales. The history is still weak, but it at least doesn't turn Brummell into a typical swashbuckler....

Blu-ray Beau Brummell This remake of Warners' 1924 John Barrymore feature gives us Elizabeth Taylor in the Mary Astor role, Stewart Granger as the fashion dandy of the Restoration Period, and a scene-stealing Peter Ustinov as a lonely, needy Prince of Wales. The history is still weak, but it at least doesn't turn Brummell into a typical swashbuckler....

Blu-ray Inside Moves Richard Donner's first feature post- Superman is a complete switcheroo -- a small-scale character piece that delivers an impressive lineup of engaging actors. John Savage leads a 'different' ensemble of the walking wounded, that congregates at a neighborhood bar. Are friends the best therapy?  The movie has a positive sports theme, and the way its...

Blu-ray My Gun Is Quick Mike Hammer is in action again!  Well, not exactly. Producer Victor Saville's third go-round with Mickey Spillane's famed character doesn't do the franchise justice. Hammer-philes will be astounded by this thriller's decidedly un-thrilling thrills: there's little to connect the inexpressive nice guy Robert Bray with the super-popular, super-violent avenger of the books. Spillane's original is...

Blu-ray Quai des Orfèvres Another big title from Henri-Georges Clouzot touches down in Region A. The great director's first postwar feature dials back the misanthropy -- but only a little. It's a detective tale set in an impressively recreated theatrical milieu, about the tangle of illicit desire that people get caught up in. Ambition, sacrifice, and jealousy figure in...

Blu-ray Semi-Tough In 1977 Burt Reynolds was on top of the Hollywood world, a bankable star whose popularity knew no bounds. In between his payday Smokey and the Bandit vehicles, he tried working with directors Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Aldrich, Stanley Donen ... and with this film, the highly entertaining, somewhat unpredictable Michael Ritchie. The adaptation of Dan...

Teenage Werewolf Spotted 63 Years Too Late Aw, this was supposed to be a CineSavant Column entry, but it got way out of hand and became an article. We got a looksee at a horror film that’s been just plain unavailable for at least twenty-five years: out of circulation / MIA / a Dead Parrot. And what did we see in the...