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June 01, 2015
New on Disc: 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' and more …
Thank Your Lucky Stars (Blu-ray)
Available via Warner Archive
Warner, Musical, $21.99 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Eddie Cantor, Dinah Shore, Joan Leslie, Dennis Morgan, Edward Everett Horton, S.Z. Sakall.
1943. Thank Your Lucky Stars, from Warner, came early in the cycle of all-star musicals, and many regard it as best of the bunch.
Extras: The Blu-ray throws in some bonus extras mostly carried over from the old DVD — including one on the lives of chorus girl bit players.
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Hombre (Blu-ray)
Available via ScreenArchives.com
Twilight Time, Western, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Paul Newman, Fredric March, Richard Boone, Diane Cilento.
1967. Paul Newman had a distressing streak of indifferent movies in the mid-1960s, but Hombre was something of a return to form.
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By: Mike Clark
May 25, 2015
New on Disc: 'X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes' and more …
X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes
Kino Lorber, Sci-fi, $19.95 DVD, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Ray Milland, Diana Van der Vlis, Don Rickles, Harold J. Stone.
1963. Director Roger Corman was lucky to have an actor of Ray Milland’s caliber starring as a mad scientist whose experiments on himself give him the ability to see through things.
Extras: In addition to a Joe Dante intro, thee are a couple commentaries on this release: one by Corman and another by film historian Tim Lucas.
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Kid Glove Killer
Available via Warner Archive
Warner, Drama, $21.99 DVD, NR.
Stars Van Heflin, Marsha Hunt, Lee Bowman.
1942. Fred Zinnemann’s modest debut feature turned out notably well on a ‘B’ budget, with the chief selling point being its subject matter about crime lab microscoping.
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By: Mike Clark
May 18, 2015
New on Disc: 'The River' and more …
The River
Criterion, Drama, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields, Suprova Mukerjee, Radha Burnier.
1951. Set in what feels like a timeless era that has nothing directly to do with the postwar Gandhi-propelled political upheavals, this remembrance directed by Jean Renoir and based on a novel by British but India-bred Rumer Godden is certainly an alternative to Kipling in its treatment of race relations and choice of central characters.
Extras: A lot of the bonus extras (mostly carried over from the old Criterion DVD) deal with Renoir’s good fortune in finding a financial angel: Kenneth McEldowney, who was a successful L.A. florist. Other supplements here include Ian Christie notes, a new video essay by filmmaker Paul Ryan, an audio interview with McEldowney (who died in 2004); and a 2008 documentary on the movie’s making, which runs an hour.
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April Love (Blu-ray)
Available via ScreenArchives.com
Twilight Time, Comedy, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Pat Boone, Shirley Jones, Dolores Michaels, Arthur O’Connell.
1957. If late-1950s Hollywood just had to make Pat Boone vehicles, April Love was probably the way to go about it.
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By: Mike Clark
May 11, 2015
New on Disc: 'Mr. Turner' and more …
Mr. Turner
Sony Pictures, Drama, $30.99 DVD, $34.99 Blu-ray, ‘R’ for some sexual content.
Stars Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson.
2014. Director Mike Leigh’s portrait of the now revered 19th-century artist J.M.W. Turner really has it all: full-blooded characters, the grunt work of artistry, social life among the upper classes, peer rivalries and political considerations.
Extras: One of the delights of Leigh’s hugely informative feature-length commentary is hearing him talk about his abundant stock company stretching many movies back.
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42nd Street (Blu-ray)
Available via Warner Archive
Warner, Musical, $21.99 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell.
1933. The movie that established Busby Berkeley as a major force is just what one would hope a pioneer Depression-grounded movie would look like in the modern home viewing era.
Extras: Includes a “Merrie Melodie” spoof carried over from the DVD and a newly produced featurette that traces the film’s origins and production.
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By: Mike Clark
May 04, 2015
New on Disc: 'Sullivan's Travels' and more …
Sullivan’s Travels
Criterion, Comedy, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest.
1941. Sullivan’s Travels is a strange movie of contradictions, just as director Preston Sturges was himself. The movie has at least two distinct moods, which is what throws some people – yet this is also what makes it worth so many viewings.
Extras: A sharp essay by The Nation’s Stuart Klawans rounds out a lot of good material in the bonus section, which includes Kenneth Bowser’s first-rate “American Masters” documentary Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer, an interview with widow Sandy Sturges and a new David Cairns video essay. Another treat carried over from the earlier DVD is a commentary by documentarian Bowser, filmmaker Noah Baumbach, plus Christopher Guest and Michael McKean.
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Blue Sky
Olive, Drama, $24.95 DVD, Blu-ray $29.95, Rated ‘PG-13’
Stars Jessica Lange, Tommy Lee Jones, Powers Boothe, Chris O’Donnell.
1994. Here’s another of Olive’s barebones transfers, though one certainly better than the old DVD; more vivid color intensity does make something of a difference in how the garb that Oscar winner Jessica Lange wears has an emotional effect on the viewer.
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By: Mike Clark
April 20, 2015
New on Disc: 'Imitation of Life' and more …
Imitation of Life: 2-Movie Collection (Blu-ray)
Universal, Drama, $26.98 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Louise Beavers, Lana Turner, Juanita Moore, Susan Kohner.
1934/1959. The lush 1959 remake of the Fannie Hurst perennial is so revered by Douglas Sirk worshippers that the not insignificant power of the ’34 John Stahl original tends to be obscured.
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Singles (Blu-ray)
Warner, Comedy, $19.98 Blu-ray, ‘PG-13’ for language, sex related dialogue and scenes of sensuality.
Stars Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, Matt Dillon.
1992. Even some people who love 1989’s Say Anything and 1996’s Jerry Maguire may be unfamiliar with the easygoing charmer that writer-director Cameron Crowe sandwiched between them.
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By: Mike Clark
April 13, 2015
New on Disc: 'The Thin Blue Line' and more …
The Thin Blue Line
Criterion, Documentary, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR.
1988. The prodigious list of amazing things about Errol Morris’ landmark miscarried-justice buster includes the fact that it got made in the first place, looking into the case of an Ohio drifter apparently railroaded for the murder of a Dallas cop that a teenaged walking rap sheet had almost certainly committed. About a year after Blue Line’s release, the state of Texas dropped charges against Randall Dale Adams and released him. The print here is one of renewed luster, and this is its own reward because it’s been said that the documentary had fallen into sad shape.
Extras: As we see and hear Morris himself quote his wife as having noted during the essential 40-minute interview featurette that Criterion has included with its Blue Line package, entire cable stations are now devoted to the kind of projects that he worked so exhaustingly to bankroll a quarter-century ago. Included in the extras is a “Today” show joint satellite interview with Morris in one studio and Adams plus lawyer in another. Blue Line was a true groundbreaker, something attested to with vigor on another bonus extra by filmmaker Josh Oppenheimer, whose The Act of Killing received its own huzzahs a couple years ago.
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The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry
Olive, Drama, $24.95 DVD, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars George Sanders, Ella Raines, Geraldine Fitzgerald.
1945. Given the censorship strictures of the time, Harry’s compelling narrative does paint itself into such a corner that it’s no surprise that five different endings got market-tested before Universal settled on the notorious end result. Which is: probably the worst wrap-up ever for a movie that is still basically a winner up until the final three or four minutes.
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By: Mike Clark
April 06, 2015
New on Disc: 'Ride the Pink Horse' and more …
Ride the Pink Horse
Criterion, Mystery, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Robert Montgomery, Wanda Hendrix, Thomas Gomez, Fred Clark.
1947. An oddly beguiling genre scrambler that goes against a slew of grains, this cultist cause seems to have been worthily undertaken by Criterion (even more than most of their selections) to make it more widely known to the general public.
Extras: Criterion extras include an essay, commentary by ubiquitous noir pros Alain Silver and James Ursini; an interview with Imogen Sara Smith (author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City); and a Lux Radio Theatre spinoff.
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Our Mother’s House
Available via Warner Archive
Warner, Drama, $21.99 DVD, NR.
Stars Dirk Bogarde, Pamela Franklin.
1967. The boozy Brit womanizer top-billed Dirk Bogarde plays here is a textbook definition of a fun-to-watch wastrel, but by the time he shows up almost 40 minutes in to add some welcome buzz to the drama, we’ve already been treated to a compelling-enough setup involving seven siblings forced to take their lives into their own hands.
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By: Mike Clark
March 30, 2015
New on Disc: 'The Band Wagon' and more …
The Band Wagon (Blu-ray)
Warner, Musical, $19.98 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Jack Buchanan, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray.
1953. In a kind of daring move roughly around the two-thirds mark, story considerations get scrapped almost altogether, and Wagon turns into a dazzling rat-tat-tat revue with one socko Howard Dietz-Arthur Schwartz musical number after another.
Extras: Liza Minnelli and Michael Feinstein join forces in a bonus commentary carried over from the 2005 DVD.
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Alice’s Restaurant
Olive, Comedy, $24.95 DVD, $29.95 Blu-ray, ‘R.’
Stars Arlo Guthrie, Pat Quinn, James Broderick, Pete Seeger.
1969. Here’s the only Arthur Penn achievement beyond Bonnie and Clyde and The Miracle Worker to be honored with a Best Diretor Oscar nomination, a wistful hippie concoction that was and is superior to the same year’s Easy Rider. Sprung from lead Arlo Guthrie’s same-titled 18½-minute folky monologue tune that became one of the counter-culture staples of the era, Alice’s Restaurant the movie is more factually embellished than the recording, though a lot of its still ticklishly broad comedy would disqualify it as realism under any circumstances.
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By: Mike Clark
March 23, 2015
New on Disc: 'John Ford: Dreaming The Quiet Man' and more …
John Ford: Dreaming The Quiet Man
Street 3/24
Olive, Documentary, $24.95 DVD, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR.
Featuring Maureen O’Hara, Martin Scorsese, Joseph McBride, Peter Bogdanovich.
2010. Here in director Sé Merry Doyle’s full-length feature, Maureen O’Hara is front and center with her remembrances of filming 1952’s The Quiet Man and working with director John Ford.
Extras: Unlike a lot of Olive releases, this one has a robust collection of local-color featurettes and outtakes.
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The Prowler (Blu-ray)
VCI, Drama, $24.97 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes.
1951. Definitive L.A. crime novelist James Ellroy referred to director Joseph Losey’s uncommonly grown-up exercise in doom as “perv noir.” This is a handsome Blu-ray of the picture’s restoration.
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By: Mike Clark
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