CineSavant

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 After 63 years somebody has taken a crack at Arthur C. Clarke's monumental sci-fi novel. This interpretation throws the emphasis way out of whack but succeeds too frequently to ignore. Charles Dance is the alarming Overlord Karellen, who comes from the stars to escort humanity through its next stage of development... and to announce the...

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...

Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD Spotlight One of the best pictures of 2015 is an accurate and relevant movie about a truly difficult subject. Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Brian d'Arcy James, John Slattery and Stanley Tucci lead an impressive ensemble; I don't think I've ever seen such a complicated story told with such clarity, and so entertainingly.

Blu-ray Where the Sidewalk Ends Otto Preminger looks at police corruption and comes up with a classy noir starring Dana Andrews as a rogue cop and Gene Tierney as the woman whose father he accidentally frames for murder. With Karl Malden, Gary Merrill and velvety-slick B&W cinematography by Joseph LaShelle.

Blu-ray Millennium / R.O.T.O.R. Two 1980's science fiction efforts from the 'eighties: Millennium is an expensive book adaptation with Kris Kristofferson and Cheryl Ladd navigating a time travel story about body snatchers from the future. R.O.T.O.R is direct to video and strictly from hunger. Oh, the agony… However, both films surely have lessons to teach the budding filmmaker who...

DVD All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records Remember Tower Records? The saga of the massive brick & mortar music retailer is a great story with marvelous characters. When you meet founder Russ Solomon it becomes obvious why the store clicked -- the guy knew how to turn music-brained hippies into motivated collaborators. With good extras... this docu generates genuine Good Vibes.

Blu-ray Inside Llewyn Davis Joel and Ethan Coen drop most of the sarcasm for their deeply felt character study. Everything's a big problem for Llewyn: a girl (Carey Mulligan), various agents, fellow performers, and a cat. I find Oscar Isaac's Llewyn to be wholly sympathetic, and that cat business is deeper than it looks. The terrific extras include a...