CineSavant

Blu-ray Losing Ground Kathleen Collins' name made a big cultural rebound with a single review in The New Yorker -- of an independent movie she wrote and directed in 1982. It's a confluence of important black theater and filmmaking talent -- Collins, Bill Gunn, Duane Jones, Billie Allen and, in the background, William Greaves and the history of...

Blu-ray Spies (Spione) Guns!  Bombs!  Assassinations!  Blackmail!  Fritz Lang invents the escapist super-spy thriller!  To seize a set of political documents the evil Haghi dispatches the seductive agents Kitty and Sonya to neutralize a Japanese security man and our own top spy No. 236. (that's 007 x 33,714.2857!) It's a top-rank silent winner from the maker of Metropolis.

Blu-ray Michael Collins On the centennial of the Easter Uprising and just a few days past St. Patrick's Day, WHV present's Neil Jordan's biopic epic of Ireland's most beloved patriotic hero -- a militant who stood up to the English occupiers. It's the role that should have cemented Liam Neeson's stardom.

Blu-ray Paris Belongs to Us Director Jacques Rivette just passed away back in January. There's more interest lately in his 12-hour opus Out 1, but if you'll settle for just 2.5 hours, this unique early New Wave feature will take you inside Rivette's world of artists, students, and refugees from political persecution, all in conflict in a sunny Paris of...

DVD-R Her Majesty, Love It's the final Hollywood film by the legendary Ziegfeld star Marilyn Miller, and it's also a terrific talkie feature debut for W.C. Fields -- with one of his dazzling juggling bits. But the real star is director William Dieterle, whose moving camera and creative edits rescue the talkie musical from dreary operetta staging.

Blu-ray I Knew Her Well (Io la conoscevo bene) She's beautiful, desired and enjoys a social mobility in the improving Italian economy... but she's also a pawn of cruel materialist values. Stefania Sandrelli personifies a liberated spirit who lives for the moment, but who can't form the relationships we call 'living.' Antonio Pietrangeli and Ettore Scola slip an insightful drama into the young Sandrelli's...

"It's like... I can feel the colors, man. The colors are running down my fingers, into my bones!" One had to be there, trying to talk to someone on drugs, to know what it was like. Roger Corman took his own experimental trip and decided to make a movie about it. For social relevance, the subject certainly bested telepathic atomic crab monsters. Olive Films' new Blu-ray of Corman's The Trip follows the company's disc of Psych-Out by a full year, but since I was remiss in covering the first disc, I've combined them both in one . In the sixteen years since I've last seen these movies, one seems better than I thought it was, and the other just as flaky as ever. The good news is that both are longer restored versions, and much improved experiences on Blu-ray. The less happy news is that Olive includes no extras. The Trip — Psych-Out Roger Corman took an artistic turn near the end of his directing days to flex his creative muscles. After the finish of the Edgar Allan Poe series and before an unsatisfying experience at a major studio he made The Wild Angels, a borderline outlaw production with some of the wilder Hollywood crowd introduced to him...

DVD Spring Takes Time Get yer terrific long-suppressed film history right here, folks -- this is what it takes to get your movie banned in East Germany in 1965: Günter Stahnke makes a drama revealing forbidden capitalist-style competitiveness and dastardly backstabbing in a state-run industry. Think any of those Party censors would object?

DVD-R The Strangler Lock your doors! Hulking menace Victor Buono gets the full-on psycho treatment, based (very) roughly on early reports of The Boston Strangler. The 'baby doll' killer also prefigures the fiendish Richard Speck. Burt Topper's film is routine but ex- Baby Jane star Victor Buono's performance is decidedly not.

Blu-ray The Big Heat An Encore Edition brings back Fritz Lang's searing police corruption tale, with the great performances of Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin aided by several pots of fresh, hot coffee. As is usual, Fritz Lang leads the way in modernizing a genre -- this one is a keeper.

Blu-ray When Eight Bells Toll This forgotten Alistair MacLean action thriller packs a rare starring role for the young Anthony Hopkins -- he's really good as secret agent Philip Calvert, battling gold thieves in the Scottish Isles. He's got a James Bond attitude in a more down-to-Earth adventure.

Blu-ray Murders in the Rue Morgue / The Dunwich Horror Look out! Here come two A.I.P. horror pix from the soggy end of the Poe cycle: the first features Jason Robards, an impressive cast and a disorganized storyline. The second is an almost-good Lovecraft horror with interesting performances from Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee.

DVD-R Bad Boy This proto- juvenile delinquent epic launched celebrated WW2 warrior Audie Murphy on the road to Hollywood fame, fortune and more troubled times. Audie commits every crime short of shooting dogs and nuns, but those wacky liberal social workers still give him the benefit of the doubt. Director Kurt Neumann backs our hero with expert acting support from Lloyd...

The Decline of Western Civilization, + Part II The Metal Years The formidable Penelope Spheeris penetrates L.A.'s punk and glam rock scenes, connecting with surly malcontents that would greet a normal docu with flipped fingers and snarled four-letter words. The result is much more than a collection of rare music performances. Things are as loud, as profane and as twisted as ever.

Blu-ray Contagion Savant goes back five years to praise Steven Soderbergh's superb pandemic thriller, the one that warns us to never, ever shake hands with a gourmet chef. Don't worry, only between 25 and 40 million people die... in the first year. Now go wash your hands.

Blu-ray Donovan’s Brain Blinded by science! And no, it's not a sequel to Donovan's Reef.  Lew Ayres yanks the living brain out of a dying millionaire, plugs it into his mad lab gizmo, and is soon obeying the know-it-all noggin's telepathic commands to scheme and murder. Gene Evans and Nancy Reagan assist in Curt Siodmak's creative, compelling tale...

Blu-ray The Hawaiians The sequel to the epic Julie Andrews road show picture wasn't a hit, but it tells a good story of its own. Charlton Heston is okay but the central character is a Chinese immigrant played by Tina Chen. Against all odds, the peasant matriarch survives plagues and leprosy to found a family dynasty for the...

Revolt of the Slaves Let's give a cheer for the lowly sword 'n' sandal epic. This persecution and torture spectacle also takes in the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. The impressively mounted Italian-Spanish production stars Rhonda Fleming, Fernando Rey, Wandisa Guida, and as the slimy villain, none other than Serge Gainsbourg.

Blu-ray The Vincent Price Collection III Shout Factory opens the crypt once more, for the last remaining UA and AIP fright movies starring our favorite gentleman of horror. The label lays on the extras, with Steve Haberman commentaries and episodes of Science Fiction Theater. Now where are the Vincent Price cooking shows?

Blu-ray Cowboy Delmer Daves' easygoing cattle drive western can't make an action hero out of Jack Lemmon, but with fine work from co-star Glenn Ford it presents a thoughtful anti-myth: no glorious rescues or noble gunfights, and the demure maiden doesn't wait for the handsome cowboy hero. With Brian Donlevy (excellent) and Anna Kashf.

Blu-ray The Graduate What can you say to such success? Mike Nichols and Buck Henry's sex satire defined 'the generation gap' for the sixties. Dustin Hoffman sprang forward from obscurity and Katharine Ross was the object of California desire. Anne Bancroft's Mrs. Robinson freed the image of the 'complicated woman' from the clutches of the Production Code Stone...

Blu-ray Key Largo Bogie and Bacall are back, but with Edward G. Robinson's oily gangster breathing down their necks -- "Nyah!" Excellent direction (John Huston) and great performances (Claire Trevor) have made this one an eternal classic. We want subtitles for whatever Eddie whispered in Betty's ear... A most-requested, or demanded, HD release from Warners.

Blu-ray Childhood’s End This is the first Syfy program I’ve watched in years. It’s far above the quality level that I had come to expect from that cable channel. Although it warps and dulls Arthur C. Clarke’s fairly amazing novel, it doesn’t totally betray it. When the end rolls by, be assured that this TV miniseries version barely...

Blu-ray The Black Sleep It's an All Star monster rally -- Lon Chaney Jr.!   John Carradine!   Bela Lugosi!   Basil Rathbone!   Tor Johnson! -- with Akim Tamiroff in there pitching as well. It's considered a must-see picture and this HD presentation is nothing to sniff at. Added bonus: a Tom Weaver commentary.

Region B Blu-ray + PAL DVD 5 Dolls for an August Moon A "lesser" Mario Bava is still a fountain of great filmmaking; and this annihilating melodrama sees a score of greedy folk wiped out at an island retreat, for fun and profit. Shot (and stabbed) through with Bava's visual imagination, it's a sexy, memorable murder thriller. With an authoritative Tim Lucas commentary.

DVD Oh! What a Lovely War A pure-gold Savant favorite, Sir Richard Attenborough's first feature as director is a stylized pacifist epic of the insane tragedy of WW1, told through contemporary songs, with alternate, irreverent lyrics given them by the soldiers themselves. And one will not want to miss a young Maggie Smith's music hall performance -- luring young conscripts to...