The DVD Report #26: October 30, 2007
It's time to get caught up with new releases again. The 80th Anniversary Edition of The Jazz Singer is of more historical than entertainment value today. The film itself is a creaky tale of the Jewish cantor's son who finds success beyond the synagogue to the disdain of his father. It is about 80% silent and 20% talkie, but when it talks, or rather sings, it soars thanks to the still-effective high-energy performance of master entertainer Al Jolson. The second disc of the three-DVD set is a fascinating documentary on the development of motion picture sound. Thomas Edison, who invented both motion pictures and the phonograph, put the two together in an 1894 short, but attempts at producing sound regularly on film didn't begin in earnest for another ten years and took yet another twenty to develop to the point where it was commercially viable. Primitive attempts at having actors speak were so bad that the idea of talking pictures itself became an industry joke until the brothers Warner came up the perfect vehicle, after which there was no turning back. The third disc contains early short subjects mostly featuring long-forgotten vaudevillians. Previous releases of most of Stanley Kubrick's films on DVD were frustrating because proper aspect ratios were not used to project the entire image on widescreen TVs. This was because it was believed that Kubrick himself preferred to have his films fill the TV screen, but Kubrick who died in March 1999 at the dawn of the DVD revolution, it is now believed would approve of his films being shown in wider aspect ratios that fit widescreen TVs in the way they never could older 4x3 sets. The new Stanley Kubrick - Warner Home Video Directors Series features five of his films in new anamorphic transfers, four of them - 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut - in two-disc special editions and the fifth - Full Metal Jacket - in a single-disc deluxe edition. All films are available separately. The set also includes the previously-released documentary - Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures. Finally available on disc one of Eyes Wide Shut is the unexpurgated European version. Warner Bros. originally intended to provide this and the digitally-altered-for-sensitive-Americans version, but dropped the latter at the last minute. There is, however, very little difference between the two. The original DVD and theatrical release versions strategically covered up body parts for about four seconds during the orgy scene, but the unexpurgated version is the one the director always intended us to see, making it the artistically-preferable one. Disc two features both previously released and new documentaries, including Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick detailing his work on Napoleon among others. Old and new supplements accompany the other four films in the set as well. A Clockwork Orange features commentary by Malcolm McDowell and the absorbing, almost 90-minute-long documentary on McDowall's career called O Lucky Malcolm! O Lucky Malcolm! Is also a supplement to Lindsay Anderson's long-overdue-on-DVD, A one of a kind movie, 1973's O Lucky Man! arrives in a two-disc Special Edition that for which we have McDowell to thank. Approached by Warner Bros. to do the commentary on A Clockwork Orange, he said he would if he could also do one on this wonderful film as well. The satirically autobiographical film co-written by McDowell, though officially credited to If... scenarist David Sherwin, chronicles the adventures of a modern-day Candide from naïve young coffee salesman to movie star. The cast includes Rachel Roberts, Ralph Richardson, Arthur Lowe, Mona Washbourne, an impossibly young but beguiling Helen Mirren, and the great Alan Price as himself. Price's extraordinary music provides on-going commentary on the action and helps to move the story along. Not new to DVD, but worth seeking out is Nicholas Meyer's 1979 film, Time After Time, in which McDowell, as H.G. Wells, and David Warner, as Jack the Ripper, are transported from 1890s London to modern day San Francisco where McDowell meets and falls in love with bank officer Mary Steenburgen both on screen and in real life. McDowell and Steenburgen have long since divorced, but their now-grown children have kept them close, and Steenburgen's eyes still glow in the McDowell bio when talking about one of the film's great scenes. Filmed at the Top of the Mark, the revolving restaurant on the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel, Steenburgen reveals that McDowell whispered in her ear just before the cameras rolled that he was in love with her. The result is one of the most unabashedly romantic scenes ever put on celluloid, one of many great ones in this undervalued gem. The latest additions to the Criterion Collection are Terrence Malick's breathtakingly beautiful Days of Heaven, John Huston's superb Under the Volcano and Jean-Luc Godard's revolutionary Breathless. While Days of Heaven and Breathless were previously available, Under the Volcano was never released on DVD. All three look smashing in their new incarnations. There are extras galore on all three, including feature-length commentaries. The extras on Under the Volcano and Breathless are so voluminous they require two discs. All three come with written essay booklets as well. From the sublime to the ridiculous, the latest travesty heaped upon an uncomprehending public by Michael Bay ( Armageddon, Pearl Harbor) is the ridiculous Transformers. What exactly is this noisy mishmash all about? As best I can tell, it's about an alien invasion in which good aliens and bad aliens fight for control of Earth. The film stars Shia LaBeouf who plays Harrison Ford's son in the upcoming Indiana Jones sequel. Speaking of Indiana Jones, Paramount has found a unique way of repackaging the short-lived series about the character as a young man and its subsequent made-for-TV movies. Intended as the first of three volumes, TThe Adventures of Young Indiana Jones - Volume 1 is an elaborate twelve-disc set with more than three dozen documentaries about the time, place and real life people introduced in the various segments, highly appropriate for the series which placed more of an emphasis on history than derring-do. It's a great learning tool for kids. Clifford Irving's chutzpah allowed him to pull off one of the most daring cons in history as the alleged collaborator of a Howard Hughes autobiography, the story of which is chronicled in Lasse Hallstrom's The Hoax. Supplementary material featuring the real Irving makes it easy to understand how the writer's charm made the con work. Not so Richard Gere's merely serviceable impersonation of him in the film. His nervous energy and tics makes you wonder how he managed to stay ahead of the game for as long as he did. Better is Alfred Molina as Irving's friend and co-conspirator. Julie Delpy manages to look and sound exactly like Irving's sometimes-mistress, actress Nina Van Pallandt, though the part is so miniscule it could have been played by almost anyone. Marcia Gay Harden gets more screen time as Irving's wife, but her unkempt appearance and atrocious German accent are enough to make you want her to give back her Oscar. Harden looks and sounds better as the mother of a bright high school graduate in The Invisible, but the film, from the producers of The Sixth Sense, is a fairly joyless story about a teenager stuck between the living and the dead. Both TV's Ghost Whisperer and Medium do this sort of thing better and in about half the time each week. Another film dealing with the supernatural is 1408 from a Stephen King sort story. It should have stayed a short story. John Cusack mostly mopes around as a non-believer in apparitions until the inevitable happens and Samuel L. Jackson, who shares top billing, has two small scenes unworthy of either his billing or his talent. William Friedkin's Bug is a more satisfying horror film, with a creditable screenplay and an astonishing performance by Ashley Judd as the grieving mother of a kidnapped toddler. Michael Shannon is fine as the psychotic stranger she takes into her world. Harry Connick, Jr. is nothing special as Judd's abusive ex-husband, but Brian F. O'Byrne makes a strong impression as a psychiatrist late in the film. There are no visible ghosts in Reign Over Me but the film's main character, played by Adam Sandler in an excellent performance, is haunted nonetheless by memories of the family he lost in one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11. Don Cheadle, in another excellent performance, is the old friend who tries to bring him out of himself. While the film, directed by Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger), is not entirely successful, it does well at mixing comedy with pathos and features some nice shots of post-9/11 New York at night. Another film dealing with survival in the face of terrorism is A Mighty Heart, focusing on the search for Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002. The film, directed by Michael Winterbottom (The Road to Guantanamo), is at its best when detailing the procedural workings of the Pakistani police, but the scenes after Pearl's death are a letdown. Mariane Pearl's altruistic speech at a lunch she gives the people who worked on the case comes too abruptly, and a totally unnecessary birthing scene seem calculated to provide Angeline Jolie, as Mariane, with two of the film's three Oscar bait-y scenes, the other is a screaming scene when she is told of Daniel's death. The ending seems cribbed from last year's The Painted Veil. Also newly released are Warner Bros. The Burt Lancaster Signature Collection and The Barbara Stanwyck Signature Collection.The Lancaster collection includes The Flame and the Arrow, a classic medieval adventure film which makes great use of Lancaster's abilities as well as telling an absorbing story; Jim Thorpe - All American, a no holds barred biography of the Native American Olympian who falls victim to alcohol and scandal; and Executive Action, a scarily-plausible JFK conspiracy film released two decades before Oliver Stone's JFK. The set also includes two throwaway films, His Majesty O'Keefe and South Sea Woman. The Stanwyck collection includes the western Annie Oakley; the World War II romance My Reputation;the melodrama East Side, West Side; the race car drama To Please a Lady; the late noir Jeopardy; and the all-star Executive Suite. It's a good representation of Stanwyck's career in all its versatility. She is especially memorable in the all-star Executive Suite, in which she is billed below William Holden and June Allyson, but above the other cast members including Fredric March and Walter Pidgeon who have larger roles. In fact she doesn't appear until near the end of the film and effortlessly takes it over. Until next time, happy viewing! -Peter J. Patrick (October 30, 2007) |
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The DVD Report #25: October 23, 2007
How many people do you know who watch scary movies on Halloween? I don't watch them myself, nor do I know anyone who does, but in the days and weeks leading up the holiday there is no better way to get into the mood than to watch a few horror flicks back-to-back. Horror films have been with us as long as moving pictures have been around. Some of the greatest films of the silent era were the horror films of maestros F.W. Murnau and Tod Browning. Moving into the sound era, horror films continued to thrive. The best of them have always been those that are more psychological in their terror than those heavy in blood and gore. We all have our own tastes, but I personally prefer films about vampires and werewolves to films about slashers and zombies. Here, in chronological order, are some of my favorites: James Whale's 1931 film of Frankenstein was the second of three horror films that created a successful franchise for Universal that lasted for the better part of two decades. While the original Dracula betrayed its stage origins and The Mummy moved a bit slowly even by early-1930s standards, Frankenstein was perfectly pitched and paced, mixing heart and whimsy with the fantastical, its most poignant scene being the accidental drowning of a little girl who befriends the creature. Boris Karloff's star-making performance as the creature still blows all imitators off the screen. Colin Clive is almost as good as Dr. Frankenstein, as is Dwight Frye as his assistant. Though it had been filmed successfully as a silent with John Barrymore in 1920, and would be filmed many more times, the 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde remains the most celebrated. Director Rouben Mamoulian was a pioneer in opening up early sound movies and this film was no exception, with freedom of movement belying the film's handful of sets. The on-screen transformation of Fredric March from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde still thrills with a "how did they do that" amazement. The sex scenes are highly suggestive, even for pre-Code Hollywood, but, alas, Miriam Hopkins' famed nude scene is not among those restored for the DVD release. H.G. Wells provided the source material for Whale's 1933 classic, The Invisible Man, which, like Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy, later provided a successful franchise for Universal, even though it took them another seven years to make more Invisible films. Claude Rains lent his commanding presence to the role of the scientist who invents a drink to make himself invisible and lives to regret it. A young Gloria Stuart was his fiancée and the hilarious Una O'Connor all but steals the film as Rains' screaming landlady. Whale returned to Mary Shelley for his masterpiece, the great Bride of Frankenstein, one of a handful of sequels in film history that outshines the original. Karloff is back as the creature, even more sympathetic than before as he continues his adventures among the living. Clive returns as Dr. Frankenstein, but as his wife, Clarke is replaced with Valerie Hobson. The wonderful supporting cast includes Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorius, O.P. Heggie as the hermit, Una O'Connor as a screaming villager, and the wonderful Elsa Lanchester in a dual role. She plays both authoress Shelley in the film's prologue and the title character, a bride not for the increasingly mad Dr. Frankenstein, but for his creature. Tod Browning's most successful talkie was 1931's Dracula, after which he directed the controversial Freaks, arguably his greatest directorial achievement in the sound era. For my money, however, his best film of the sound era was 1936's The Devil-Doll. Sort of a horror version of The Count of Monte Cristo. Lionel Barrymore plays a respected Parisian banker falsely accused of a crime and sent to Devil's Island. He later escapes and returns to Paris to seek vengeance on those who wronged him. Disguised as a little old lady who sells intriguing little dolls that are actually shrunken human beings he controls telepathically, Barrymore is a hoot. Maureen O'Sullivan is quite touching as his unsuspecting daughter. Lon Chaney Jr. had his greatest role as Lenny in 1939's Of Mice and Men, but it was in his father's footsteps in the 1941 horror classic, The Wolf Man, that he had his most famous one. Another huge cash cow for Universal, the Wolf Man series lasted for years. Chaney's sympathetic werewolf in the original, is surrounded by a cast of then-better-known actors, including Claude Rains, Warren William, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Bela Lugosi and Maria Ouspenskaya, but it is Chaney who emerges as a star thanks to his portrayal of an everyman caught in a hopeless situation. Oscar Wilde's classic novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, provided the source material for one of the most intriguing films of all time. Hurd Hatfield, an actor who in real life hardly aged even though he lived into his 80s, played the title character whose portrait, hidden in an attic, ages while he remains forever young. Highly atmospheric and filled with a sense of dread, the performances of Hatfield, George Sanders as an amoral cad (what else?) and Angela Lansbury as a young innocent are the stuff of legend. Late in life Hatfield came into possession of the original painting of himself as a young man used in the film. How bizarre it must have been to enter his home and see the picture hanging there. A short story by Robert Louis Stevenson was the source material for 1945's The Body Snatcher, one of several small budget classics made by producer Val Lewton for RKO in the mid-1940s. Directed by Robert Wise, who would go on to win Oscars for West Side Story and The Sound of Music, the film stars Boris Karloff as the title character, a grave robber who finds cadavers for mad doctor Henry Daniell in the performance of his career. Vincent Price was no stranger to gothic horror or villainous roles when he played the disfigured sculptor in1953's House of Wax, but this full-color, 3-D remake of 1933's Mystery of the Wax Museum (included as a bonus on the DVD) is the film that opened up a whole new career for him as one of the great horror film stars. Phyllis Kirk is the screaming heroine. Pandering to audience fears of an imminent Communist takeover of the U.S., 1956's ominous Invasion of the Body Snatchers has remained unsettling long after such fears have subsided. Don Siegel, later of Dirty Harry fame, directed Kevin McCarthy as the small town doctor who tries to warn the world of alien takeovers of human bodies before it is too late. Its premise proved even more unsettling when it was remade as 1978's Invasion of the Body Snatchers in which the action shifted to San Francisco. In the late 1950s, Britain's Hammer Films revived Universal's first three horror franchises; initially producing new versions of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy saturated in blood. While 1957's The Curse of Frankenstein and 1959's The Mummy were both popular, spawning sequels for years, it was 1958's Horror of Dracula that caused the biggest sensation. The film was especially terrifying to audiences not terribly familiar with Bram Stoker's novel or any of the myriad versions of the story and didn't know that Jonathan Harker is not the ultimate hero. What happens to him is truly horrific. The film made international stars of character actors Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Christopher Lee as Dracula. Alfred Hitchcock, having long been regarded as the master of film suspense, turned his attention to TV and a highly successful anthology series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, in the 1950s. Utilizing the TV sets and much of his TV crew, Hitchcock chose to turn to horror to make his first black and white film in years. Robert Bloch's novel was the source material for 1960's Psycho, which stirred immense interest with the gimmick that no one would be seated after the start of the film. Bernard Herrmann's thrillingly creepy score and Anthony Perkins' equally-thrilling and creepy performance set the tone for what remains one of the most shocking films ever. The shower scene with Janet Leigh caused millions, including Leigh herself, to vow never to take a shower again. Jack Clayton's The Innocents afforded Deborah Kerr a rare foray into horror as the easily-unhinged governess in this 1961 film of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, co-scripted by Truman Capote. This psychological ghost story set in a remote turn-of-the-century English estate plays extremely well on a double bill with Robert Wise's equally-eerie film of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom made two years later. William Wyler won his still-record twelfth and last Best Director Oscar nomination for 1965's The Collector based on the disturbing novel by eccentric British author John Fowles ( The French Lieutenant's Woman). Terence Stamp as the butterfly collector who turns his attention to the opposite sex and Samantha Eggar as the woman he kidnaps to add to his collection are both excellent. Ira Levin's great New York novel was the source material for 1968's Rosemary's Baby. Roman Polanski's film sticks to its original milieu brilliantly, filming in and around the famed Dakota apartment building and other NYC locations. Mia Farrow is perfectly cast as the expectant mother not having an easy pregnancy as is John Cassavetes as her not-exactly-what-he-seems husband, but it is the supporting cast that gives the film its extra punch. Ruth Gordon is at turns hilarious and frightening in her Oscar-winning role as the witch next door, Sidney Blackmer is mesmerizing as Gordon's warlock husband, Ralph Bellamy is properly sinister as Mia's too-smooth doctor, Maurice Evans is wise but foolish as Mia's old friend, and ace comedienne Patsy Kelly is menacingly unfunny as another witch in the coven. The most terrifying horror film of all time isWilliam Friedkin's 1973film of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, adapted for the screen by the author. Based on an actual exorcism performed in Washington, D.C. some years earlier, the character of the mother was based on Shirley MacLaine whom the author had known. The director, whom he seems to take special delight in killing off, was based on J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone). The novel and the film were especially shocking to Catholic audiences as much of the film centers on the blasphemy of the devil as he takes over the body of a young girl and the mind of a troubled priest. The special effects are legendary and the acting sublime, with Ellen Burstyn as the actress-mother, Linda Blair as the possessed girl, Jason Miller as the troubled priest, Max von Sydow as the elderly exorcist, and Jack MacGowran as the director proving especially fine. An unbilled Mercedes McCambridge chills to the bone as the voice of the devil. TV director Richard Donner had his first major big screen success with 1976's The Omen, an unsettling account of the devil's spawn switched at birth with the son of the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, played by the estimable Gregory Peck, and his wife, lovely Lee Remick. An imminent sense of doom hangs over the production that doesn't let up until the final frame. Equally good is the 1978 sequel, Damien - Omen II with William Holden as Peck's brother. Brian De Palma's film of Stephen King's first published work, 1976's Carrie, is arguably both the best film made from a King novel and the best film De Palma has ever made. Sissy Spacek gives a performance for the ages as a mistreated high school senior with telekinetic powers. She's almost matched by Piper Laurie as her religious fanatic mother. There are strong supporting performances from William Katt, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, John Travolta and Betty Buckley. If the film has a flaw, it's the killing off of Buckley's sympathetic teacher, something that didn't happen in the novel. Not a film per se, but an excellent TV mini-series, Tobe Hooper's 1979 version of Stephen King's Salem's Lot makes up for its disappointingly-cheesy special effects with a thoughtful script and excellent acting by a cast of Hollywood veterans in support of TV stars David Soul and Lance Kerwin. They include James Mason as a mysterious antiques dealer, and Lew Ayres, Bonnie Bedelia, Elisha Cook Jr., Marie Windsor, and Ed Flanders as various vampire fighters and victims. Far better than its repulsive sequels might lead you to believe, 1988's Child's Play is an intelligent thriller in which the soul of an executed murderer inhabits a life-like doll given to a six year old as a birthday present. Catherine Hicks is the unsuspecting mother, Chris Sarandon the detective who tries to solve the murders by conventional means and Brad Dourif the voice of "Chucky". Tom Holland ( Fright Night) directed. M. Night Shyamalan showed great promise with 1999's The Sixth Sense in which psychiatrist Bruce Willis tries to help ten-year-old Haley Joel Osment who sees dead people. It's highly watchable even if you know or guess the film's major deceit. A surprise hit, it earned six Oscar nominations including one for Osment and another for Toni Collette as his mother. If you're not into horror movies, another suggestion for this week might be to watch a festival of Deborah Kerr films in honor of the beloved star who died last week of Parkinson's Disease. Among her many films available on DVD, I highly recommend Black Narcissus, From Here to Eternity, The King and I, An Affair to Remember, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, Separate Tables, The Sundowners and The Night of the Iguana in lieu of, or in addition to, The Innocents mentioned above. -Peter J. Patrick (October 23, 2007) |
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The DVD Report #24: October 16, 2007
There are lots of things we can do with our time other than watch movies, but the best place to watch them when we want to watch them is on a widescreen LCD or plasma TV screen via a state-of-the-art DVD player. The trouble is we are at the mercy of the big DVD companies to provide the kind of entertainment we want to see, or are we? There is no reason we should rent or buy the latest Hollywood releases like 28 Days Later or Evan Almighty just to keep up with the water cooler talk at the office. Nor is it necessary to limit ourselves to product available at the local Blockbuster or Best Buy. Amazon.com, which Oscar Guy links to, is a great source for current and previously released DVDs, even difficult-to-find discontinued releases, but it's just the starting point for the treasure trove of films available on DVD. Finding old favorites for rent can be difficult, but finding them to purchase becomes easier all the time. Amazon has a number of specialized dealers that sell through them, just like on E-Bay, where you can find DVDs that were never officially released in the U.S. Some are Region 1 or all-region playable, meaning they will play on U.S. players. Others are made for region 2 or other regions and require special players for play within the U.S. Currently, for example, you can find the restored uncut version of Ken Russell's The Devils on sale for $21.99 and the long out-of-print Criterion edition of Passolini's Salo - 120 Days of Sodom for under $39.99. You can also find such wholesome entertainment as the 1936 version of Show Boat, the 1954 version of The Student Prince and all the films ever made by Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy at prices compatible with the latest releases on sale at Best Buy. Still not satisfied? Well, if you have a modified player that will play DVDs of any region, you can order from overseas sources or import retailers within the U.S. My favorite overseas source is Movie Mail U.K., which features a wide selection of classic films officially released in Region 2. They ship everything to the U.S. via air mail, so you can expect to receive your order of in-stock DVDs within three days. New releases are sent out on Thursday the week before their street date so you can even have a hot new Region 2 release like Becoming Jane or Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz in your hands the day of their official release in the U.K. Movie Mail also has an extensive collection of films long-in-release in Region 2 that were never made available to Region 1 including such titles as Sons and Lovers, Wild River, The L-Shaped Room, Two Rode Together, The Family Way and The Go-Between. If you're not in a hurry, you can wait for one of the U.S. DVD importers to stock the film you want. Xploited Cinema is easily the best of these with a great website indicating whether an item is in stock or not (it usually is) and information on whether subtitles are removable or not. Generally speaking, a foreign film release of an English language film by a major distributer (Warner Bros., Universal, Fox) will have removable subtitles whereas a DVD produced by some local company may not. Removable subtitles, however, may not be the only criteria by which to select one version over another. For example, the Spanish DVD of The Dark Mirror sold by Xploited Cinema has removable subtitles but the French DVD of The Dark Mirror sold by DaaVeeDee has imbedded French subtitles, though the pristine transfer on the French version is far superior to the Spanish version which looks no better than an old VHS copy of the film. British-made Special Edition DVDs you can find at Xploited Cinema include Bigger Than Life, Tiger Bay, The League of Gentlemen and The Nanny. DaaVeeDee, which is also an Amazon.com seller is a close second to Xploited Cinema, though their selection is not quite as extensive. Both companies ship orders immediately. Xploited Cinema gives you your choice of carriers, including overnight carriers, whereas DaaVeeDee will only ship domestically through the U.S. post office. Orders of six or fewer DVDs are sent priority mail. Larger orders are sent regular mail. DaaVeeDee carries numerous titles from Region 4 (Australia), but few titles from France. Xploited Cinema, on the other hand, has lots of titles from France including an extensive film noir collection. A great source for out-of-print Region 1 and region-free titles that were never officially released in the U.S. is eFilmic in Taiwan. Prices are reasonable if not downright cheap, with numerous titles on sale for under $10. Orders are shipped immediately via first class mail, arriving in just a few days. They carry titles as diverse as Desiree, The Egyptian, Ruggles of Red Gap and Tea and Sympathy. Order ten or more and they'll throw in Song of the South for free. You can also find privately produced versions of DVDs, most often downloaded from TV broadcasts or copied from out-of-print VHS or laserdisc versions of old films. The best reproductions can be found at Rare Classic DVDs, where the fee is $15 per DVD with free shipping on ten or more DVDs. Their DVDs are usually of better quality than the competition with regular size DVD slipcases and full cover art provided. Among the titles they carry are Stars in My Crown, Rachel, Rachel, Love With the Proper Stranger, By Love Possessed and Bhowani Junction, all of which feature the best available prints of those films. Coming in at a close second is Free Classic Movies on DVD. The cost there is $9.25 per DVD for shipping, handling and materials. Order ten and you can order an eleventh for free. Orders are sent priority mail the same day or the next. The only downside is you take your chances on the quality of the film. The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker, for example, is available in a gorgeous letterboxed transfer, whereas the 1957 version of My Man Godfrey is pan-and-scan and grainy. They're best at producing copies of old black-and-white movies, and have an extensive list that ranges from Alive and Kicking to Claudia to Skippy but they also provide decent transfers of hard to find more recent films like John Huston's Wise Blood. Also boasting an extensive list of available titles is Video Rarities, which is a bit pricey at $24.95 per title unless the title is a really poor transfer, in which case they charge $17.95. Why, however, would you want to pay $17.95 for a crappy copy of the rare Rosalind Russell comedy, Rosie!,when you can get a better one from Free Movies on DVD for about half the price? Video Rarities does, however, have some titles that you can't find anywhere else. A case in point is The Blue Veil. This is a horrible transfer that appears to be recorded from a VHS copy of a Los Angeles TV station broadcast of the film from an early 1980s Late Show complete with Syncopated Clock introduction. The transfer is grainy as you would expect, and it is missing a few minutes of a crucial scene about a third of the way into the film. Still, this is the only version available anywhere. Jane Wyman's best scenes and all of Charles Laughton's, Joan Blondell's and Natalie Wood's scenes are included so if you've never seen it or have fond memories of it from long ago, this is your only chance until Warner Bros. gets its head out of you-know-where and gives it a proper release. Buy ten DVDs from this company and they will throw in a free title of their choosing. This is a great way of discovering a film you've probably never heard of, and wouldn't dream of ordering, such as Teenage Millionaire or an early Clara Bow talkie. Both Free Classic Movies on DVD and Video Rarities use CD-size slipcases. Free Classic Movies on DVD provides cover art for all titles. Video Rarities titles come in blank cases. A great little company is Only Classic Movies, which started out as one of those companies that finds films and converts them on request, but now sells copies of films previously requested. While some of their titles are available elsewhere, this is the only place where you can find All the Fine Young Cannibals, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and A Stranger in My Arms and one of the very few where you can find Make Way for Tomorrow. The latter is in as pristine a condition as you're likely to find. It's much better than the washed out, jumpy version previously available from 5 Minutes to Live. All films come in thin DVD-size slipcases with full color art. Only Classic Movies ships all in-stock items overnight free of charge. Items shipped on Friday are sent via Fed Ex's special Saturday delivery. Another little company with fast turn-around is A Cinema Apart, which specializes in films about African-Americans made prior to 1960. Among the available titles are Intruder in the Dust, Take a Giant Step and the best-available transfer of Porgy and Bess taken from the original 35mm film. Full DVD-size slipcases with cover art, either black-and-white or color, are provided. Oddly enough, DVDs shipped first class from the United Kingdom and the Philippines arrive in three days, but packages sent first class from Canada can take two weeks or more. Still, if you don't mind waiting, Learmedia Rare and Classic Movies has a wide selection of films available on region-free DVDs culled from out-of-print titles including those previously released only in Region 2. Among the titles they carry are Bridge to the Sun, The Chalk Garden, Greengage Summer, The Notorious Landlady and The Victors.All come in full-size DVD slipcases, some with full color art. Until we get to the point where we can download everything via a personal computer or telephone, these retailers provide the best means of amassing the perfect film library so what are you waiting for? Let your fingers do the walking, start collecting, and then try and find the time to watch the films! -Peter J. Patrick (October 16, 2007) |
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The DVD Report #23: October 9, 2007
Last week, I briefly mentioned the 50th Anniversary Edition of Funny Face, which I've now seen. Restored from the original negative, the film looks stunning. One of the most gorgeous films ever made, previous home video editions have been so washed out and ugly anyone discovering the film for the first time on VHS or DVD would have no clue as to what made this film so special. Now if they don't get it, well, they just don't get it. Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire and the delightful Kay Thompson are resurrected in all their glory. Having copies of beloved films in their original splendor is one of two main reasons for collecting DVDs. The other is to possess films that might otherwise be lost. DVD companies, both large and small, release films each week that have never been available to the home video market, including many that rarely, if ever, show up on television. A case in point is the Fox Horror Classics Collection consisting of three films directed by John Brahm between 1942 and 1945. The most famous of the three is The Lodger, a thrilling, atmospheric remake of the Hitchcock silent with a superb performance by Laird Cregar as a mysterious lodger in a London rooming house who may or may not be Jack the Ripper. Ably supported by Merle Oberon, George Sanders and Cedric Hardwicke, the standout next to Cregar, is Sara Allgood as the frightened landlady. Just as thrilling is Hangover Square with Cregar in his final role as a tormented composer opposite Linda Darnell as a conniving music hall performer. George Sanders, Glenn Langan and Alan Napier head the supporting cast. Paling in comparison to these two masterpieces is The Undying Monster, a standard vampire movie bolstered by its atmospheric delights and the performances of James Ellison, Heather Angel and John Howard, among others. Released in 1970, the same year as Ken Russell's Women in Love, Christopher Miles' The Virgin and the Gypsy is generally regarded as the "other" film from a D.H. Lawrence novel released that year. Beautifully photographed with rich performances from a strong cast, The Virgin and the Gypsy was unjustly obscured by the more celebrated Russell film. Joanna Shimkus, who retired from the screen after marrying Sidney Poitier a few years later, is simply radiant as the young girl awakening to her sexuality in Victorian England. No less superb are Franco Nero as the hot-blooded gypsy with whom she carries on a torrid affair, Honor Blackman as her world-wise friend, Mark Burns as Blackman's lover, Fay Compton as Shimkus' grandmother, Maurice Denham as her preacher father, and Kay Walsh as her old-maid aunt. Filmed many times, the definitive version of Little Women is still George Cukor's 1933 version with Katharine Hepburn as Jo, Joan Bennett as Meg, Frances Dee as Amy, Jean Parker as Beth, Douglass Montgomery as Laurie, Henry Stephenson as Mr. Laurence, John Lodge as John Brooke, Paul Lukas as Professor Bhaer, Spring Byington as Marmee, and Edna May Oliver as Aunt March. However, one thing that television does better than the movies is give us more fleshed-out adaptations in the form of miniseries with their expanded versions of great novels. The 1978 miniseries of Little Women was one of the best of the genre. While the young actresses playing the March sisters, Susan Dey, Meredith Baxter, Eve Plumb and Ann Dusenberry are all quite good, it's the supporting cast that gives this one something extra special. Richard Gilliland as Laurie, Cliff Potts as Brooke, and William Shatner as Professor Bhaer are all fine, but towering above them all are three stars from Hollywood's Golden Age. Dorothy McGuire is Marmee and Robert Young, who starred opposite McGuire in three of her early films, Claudia, The Enchanted Cottage and Claudia and David, is Mr. Lawrence. Eleven years after her last big screen appearance in The Happiest Millionaire, seven-time Oscar nominee Greer Garson is Aunt March. A major production in all respects, multi-Oscar winner Edith Head provided the costumes and Elmer Bernstein the score. Detective stories had been a staple in film since the silent days, but female detectives were rare. The concept of the savvy woman who just happened to be there when a murder was committed was a device first used in 1932's The Penguin Pool Murder and its sequels, Murder on the Blackboard and Murder on a Honeymoon. Edna May Oliver played crime solving schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers in that series. The concept proved even more popular when Margaret Rutherford played Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in a series of films beginning with 1962's Murder She Said. Angela Lansbury later played the character in 1980's The Mirror Crack'd and Helen Hayes played her in TV's A Caribbean Mystery and Murder With Mirrors, but it took Joan Hickson to give us the definitive Miss Marple in a series of British TV movies from 1984 through 1992. Also in 1984, Peter Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, the creative force behind TV's Columbo, wanted to bring an Americanized Marple to American TV. The concept they came up with was Murder, She Wrote, which they first offered to All in the Family star Jean Stapleton. When she turned it down, they offered the role to Lansbury, and the rest, as they say, is history. Lansbury has had one of the most unique careers in the history of show business. While there are many stars who alternate between TV, the stage and film, Lansbury is the only one who had basically three distinct careers in those mediums. From 1944 to 1966 she was one of the most distinguished character actresses working in film. She won back to back Oscar nominations for Gaslight and The Picture of Dorian Gray, films she made when she was 18 and 19 respectively. At 22 she tried to steal Katharine Hepburn from Spencer Tracy in State of the Union and in Samson and Delilah two years later she played the older sister of Hedy Lamarr, who in reality was seven years her senior. At 32 she played opposite middle-aged Orson Welles in The Long, Hot Summer while Paul Newman, six months her senior, played the romantic lead. At 36, without makeup, she played the mother of Laurence Harvey, only two years her junior, in The Manchurian Candidate, earning her third Oscar nomination. She did not become at all glamorous until she starred in Broadway's Mame in 1966 when she was over 40, earning the first of four Tony awards as lead actress in a musical. The others were for 1969's Dear World, the 1974 revival of Gypsy and 1979's Sweeney Todd. Between Dear World and Sweeney Todd she had her first starring roles in Grade A films, Something for Everyone and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and won the lion's share of the praise for the all-star cast Death on the Nile which she stole from the likes of Peter Ustinov, Bette Davis, Maggie Smith and Mia Farrow. Her greatest fame was still ahead. The first season of Murder, She Wrote began just prior to her 60th birthday. She was 72 when the last regular episode aired, followed by several TV movies as Murder 's Jessica Fletcher. As we look at today's DVD release of Murder, She Wrote - The Seventh Season, Lansbury's unique career comes once again into focus. The Internet Movie Database, with some major omissions, lists 656 guest stars for the twelve years that the series was on the air, most of them contemporaries of Lansbury's in either her early screen career or late Broadway career, many of them former co-stars. Among her more frequent co-stars in the series were Tom Bosley, known for Broadway's Fiorello! long before he became a household name in TV's Happy Days ; Jerry Orbach, a Broadway star of such shows as Carinival, Chicago, 42nd Street and Promises, Promises before his detective role on Murder, She Wrote led to Law & Order, and Len Cariou, Lansbury's co-star from Sweeney Todd. Other memorable guest stars included the movies' Jean Simmons, Eleanor Parker, Lloyd Nolan, Claire Trevor, Teresa Wright, Mel Ferrer, Farley Granger, Hurd Hatfield (Lansbury's co-star in The Picture of Dorian Gray ), Van Johnson, Jane Powell, Ann Blyth, Kevin McCarthy, Vera Miles, George Grizzard, Don Murray, Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, Pat Hingle, Julie Adams, Adam Beach, Claude Akins, William Windom, Stuart Whitman, Rod Taylor, Diane Baker, Kathryn Grayson, Ruth Roman, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Kim Darby, Dan O'Herlihy, Forrest Tucker, Dane Clark, Cesar Romero, Betsy Palmer, Leslie Nielsen, Carrie Snodgress, Anne Francis, Hope Lange, Betty Garrett, Jay Robinson, Jayne Meadows, Sheree North, Barbara Rush, Marie Windsor, Beah Richards, Shirley Knight, Dennis Christopher, Nina Foch and Gloria Stuart. From Broadway musical theater: Glynis Johns ( A Little Night Music ), Mildred Natwick ( 70, Girls, 70 ), Yvonne De Carlo ( Follies ), Florence Henderson ( Fanny ), Nanette Fabray ( High Button Shoes ), Vivian Blaine ( Guys and Dolls ), Gene Barry ( La Cage aux Folles ), George Hearn ( Sunset Boulevard ), Brenda Vaccaro ( How Now, Dow Jones ), Tony Roberts ( Victor/Victoria ), Dean Jones ( Company ), David Wayne ( Finian's Rainbow ), Gloria De Haven ( Seventh Heaven ), Robert Goulet ( The Happy Time ), Carol Lawrence ( West Side Story ), Ken Howard ( Seesaw ), Clifford David ( 1776 ), Theodore Bikel ( The Sound of Music ), Roddy McDowall ( Camelot ), Orson Bean ( Illya Darling ), Herschel Bernardi ( Zorba ), Penny Fuller ( Applause ), Shirley Jones (Maggie Flynn ), Donald O'Connor ( Bring Back Birdie ), Rex Smith ( The Human Comedy ), Lucie Arnaz ( They're Playing Our Song ), Howard McGillin ( Anything Goes ), Constance Towers ( The King and I ), Harry Guardino ( Woman of the Year ), Adrienne Barbeau ( Grease ), Paul Sorvino ( The Baker's Wife ), Rene Auberjonois ( Coco ), Elaine Joyce ( Sugar ), Daniel McDonald ( Steel Pier ), Patrick Cassidy ( Assassins ), Maryann Plunkett ( Me and My Girl ) and Robert Torti ( Starlight Express ). Happy 82nd birthday, Angie Baby! -Peter J. Patrick (October 9, 2007) |
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The DVD Report #22: October 2, 2007
Gross-out comedies don't win Oscars but they do have a rich tradition in film...that is to say they make lots of money. Starting with National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978, the genre basically was about, and generally appealed to, adolescent boys and grown men in arrested adolescence. In the 1980s, films in the genre included Revenge of the Nerds and Porky's, and beginning in 1999, the American Pie series, which flourishes to this day in straight-to-DVD sequels. The genre expanded in 1998 to include films such as There's Something About Mary, which was clearly aimed at that target audience of grown men in arrested adolescence. In recent years, we've had everything from the Viagra comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights to the film that expanded the genre to embrace middle-aged men, The 40 Year-Old Virgin. Judd Apatow, the creative force behind TV's Freaks and Geeks and The 40 Year-Old Virgin, is back with Knocked Up. It's a surprisingly sweet, as well as raunchy, comedy about a one-night stand that leads to a pregnancy and a charming, if unusual, romance between a perpetually-high slacker and an up-and-coming TV interviewer played respectively by Freaks and Geeks ' Seth Rogen and Grey's Anatomy 's Katherine Heigl. The supporting cast is led by Leslie Mann as Heigl's annoying sister, Paul Rudd as her easygoing brother-in-law and Freaks and Geeks alumni Jason Segel and Martin Starr as two of Rogen's roommates. The two-disc special edition includes over three hours of extras including a hilarious 30-minute mockumentary about actors who were cast in the Rogen role but didn't work out. Paul Verhoeven directed his first film in his native Holland in 1960, but didn't become internationally-known until the late 1970s and early 1980s with such films as Soldier of Orange, The 4th Man and Spetters. Lured to Hollywood where he made such box office hits as RoboCop, Basic Instinct, Showgirls and Starship Troopers, he returned to his native country to make what is easily his best film, the World War II thriller, Black Book. Like most Verhoeven films, this one is drenched in sex and violence, but unlike some of his Hollywood excesses nothing in it is gratuitous. It's an epic film in the best sense with many twists and turns, some of which you see coming, some of which you don't. Women's films are so infrequently made these days that one expects the few that are made to be worth their audience's time. Sadly, most of them are not. A case in point is Evening, by the author of The Hours, one of the few recent films in the genre that I liked. A long, drawn-out melodrama about a dying woman looking back on her life, Evening pretty much wastes the talents of all concerned. A pity because the film features a fine cast of usually-dependable actors such as Vanessa Redgrave, Claire Danes, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy, Meryl Streep and Glenn Close. Redgrave is the dying woman, while Danes plays her character more than fifty years earlier. None of the actors have showy parts, but that doesn't stop Close from chewing the scenery. She is extremely irritating, accentuating every gesture in a pathetic attempt to be noticed in a nothing role as the society mother of bride Mamie Gummer, Streep's real life daughter. Streep plays her daughter's character as an old lady with great restraint, and her 11th-hour scene with Redgrave is the only thing in the film that is even remotely memorable. Still in theatres in the U.S. but out on DVD in Great Britain, is a much better example of a film made essentially for women. Becoming Jane is a lush romantic drama that is better than its reputation would have you believe. Scorned by Jane Austen purists who will tell you it flat out never happened, as well as audiences with no patience for its leisurely pace, it is the story of a love affair between the country girl who became the beloved author and the poor law student who became Chief Justice of Ireland. While the affair is undocumented, the film makes a very plausible case for it. Tom Lefroy did have relatives who lived near the Austen family and he did name his eldest daughter Jane. Beyond that all is speculation, but Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy are letter perfect as the star-crossed lovers. The supporting cast includes Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Ian Richardson and Maggie Smith, who adds to her repertoire of Edna May Oliver impersonations, following those in David Copperfield and Gosford Park. New releases of last season's TV series as DVD sets continue to spark interest in the new seasons of such shows as Heroes, Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Brothers & Sisters and Numb3rs. Two recent releases include the fourth season of Nip/Tuck and the third season of Boston Legal. Both series stretch the envelope, but the safer network series, Boston Legal,is the one that was nominated for a Best Drama Series Emmy, won James Spader his second Best Actor in a Drama Series Emmy and former winner William Shatner another Supporting Actor nomination. The cable series, Nip/Tuck, gets no such respect though it is the better show. The difference is that Boston Legal knows when to stop while Nip/Tuck keeps going with its nudity and softcore sex scenes. It's interesting to compare the manner in which the two shows handle controversial subject matter. For instance, last season both shows took on Scientology. Boston Legal did it in a scathingly funny episode while Nip/Tuck covered it in a season long arc. While Nip/Tuck doesn't get very much Emmy respect, it has gotten Golden Globe, Satellite and Saturn Award nominations for the show and its three stars, Julian McMahon, Dylan Walsh and Joely Richardson. The most exciting thing about the series' fourth season was the unique manner in which it used its many guest stars including Larry Hagman, Jacqueline Bisset, Richard Chamberlain, Peter Dinklage and Rosie O'Donnell. O'Donnell is especially appealing as an unhappy lottery winner who finds a unique way of bonding with the Nip/Tuck staff. Another series that doesn't get as much respect as similar shows is the crime drama Bones, the second season of which has also just been released on DVD. The series gets its name from the nickname of its lead character, a forensic anthropologist, as well as the focus of her study, human remains reduced to bones. To be fair, Emily Deschanel was nominated for a Satellite Award in the show's first season and both she and co-star David Boreanaz have been nominated for Teen Choice awards. Similar in concept to CSI, in that it combines both scientific research and the time-honored whodunit, the chief difference is that CSI generally has two cases to solve in the course of an hour, while Bones usually concentrates on just one. The supporting cast of Bones, which includes Michaela Conlin, Eric Millegan, T.J. Thyne, Tamara Taylor, and, for a good part of Season 2, Eddie McClintock and Stephen Frey, are all given moments to shine in each episode. Anniversary editions continue to be big in the DVD market. In recent weeks, we've had the 20th Anniversary Edition of Wall Street, the 30th Anniversary Edition of Saturday Night Fever, the 35th Anniversary Edition of Deliverance, and the 40th Anniversary Edition of The Graduate.Out today is the 50th Anniversary Edition of Funny Face. A two-disc 80th Anniversary Edition of The Jazz Singer arrives next week. All of this started me thinking about what we might expect in the way of anniversary editions next year. Maybe we should start telling the DVD companies what we'd like to see. For my part, I'd like to see these never-on-DVD-in-the-U.S. films: 80th anniversary editions of The Crowd and The Wind ; a 75th anniversary edition of She Done Him Wrong perhaps with a second disc of Mae West impersonations through the years. Never-on-DVD: a 70th anniversary edition of The Baker's Wife perhaps from Criterion; a 65th anniversary edition of The Human Comedy while Mickey Rooney is still alive to do commentary; a 40th anniversary edition of The Subject Was Roses while Patricia Neal is still alive to provide commentary; a 30th anniversary edition of Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? with a profile on the career of Robert Morley. Other films: a spruced-up 60th anniversary reissue of Red River, which had been one of the first films to be released on DVD and is in bad need of restoration; a 55th anniversary edition of the even more badly in need of restoration Shane ; a 50th anniversary edition of Auntie Mame with archival footage of some of the legendary actresses who've played the role beginning with Roz Russell's Broadway replacement, Greer Garson; a 45th anniversary edition of the woefully under-rated Tom Jones with special features explaining its impact on early 1960s audiences; a 35th anniversary edition of Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams while Joanne Woodward is still alive to provide commentary; a 25th anniversary edition of the under-rated Testament with special features on other Doomsday films. Sure, most of these are pipe dreams, but one can hope. -Peter J. Patrick (October 2, 2007) |
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