A BUCKET OF BLOOD -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 (Originally posted on 10/1/2019)

 

Fans of early Roger Corman films, especially those featuring the great Dick Miller, should welcome the arrival of Olive Signature Films' new Blu-ray release of Corman's seriocomic horror classic A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959). 

Corman regular Dick Miller plays Walter Paisley, an insecure milquetoast who buses tables in a beatnik coffee bar but dreams of being a creative artist like pretentious poet Maxwell (Julian Burton) in order to impress his heartthrob Carla (THE WASP WOMAN's Barboura Morris).

Another Corman fave, the great Antony Carbone of THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA, and PIT AND THE PENDULUM, is Walter's overbearing boss Leonard.

 

When Walter accidentally kills his landlady's cat, he covers the evidence with modeling clay and then shows off the result as his own artistic creation, garnering instant fame as a brilliant new talent.

But a hunger for greater recognition leads to murder when he whacks a gun-waving narc (future game-show host Bert Convy) over the head, killing him, and then turns him into a highly-praised clay sculpture as well. 

With more money and fame rolling in, Walter's trail of victims grows longer, eventually leading to Carla herself.

Olive's new Blu-ray release features a fine print mastered from a new 4K scan, with pristine picture and sound quality. The bonus menu is loaded with goodies which include:

    “Creation Is. All Else is Not” – Roger Corman on A Bucket of Blood
    “Call Me Paisley” – Dick and Lainie Miller on A Bucket of Blood
    Audio commentary by Elijah Drenner, director of "That Guy Dick Miller"
    Archival audio interview with screenwriter Charles B. Griffith
    “Bits of Bucket” – Visual essay comparing the original script to the finished film
    Essay by Caelum Vatnsdal, author of "You Don't Know Me, But You Love Me: The Lives of Dick Miller"
    Rare prologue from German release
    Super 8 “digest” version
    Theatrical trailer
    German theatrical trailer
    Gallery of newly-discovered on-set photography

 
If you liked 1960's THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS you should really be interested in this amusingly morbid tale which amounts to pretty much a dry run for the later film.  Besides also being helmed by Corman,  both were penned by Charles B. Griffith (DEATH RACE 2000), whose sense of humor seemed to play into the then-current appetite for beatnik culture and "sick" humor (the film's tagline is "You'll be sick, sick, sick--from laughing!")

Both feature typical be-bop musical scores by Fred Katz and similar production values (moody black-and-white photography, modest stage-like sets, a "skid row" ambience).   Carbone's bullying boss Leonard, just like flower shop owner Gravis Mushnik, first sees dollar signs from his employee's creative efforts but grows increasingly squeamish when he discovers the truth behind them.

Walter could be a first cousin of Jonathan Haze's Seymour Krelboyne,  another mousey shlub stuck in a dead-end job with an oppressive boss, who yearns to break out of his rut by doing something creative which will lead to murder.  We almost expect him to have a clinging, overbearing mother when he shleps back to his cheap apartment, and indeed his nosey landlady is played by Myrtle Damerel, who was Seymour's hypochondriac mom in LITTLE SHOP.

Barboura Morris, however, grounds the film by playing her role straight, and Griffith's script for BUCKET isn't nearly as whimsically farcical as the later story.  Carbone maintains a delicious deadpan even when Leonard's dazed reactions to Walter's bloodthirsty activities threaten to incapacitate him.

Other familiar faces include Ed Nelson as Bert Convy's undercover vice-cop partner,  Lynn Storey of LITTLE SHOP (she played "Mrs. Hortense Fishtwanger") as a curious square, and, as an art patron interested in Walter's work, the ubiquitous Bruno Ve Soto.

In the lead role that would define his career as a cult actor, Dick Miller wrings every nuance of nebbishness out of his pitifully desperate character and manages to remain likable even as his murderous tendencies spin out of control.  Corman's camera explores Miller's manic expressions with his own artistic eye and the collaboration results in a truly memorable performance.

A BUCKET OF BLOOD itself stands as a minor classic and a model of efficient, creative low-budget filmmaking as well as simply being a real kick to watch.


Buy it from Olive Films

YEAR: 1959
GENRE: COMEDY, HORROR
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 66 mins
RATING: N/R
VIDEO: 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W
AUDIO: MONO
(This review contains excerpts from a previous review.)

A BUCKET OF BLOOD -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/20/19

 

Like its Paramount predecessor, "Going My Way", the RKO sequel THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S (Olive Signature, 1945) was, to that point, the highest-grossing film for its studio. It's easy to see why it was and continues to be so popular, especially for war-weary audiences looking for something uplifting and inspirational.

Both films starred Bing Crosby as unconventional singing priest Father O'Malley, in this case having just been transferred to St. Mary's, an urban Catholic school presided over by nuns. 

Their leader, Sister Benedict (Ingrid Bergman), will establish a fond though often adversarial relationship with the easygoing but opinionated priest, especially in regard to the teaching of their young students.  In time, both their adverse methods as well as their personalities will begin to compliment each other.



Other subplots involve miserly old millionaire Mr. Bogardus (Henry Travers, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE) erecting a shiny new building next door and hoping to acquire the school itself to tear down for a parking lot.  Sister Benedict, meanwhile, prays constantly for the mean old coot to have a change of heart and donate the building as the new St. Mary's.

Meanwhile, a woman named Mary Gallagher (Martha Sleeper) implores Father O'Malley to take in her daughter Patsy (Joan Carroll) and give her the kind of secure, decent upbringing she alone can't manage.  Fatherless and withdrawn, Patsy's mental and emotional welfare becomes a major concern for the priest and nun, who will differ greatly  on how to deal with the troubled girl.

It's interesting how the Production Code-era writers clue us in on what's what when Patsy's mother hesitantly tells Father O'Malley she has "done everything she can" to support her daughter.

 

Also of note is O'Malley's warm, non-judgmental response, especially considering that Patsy was clearly born out of wedlock although the dialogue doesn't quite spell it out.  This single element alone elevates our opinion of the priest and of the film's benign intent.

While each subplot is vital, they sort of swirl around each other during the film rather than jostle for attention. There's a good deal of gentle humor to lighten things up along the way, beginning with the very first scene of Father O'Malley moving into his new boarding house as the housekeeper, played by the delightful Una O'Connor (BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE INVISIBLE MAN) warns him ominously that the school's previous resident priest had to be carried away in a wheelchair in frightful condition.

Another wonderful scene occurs when the smallest children put on a nativity play. Here, director and co-writer Leo McCarey told the boy playing Joseph the general story of the play and then had him improvise the entire thing, telling the other castmembers what to do. McCarey then secretly filmed this and the result is a charming sequence which ends with the children gathered around a toddler playing Baby Jesus and singing "Happy Birthday To You."

At one point O'Malley and Benedict clash yet again over how to deal with a boy being bullied on the playground. O'Malley praises the victor for having what it takes to make it in a "man's world", while the sister takes it upon herself to teach the other boy, Dickie (Eddie Breen), how to defend himself after reading a book on the art of pugilism.

In what I consider to be the film's most amazing sequence, Bergman improvises a lively boxing lesson composed of several long, largely unedited takes. Keeping up a steady stream of banter about defense, footwork, bobbing and weaving, various jabs, and other tips, she conjures a magical moment for her character with a charm and spontaneity that I found utterly disarming.

With her classic beauty downplayed, Bergman has the chance to create this memorable character mainly through dialogue and presence. Der Bingle, of course, is his usual honey-smooth self, getting to croon a song or two along the way.  Though never getting particularly worked up over anything, his Father O'Malley exudes a gentle caring and empathy even when we may not agree completely with his methods.

The entire film has a noticeably reserved, restrained tone--even the humor often seems rather solemn.  We pretty much know right off the bat how each situation is going to work itself out, so we just settle in comfortably and watch it happen.

I found myself settling in quite a lot during the sweetly sedate THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S. A bit corny and maudlin at times, it's genuinely heartfelt at its core and even evokes a few well-earned tears. McCarey's vision of a spiritually uplifting family entertainment is exquisitely rendered and, in this day and age, warmly nostalgic.



YEAR: 1945
GENRE: DRAMA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 126 min
RATING: N/A
VIDEO: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W
AUDIO: MONO

BONUS FEATURES:
    Mastered from new 4K restoration
    Audio commentary by Bing Crosby biographer Gary Giddins
    “Faith and Film” – Sr. Rose Pacatte on The Bells of St. Mary’s
    “Human Nature” – Steve Massa on The Bells of St. Mary’s and Leo McCarey
    “Before Sequel-itis” – Prof. Emily Carman on the film in the context of Hollywood production history
    Screen Guild Theater radio adaptations
    Essay by cultural critic Abbey Bender

THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 10/10/2018

 

I remember watching INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (Olive Signature, 1956) on TV as a kid and being severely creeped out by it.  It's definitely a sci-fi/horror movie that kids can appreciate--creepy, atmospheric, and featuring some horrific special effects and themes.

Watching it again as an adult (as I have several times), I find the film loses none of its effectiveness and is indeed a wholly adult, mature story that develops its characters well and places them in situations that are relatable while still brimming with elements of horror and even film noir.

Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy, INNERSPACE, SLIPSTREAM) returns to his hometown of Santa Mira, California to find old high school sweetheart Becky (Dana Wynter, THE CRIMSON PIRATE, AIRPORT) back in town after many years.  Now both divorced, their reunion is sweetly romantic with a clear likelihood of growing deeper.

The trouble is, Santa Mira seems to have been hit by an epidemic of people convinced that their loved ones have been replaced by physically exact but emotionally empty duplicates. Miles and Becky are skeptical at first, until friends Jack (King Donovan) and his wife Teddy (Carolyn Jones, "The Addams Family") find a body in their house which appears to be a dormant, half-formed copy of Jack himself.

As the mystery deepens, Miles discovers a duplicate of Becky in her own cellar, placed there by what appears to be her own father.  It quickly becomes clear that the duplicates come to life and take over when the actual person goes to sleep. Trying to convince others of what is happening, they realize that many townspeople including former trusted friends and family have already been replaced.

The film's slow and subtle build-up soon gives way to growing fear as Miles and Becky don't know who to trust or confide in.  It kicks into high gear when they and friends Jack and Teddy discover giant seed pods in Jack's greenhouse which are in the process of manufacturing duplicate bodies for them all, ready to be inhabited when they go to sleep.

Special effects in this scene are flawless, the grotesque pod replicas being the result of full-body and facial casts of the actors, and Siegel stages it with impressive imagination and skill.  It's an iconic sequence that still retains every bit of its original emotional power.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS then becomes a true cinematic nightmare of hysteria and deep paranoia.  The still-human characters, struggling to stay awake, are forced to flee while almost everyone else in town conspires to stop them.

It's an alien invasion of the most insidious kind, so different from the usual spaceships and death ray stuff of the 50s that it strikes home in ways that make it uniquely unsettling, disturbing, and personal.
Director Don Siegel (DIRTY HARRY, THE SHOOTIST) does some of his absolute best work here, his seemingly simple style yielding consistently effective shots that are deftly staged yet lean and economical.

The camerawork and black-and-white photography and lighting are exquisite, giving the middle third of the film, which takes place at night, the look and feel of the most visually arresting film noir.  Carmen Dragon (father of Daryl Dragon of "Captain and Tennille" fame) offers a highly effective musical score which some think is overpowering at times but I consider a major asset in the film's emotional power.

Siegel's cast is stocked with great actors, with both the leads and supporting players handling their roles with utter conviction.  Familiar character actors include Virginia Christine (THE MUMMY'S CURSE, "Mrs. Olsen" in the old Folger's coffee commercials), Jean Willes, Dabbs Greer, Larry Gates, and even future iconic director Sam Peckinpah.

Miles and Becky's flight from the "pod people" grows more frantic and desperate with each passing minute, culminating in an exhausting chase through the mountains in which the two protagonists are pursued by hundreds of human-looking alien "monsters."  Trying to make it to the main highway, they will endure a final, heartrending nightmare that is still burned into the memories of many viewers over the years.

The original ending by Siegel was abrupt, open-ended, and disheartening.  Test screenings showed it to be either confusing or just too downbeat for the audience, so the studio demanded new scenes to bookend the story. In them, Miles is desperately trying to convince skeptical psychiatrists and police of his wild story before they lock him away for good as a raving lunatic.

Many viewers still bristle at these added scenes, preferring the film to end at its most pessimstic point, and also object to a new voiceover by Miles (imposed by the studio to help clear up various plot points) which they liken to the one in BLADE RUNNER.

Personally, I feel Miles' narration gives his experiences a heightened immediacy and better draw us in to his story.  Likewise, the bookend scenes work very well for me, increasing the urgency of Miles' account and ending with a priceless moment when the truth dawns on the faces of Dr. Bassett (the great Whit Bissell at his powerful best) and "Dick Van Dyke Show" icon Richard Deacon.

Rather than offering a "happy ending" as its detractors insist, this merely sets the stage for what we can imagine will be a long, protracted, and horrific war between the humans and the invaders.

The Blu-ray from Olive Films' "Olive Signature" label (limited to 5,000 units) is a high-def digital restoration that looks better than I've ever seen it before, with a 2.00:1 aspect ratio and mono sound. Optional English subtitles are available.

Extras consist of two audio commentaries, one by film writer/historian Richard Harlan Smith and another with stars Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter and director Joe Dante.  "The Stranger in Your Lover's Eyes" is a two-part visual essay by Siegel, read by his son Kristoffer Tabori.

Featurettes include "The Fear is Real" with filmmakers Larry Cohen and Joe Dante, "I No Longer Belong: The Rise and Fall of Walter Wanger", "Sleep No More: Invasion of the Body Snatchers Revisited" featuring the film's stars and celebrity admirers, a 1985 interview with Kevin McCarthy, a look at the film's locations in the present day, and "What's In a Name?" which explores the origin of the film's title.

There's also a gallery of production documents, an essay by author and film programmer Kier-La Janisse, and the film's original theatrical trailer.

Whatever your age (this film works great for both young and old) or political persuasion (people have been interpreting its metaphorical intent however they choose since it was first released), INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS remains one of the most perfectly realized and enduringly effective horror films of the 50s or any era. 


YEAR: 1956
GENRE: SCI-FI
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 80 mins
RATING: N/R
VIDEO: 2.00:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W
AUDIO: MONO
US+CANADA
STREET: 10/16/18
CAT: OS018
UPC: 887090601801
SRP: $39.95 

OLIVE SIGNATURE FEATURES
New High-Definition digital restoration
Audio Commentary by film historian Richard Harland Smith
Audio Commentary by actors Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter, and filmmaker Joe Dante
“The Stranger in Your Lover’s Eyes” – A two-part visual essay with actor and son of director Don Siegel, Kristoffer Tabori, reading from his father’s book A Siegel Film
“The Fear is Real” – Filmmakers Larry Cohen and Joe Dante on the film’s cultural significance
“I No Longer Belong: The Rise and Fall of Walter Wanger” – Film scholar and author Matthew Bernstein discusses the life and career of the film’s producer
“Sleep No More: Invasion of the Body Snatchers Revisited” – An appreciation of the film featuring actors Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter, along with comments from film directors and fans, John Landis, Mick Garris, and Stuart Gordon
“The Fear and the Fiction: The Body Snatchers Phenomenon” – Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter, along with film directors John Landis, Mick Garris and Stuart Gordon, discuss the making of the film, its place in history, and its meaning
1985 archival interview with Kevin McCarthy hosted by Tom Hatten
“Return to Santa Mira” – An exploration of the film’s locations
“What’s In a Name?” – On the film’s title
Gallery of rare documents detailing aspects of the film’s production including the never-produced opening narration to have been read by Orson Welles
Essay by author and film programmer Kier-La Janisse
Original theatrical trailer

Buy it from Olive Films

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

JOHNNY GUITAR -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

 

Originally posted on 9/22/16

 

 

 

One of the great adult westerns of the 50s, Nicholas Ray's classic JOHNNY GUITAR (1954, Olive Signature) is a real treat for lovers of the genre who are looking for something that not only touches on a lot of the familiar tropes but also twists them around in novel ways.

The main novelty, of course, is that two of the main characters are a couple of gun-totin' gals who can be just as rough and tough as the guys.  Joan Crawford, exuding pure movie-star magic, is at her brassy best as no-nonsense frontier broad Vienna. (That better be a Pepsi in yore hand, pardner!) 

Clad in traditionally male western garb and packing a pistol, her image in this film is iconic.  Vienna is the owner of a luxurious saloon/casino which she has built right where the train will soon be coming through, with lucrative plans for an entire town under way.  

On the opposite side is one of my all-time favorite actresses, Mercedes McCambridge (she played Luz in GIANT, rolled a cigarette with one hand in LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE, and was the voice of you-know-who in THE EXORCIST), an exhilarating spitfire of pure hate as Vienna's sworn enemy, Emma Small, a rancher opposed to the coming of the railroad among other things.

Just as Mercedes' method acting style clashes with Joan's Old Hollywood performance, so do Vienna and Emma go at each other's throats over old scores that are rekindled when Emma's brother is murdered during a stagecoach holdup that's blamed on Vienna's friend, the Dancing Kid (Scott Brady) and his gang of ne'er-do-wells. 

The Kid and his men--Bart (Ernest Borgnine), Corey (Royal Dano), and the callow Turkey (Ben Cooper)--claim to have been working their secret silver mine during the robbery, but a mob led by Emma and equally hot-headed rancher McIvers (Ward Bond in one of his most robust roles) are out for their blood.  Vienna accuses Emma of being unreasoningly hostile toward the Kid due to his rejection of her affections, which only enrages her further.

Into this hair-trigger situation rides the mysterious Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden, DR. STRANGELOVE, THE GODFATHER), who claims he was hired to play music in Vienna's place but, as it turns out, has quite the history with her.  Johnny doesn't carry a gun but can handle himself pretty well all the same, as burly Bart discovers when he makes the mistake of picking a fight with him. 

This opening sequence in Vienna's saloon takes up nearly thirty minutes of screen time but is riveting every step of the way, from Johnny's arrival to his turbulent introduction to the Dancing Kid (jealousy rears its ugly head), to the tense scenes between Vienna and the hostile group that will eventually become a frenzied lynch mob later in the story. 

Nicholas Ray's (REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) handling of all this drama within the single setting's confines is masterful.  Equally good although somewhat more conventional is the later action involving a bank robbery (Vienna is accused of being involved, of course), the attempts of the Dancing Kid and his boys to escape the bloodthirsty posse, and the aforementioned lynching.  

What we're really waiting for, and Ray delivers, is the final guns-a-blazin' showdown between Vienna and Emma--truly a memorable moment in western movie history.  The two get the film's best closeups, too--Crawford, impossibly iconic and effortlessly charismatic, and McCambridge, wild, frenzied, and almost sexually ecstatic after having set fire to Vienna's saloon.

The familiar Republic Pictures "Trucolor" process looks wonderful, and Victor Young (SHANE) contributes another of his exquisite musical scores.  Dialogue is sharp and often quite delicious, particularly when Vienna and Johnny are agonizing over old times or Emma is on a tear, which is always. 

The handsome set design in Vienna's place is a marvel unto itself, resembling something from the vivid imagination of Ken Adam during his days as production designer on the early James Bond films albeit with a rich western flavor. 

I like the way Vienna's softer side comes through in her private upstairs domain, and later when she dresses in feminine fashion for Johnny.  When the lynch mob blusters into her saloon after the bank robbery, she's seen in a delicate gown playing the piano, a picture of rough-hewn class in stark contrast to their potential barbarism.  

Sergio Leone, who would be inspired by this film during his masterpiece ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, seems to have derived some of the qualities of his female protagonist "Jill" from Vienna--both are women exerting a civilizing influence on the Old West amidst the coming of the railroad while standing to profit greatly from it. 

Johnny himself may have influenced Charles Bronson's character ("Johnny Guitar" could just as easily be "Johnny Harmonica") while some of Ray's visual style was certainly admired by Leone, whose own westerns were an homage to the American ones that he loved.

Much is made, of course, of the many Freudian aspects of the story, as well as the fact that Ray, reportedly bisexual himself, may have added a lesbian undercurrent to the relationship between Vienna and (the sexually-confused?) Emma.  How much of this one consciously acknowledges while watching is up to the individual viewer--I find it all rather intriguing while also pleased that Ray doesn't try to drive any of this home with a sledgehammer.

There's also the well-known supposition that the whole business of being falsely accused and urged to give false witness against others (Turkey is offered amnesty if he will incriminate Vienna) is an indictment of the whole House Un-American Activities Committee era in Hollywood.  Again, we're allowed to give this as much credence as we choose to.

One thing that can't be denied, however, is the excellence of this cast comprised of both major stars and some of Hollywood's finest character actors.  In addition to Crawford, McCambridge, Brady, and Hayden, plus the aforementioned Borgnine, Dano, Cooper, and venerable John Ford/John Wayne regular Ward Bond, the film also benefits from the presence of such stalwart players as John Carradine, Paul Fix, Rhys Williams, Sheb Wooley, Frank Ferguson, and Denver Pyle. 

The DVD (also available in Blu-ray) from Olive Films' "Olive Signature" label is in 1.66:1 widescreen with mono sound, mastered from a new 4k restoration. English subtitles are available.  Extras include an introduction by Martin Scorcese, a commentary track by critic Geoff Andrew, a theatrical trailer, and several featurettes including "Johnny Guitar: A Western Like No Other", "Johnny Guitar: A Feminist Western?", "Tell Us She Was One of You: The Hollywood Blacklist and Johnny Guitar", "Free Republic: The Story of Herbert J. Yates and Republic Pictures", "My Friend, the American Friend" (memories of Nicholas Ray with Tom Farrell and Chris Sievemich), and the text essay "Johnny Guitar: The First Existential Western" by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.  Rosenbaum's essay is also reprinted in a handsome illustrated booklet that comes with the DVD.

As an ardent fan of the western genre, I've somehow gone my whole life without experiencing JOHNNY GUITAR until now.  Which is fine with me--one needs these little belated cinematic thrills that only a newly-seen classic film can give.  Which this one does, in spades.  

Buy it from Olive Films:
Blu-ray
DVD

JOHNNY GUITAR -- DVD Review by Porfle

A NEW LEAF -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 12/5/17

 

Two of my favorite "grown-up" comedies as a kid were THE GRADUATE (1967) and THE HEARTBREAK KID (1972), both cockeyed modern relationship tales that embodied a new kind of droll, deadpan satire which I found deeply appealing. 

Common to these films was Elaine May.  The former film, in which she played a bit role, was directed by her sometime performing partner Mike Nichols (with whom she helped form Second City), and she herself would direct her own daughter Jeannie Berlin in the hilarious THE HEARTBREAK KID in 1972.

It's no wonder, then, that I found Elaine May's 1971 directing and co-starring effort A NEW LEAF (Olive Signature Films) so irresistibly entertaining.  The expert combination of borderline farce with a restrained, achingly dry deadpan delivery and reined-in directorial approach makes it the kind of comedy that's intellectually stimulating one moment and laugh-out-loud hilarious the next.

Walter Matthau contributes to much of this with his pitch-perfect performance as spoiled, self-centered rich person Henry Graham, who can't believe it when his flagrant overspending wipes out his trust fund and leaves him a pauper. 

His only alternative to suicide, it seems, is to marry a wealthy woman before his funds are totally depleted and then discreetly murder her.  His loyal butler Harold (George Rose) consents out of self-interest to help him in the first part of his plan, but expresses misgivings about the second.

Enter Elaine May as Henrietta Lowell, an enormously well-endowed (financially, that is) spinster who's also one of the most endearingly clumsy and innocent characters you could ever meet.  Mousey, anxious, dreadfully insecure, and as coordinated as a newborn calf, she can't even sit still without calamitous results.  She's perfect for Henry's plans--he meets her, woos her, proposes, and, in no time, they're married.

The scene in which Henry tries to help Henrietta sort out her fancy new Grecian nightgown (she has her head in the armhole) on their honeymoon night is a slowburn delight of extended but controlled frustration.  I also love wine connoisseur Henry's suppressed horror when introduced to Henrietta's favorite drink, Mogen David Extra Heavy Malaga with soda and lemon, which he must pretend to savor. 

May's slapstick incompetent is the perfect, trusting foil to Matthau's fussy, sociopathic snob and their scenes together are like comedy confections wrapped in gold foil.  Her instincts for directing comedy to its best advantage are dead on the mark at every turn, bringing out the best of both stars and their supporting cast.

This includes stalwarts Jack Weston as Henrietta's manipulative lawyer, James Coco as Henry's spiteful uncle, Doris Roberts as the embezzling manager of gullible Henrietta's household staff, William Redfield as Henry's harried financial adviser, and several other familiar names of the era. 

The leads play it all with a sort of overt subtlety that makes one look forward to the next scene and their next bit together.  I love Matthau's casually methodical cad, reading up on various poisons and gaining access to Henrietta's finances even as he finds himself increasingly fussing over her physical appearance and well-being. 

And May's Henrietta, a botanist whose dream is to find a new strain of fern that she can name herself, is one of the most lovable klutzes to ever fumble her way into my heart.  So much so, in fact, that even Henry can't help but be touched--in his own comically nonplussed way--by some of her childlike foibles. 

Even the stereotypically romantic music is richly satirical, with nary a single "isn't this funny?" note in the entire score.  With a brilliant screenplay to match (written by May from the Jack Ritchie short story), A NEW LEAF is one of cinema's most low-key and tastefully restrained comic delights.  After Henry's final attempt to murder Henrietta during a botany field trip, the fern turns and leaves us with a somewhat abrupt but just-right ending. 


Bonus Features:

New restoration from 4K scan of original camera negative
Audio commentary by film scholar Maya Montanez Smukler
“The Cutting Room Floor: Editing A New Leaf” – interview with A New Leaf assistant editor Angelo Corrao
“Women in Hollywood: A Tragedy of Comic Proportions” – with director Amy Heckerling
Essay by critic, editor & film programmer Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
“The Green Heart” by Jack Ritchie, the source material for Elaine May’s script
Trailer

Languages: english
Video: 1.85:1 aspect ratio; color
Runtime: 102 minutes
Year: 1971

A NEW LEAF -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

HIGH NOON -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 9/23/16

 

This is one hard movie to get a critical grasp on.  On one hand, producer Stanley Kramer's HIGH NOON (1952, Olive Signature) is a widely-recognized classic that deserves its place in film history for a number of reasons.  And yet, for the most part, I really, really don't like it very much. 

This is just the second time I've seen it--I rented it way back in the 80s expecting to be blown away due to its reputation, only to find myself reacting to it with the same cool indifference its protagonist, Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper), encounters while attempting to enlist the help of his fellow citizens to fight the trio of outlaws waiting to get revenge on him as soon as their leader, Frank Miller, whom Kane previously sent to prison, arrives on the noon train.

I was hoping this new viewing would make all the film's wonderfulness clear to me at last, and yet my appreciation of it remains as jumbled as a bag of trail mix.  Cooper, of course, is a joy to watch as the aging lawman (Coop himself, no longer a "pretty boy", was maturing nicely), retired and set to leave town right after his wedding to young Quaker girl Amy (Grace Kelly) when the news of his old nemesis' impending arrival throws a monkey wrench into their plans.

Kane's first impulse, at his wedding guests' urging, is to hustle his new bride into their buckboard and hightail it out of town.  While he thinks better of it a few miles down the road and returns, this still isn't a very good sign.  His change of heart causes his brand new pacifist wife to abandon him and buy a ticket out of town on the very train that her husband's prospective killer is coming in on, also not something which I found endearing. 

As she waits for the train along with everyone else, Kane then undertakes the hopeless task of drafting various men in town as deputies, men who are, quite understandably, keenly reticent to wade into a blazing gun battle against hardened kill-crazy psychos with a score to settle. 

This series of disheartening encounters (the film is deeply pessimistic) portrays everyone Kane comes into contact with--former deputy Harvey (young Lloyd Bridges playing a dislikable rat as only he could), members of the local church, officious town officials--as self-centered cowards and hypocrites ready to sell him out when the chips are down.

Here we get a lot of screenwriter and former communist Carl Foreman's hashing out of his troubles with the House Un-American Activities Committee in fictional form as the story's downtrodden hero embodies his own embattled nobility and feelings of abandonment on the screen. 

My main misgivings with the film involve Kane himself, a man hired to protect the town and yet gradually crumbling into a tearful mess when faced with the prospect of doing it alone as he galumphs up one barren street and down the next.  The image of him being reduced to barging into a church during Sunday service to beg for help from a bunch of men who are hardly capable of facing down blazing six-shooters borders on the pathetic.  As he passes a group of children playing outside on his way out, we almost expect him to hit them up for help as a last resort. 

It's no wonder that John Wayne and Howard Hawks had such a negative reaction to HIGH NOON that it prompted them to answer it seven years later with RIO BRAVO, about a lawman facing a similar predicament but refusing to endanger the lives of unqualified civilians by involving them in a dangerous situation which he considers his own responsibility.  (Wayne did accept an absent Gary Cooper's "Best Actor" statuette for his performance as Will Kane at that year's Academy Awards.)

Still, HIGH NOON is a classic that's been revered by millions since its release, so obviously a lot of fans fully sympathize with Will Kane's plight and are riveted to the screen during the suspenseful real-time buildup (several clocks can be seen onscreen keeping an accurate countdown to noon) to the final showdown we know is coming.  As, truth be told, I am as well.

Skillful editing of director Fred Zinneman's exquisite black-and-white images along with a fine score by Dimitri Tiompkin (both editing and score won Oscars) also heighten the ever-present tension which keeps viewers on the edge of their seats despite the fact that, save for some punches thrown here and there, much of the film is devoid of the usual western action. 

Taking its place for much of the screen time is pure old-fashioned drama, much of it involving Kane's old flame Helen Ramírez (the exotic Katy Jurado), formerly a woman of ill-repute now involved in legitimate business.  Helen's previous associations with Kane as well as his craven deputy Harve and even the dreaded outlaw Frank Miller himself make her a dramatic epicenter of the story.  It is Helen who will eventually help mixed-up Amy face her doubts about her new husband, which will then land her right in the middle of things when Kane and the bad guys finally clash.

The cast is studded with several other familiar faces including the great Lon Chaney, Jr. as the town's aging former marshal, a briefly-seen young Jack Elam, Thomas Mitchell, Harry Morgan ("Dragnet"), Otto Kruger, Harry Shannon, Ian McDonald as Miller, Lee Aaker (HONDO), Virginia Christine, and John Doucette.  Miller's men, who spend much of their time waiting at the train station a la Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, are played by Robert Wilke, Sheb Wooley, and future Leone star Lee Van Cleef.

The DVD from Olive Films' "Olive Signature" label (also available in Blu-ray) has a 1.37:1 aspect ratio with mono sound and is mastered from a new 4K restoration. Subtitles are in English.  In addition to the trailer, extras include the featurettes "A Ticking Clock" (editing), "A Stanley Kramer Production", "Imitation of Life: The Hollywood Blacklist and 'High Noon'", "Oscars and Ulcers: The Production History of 'High Noon'" (narrated by the late Anton Yelchin), and the text essay "Uncitizend Kane" by "Sight & Sound" editor Nick James which is also included as a handsome illustrated booklet insert.

One of the main reasons I wanted to love HIGH NOON is because it opens with a beautiful shot of a young, steely-eyed Lee Van Cleef--long before his breakout stardom in Italy--just leaning against a fencepost under a tree in the middle of a field, in beautiful black-and-white.  Wow.  The rest of the film looks terrific too, and, despite my reasons for not being all that crazy about it, some other things about it are also pretty terrific.  At least, that is, enough to warrant the occasional viewing and perhaps, over time, a growing appreciation. 

HIGH NOON -- DVD Review by Porfle

HANNIE CAULDER -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 11/17/16

One of the last purveyors of the "traditional" western in the 60s and 70s was Burt Kennedy.  Not a particularly flashy or stylish director, he did a workmanlike job with  such entertaining but generally "meat and potatoes" westerns as THE TRAIN ROBBERS, SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF!, DIRTY DINGUS MAGEE, and THE WAR WAGON.

In 1971, British film company Tigon decided to deviate from their usual Hammeresque horror movies and make a western, hiring Kennedy to handle the director's chores.  Kennedy, whether by his own design or Tigon's, took this as an opportunity to embellish his usual old school western style with elements he obviously admired from the more offbeat work of such innovators as Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah.

This resulted in the odd but keenly interesting hybrid HANNIE CAULDER (1970), starring then-current sex goddess Raquel Welch as a frontier woman who, having been widowed and raped by three scurvy outlaws known as the Clemmons brothers, seeks to learn the ways of the gunfighter from a passing bounty hunter so that she can embark on a quest for revenge.

The Italian influence is obvious in the locations--Kennedy filmed in Spain in settings familiar to spaghetti western fans, including actual town sets used earlier in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. His nods to Peckinpah include bloodier violence (especially in the use of squibs), stronger profanity, and one scene which utilizes extreme slow motion to draw out a particularly key moment to its fullest. 

Hints of both Leone and Peckinpah's pessimism and lack of sentimentality also emerge--or at least they try to, since Kennedy doesn't really have the heart not to let things get either warm and fuzzy or downright lighthearted at times.  Hannie may be out for blood and her bounty hunter friend Thomas Luthor Price (Robert Culp) may assume a steely air most of the time, but their relationship eventually tends toward the mushy side.

Even the outlaw rapists are allowed to be funny, since they're such a pathetic bunch of filthy morons that we enjoy laughing derisively at their antics (they're constantly squabbling and screaming at each other) even as we look forward to their inevitable demise.

 

 This is especially true thanks to the casting of legendary actors Jack Elam, Ernest Borgnine, and Strother Martin in the roles, all of whom, incidentally, had themselves previously worked with either Leone (Elam in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST) or Peckinpah (Borgnine and Martin in THE WILD BUNCH). 

While the rape-revenge motif makes HANNIE CAULDER a precursor to much more exploitative fare such as I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, the actual outrage is done with relative restraint and manages to convey the trauma of the act without wallowing in it or, worse, trying for any kind of titillation (despite having sex-symbol Raquel playing the victim). 

A few brief-but-disturbing shots (mostly from Hannie's point of view so that we identify only with her) and it's over, setting up what the film is really about, which is her evolution from housewife to gunfighter and her eventual showdowns with each dirty outlaw in turn.
 


These come after a long sequence in which Price trains Hannie in the ways of the shootist while they wait for his gunsmith friend Bailey (Christopher Lee) to fashion her a personalized pistol.  Bailey has an oceanfront adobe house in Mexico (that is, Spain), allowing Kennedy to indulge his artistic side for awhile as Hannie and Price's relationship progresses to slow hand-in-hand walks on the beach at sunset.  It's also the setting for an exciting gun battle when a group of bandits show up looking for trouble and Hannie must learn whether or not she really has the ability to kill. 

In the title role, the beautiful Raquel is interesting to watch by default, especially when dressed up as a female version of Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name", while her performance is, as usual, entirely adequate.  Culp, one of my favorite TV actors from his many appearances including his own classic series "I Spy", is at his lanky, laconic best as reluctant gunfighting tutor Price, who gets to indulge in a cool shootout or two himself while going about his profession. 

Lee seems to enjoy his non-vampiric role--he was sick and tired of being Dracula by that time--and Elam, Borgnine, and Martin, of course, have a collective field day as the scum-of-the-earth Clemmons brothers.  Also appearing to good effect are aging British sex bomb Diana Dors as a saloon madam and Stephen Boyd (Raquel's co-star in FANTASTIC VOYAGE) as a mysterious gunman in black.

The DVD from Olive Signature Films is a new high-def digital restoration in 2.35:1 widescreen with mono sound and optional English subtitles.  In addition to an informative commentary by director and author Alex Cox (REPO MAN), extras include the featurettes "Exploitation or Redemption?" with film scholar Ben Sher, "Win or Lose: Tigon Pictures and the Making of 'Hannie Caulder'" with Sir Christopher Frayling, and the text essay "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" by film critic Kim Morgan, which is also featured in the attractively illustrated booklet included with the disc. 

As the Clemmons boys open the film by staging a bloody bank robbery and later have to face the vengeful Hannie in variations of the classic western showdown, Kennedy succeeds in giving Leone and Peckinpah fans the satisfying bursts of realistic violence they've come to expect by 1971.  Yet his traditional style persistently bleeds through, so to speak, making HANNIE CAULDER--a British production filmed in Spain by an American director--one of the era's more interesting westerns simply by being such a tantalizing hodgepodge. 

HANNIE CAULDER -- DVD Review by Porfle

HAIR -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 6/29/20

 

I've always had mixed feelings about director Milos Forman's colorful film adaptation of the 60s musical HAIR (Olive Signature Films, 1979), starting from the first time I ever saw it on cable back in the 80s. Or rather, the first five or six times I saw it, since I was a big rewatcher in those days even if I wasn't totally sold on the movie but liked certain parts of it while not caring for others.

The parts I didn't care for included, well, the characters. Or most of them, anyway. By that time, the allure of the hippie lifestyle had long since worn off for this boomer and I started regarding them as the manipulative leeches that they often were, rebelling against the "straight" life while begging members of it for money and eschewing possessions while doing their best to attain them.

Treat Williams' blustery hippie leader Berger is one of the worst offenders, a self-righteous manchild who's really an irresponsible con man at heart. When he and his "tribe" of fellow hippies encounter a young Oklahoman named Claude (John Savage) hanging out in Central Park before his impending induction into the Army, Berger thinks it would be funny to try and induct him into the ways of the hippie while steering him romantically toward a haughty debutante (Beverly D'Angelo as Sheila) who strikes Claude's fancy as she rides a horse majestically through the park.

Berger and his gang invade Sheila's fancy debutante ball with all that insufferable "free-spirited" attitude and delight in disrupting all its various proprieties to the point where he ends up stomping down the length of the dining table while shaking his ass at everyone (to the delight of Charlotte Rae, representing the open-minded oldie who finds such behavior giddily charming).

During this time we see John Savage giving a meaty performance as the confused Claude, who wants to do his military duty but is seduced into the seemingly "free" hippie life, especially after he's persuaded to drop LSD (the surreal sequence that follows is Forman's attempt to be Ken Russell for awhile, something he's not very good at).

With the pushy Berger amusing himself with the lives and feelings of Claude and Sheila, we also get to know the rest of the tribe and aren't always impressed. Jeannie (Annie Golden) is pregnant but doesn't know or care whether the father is blonde-haired Woof (Don Dacus) or the African-American Hud (Dorsey Wright), who also has a fiancee and a small son whom he seems to have abandoned.

It's to the credit of director Milos Forman (AMADEUS, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, MAN ON THE MOON) and screenwriter Michael Weller (who adapted the musical play by Gerome Ragni & James Rado and Galt MacDermot) that these societal outsiders aren't too overly romanticized even though we're often meant to find their antics funny and/or liberating.

There's also a certain veneer of realism that keeps things from getting too fantastical or stylized. Twyla Tharp's choreography is designed to look like a bunch of everyday people dancing around rather than a troup of professional, precision dancers. Real exteriors are used both in New York (mainly a rather grimy Central Park) and Nevada. The Army base where Claude ends up is a hellishly hot, dusty, joyless place.

Most of my reservations about the story were resolved with the stunning climax of the film, which contains a satisfying plot twist and a stirring rendition of "Let the Sunshine In" (a fitting bookend to the opening "Aquarius") which brings the film to a rousing conclusion.

Most of the play's familiar songs are reproduced in outstanding performances which feature the likes of Ellen Foley, Nell Carter, Melba Moore, and Betty Buckley, the latter soloing on my favorite number, the gorgeous "Walking In Space."

(On the non-singing front, keep a lookout for other such familiar faces as Richard Bright, Miles Chapin, and director Nicholas Ray.)

Even the Stylistics lend their voices to the incredibly strange musical number "Black Boys/White Boys" in which military officers inspecting naked recruits espouse their unbridled joy. Rivaling Betty Buckley's performance is Cheryl Barnes as Hud's spurned fiancee belting out the classic "Easy To Be Hard." Beverly D'Angelo handles the hit "Good Morning, Starshine." And of course the title tune is given a raucous, somewhat overbearing workout.

Strangely enough, it's my love-hate relationship with HAIR that has always made it interesting to watch.  Perhaps it's best that the film neither overly glorifies the hippies (when Berger goes home to beg money from his parents, we see what a phony he is) nor condemns them outright. And Forman's style is an uneasy juxtaposition of the real and the surreal, which pretty much represents that period in history as well as anything.


YEAR: 1979
GENRE: MUSICAL DRAMA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 121 mins
RATING: PG
VIDEO: 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio; Color
AUDIO: STEREO

OLIVE SIGNATURE FEATURES

    New HD restoration
    Audio commentary by assistant director Michael Hausman and actor Treat Williams
    “The Tribe Remembers” – with actors Beverly D’Angelo, Don Dacus, Ellen Foley, Annie Golden, John Savage, and Dorsey Wright
    “Making Chance Work: Choreographing Hair” – with choreographer Twyla Tharp
    “Cutting Hair” – with editors Lynzee Klingman and Stanley Warnow
    “Hair Style” – with production designer Stuart Wurtzel
    “Artist, Teacher, Mentor: Remembering Milos Forman” – with director James Mangold
    Essay by critic Sheila O’Malley

HAIR -- DVD Review by Porfle

RIO GRANDE -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 12/5/20

 

Legendary director John Ford had been trying for the longest time to get Republic Pictures head Herbert J. Yates to finance his dream project, THE QUIET MAN. 

Finally, Yates made a deal with Ford--direct a new cavalry western with John Wayne, which would be a surefire moneymaker for Republic, and he'd back Ford's nostalgic ode to his Irish heritage. And that's how RIO GRANDE (Olive Signature, 1950) came to be.

Future members of THE QUIET MAN's cast and crew were involved, including Wayne, his beautiful leading lady Maureen O'Hara (the chemistry was already strong in their first onscreen pairing), brawny Victor McLaglen, actor/singer Ken Curtis, Wayne's son Patrick, filmographer Archie Stout (who had worked with Duke since the early 30s), and film composer Victor Young. 

 

Unlike that film's dreamlike Technicolor visuals, RIO GRANDE is in Ford's own impeccable trademark black and white style, starkly enhancing the visual splendor of the film's desert locations with their vast plateaus almost as impressively as Ford's beloved Monument Valley. (Moab, Utah stands in for Arizona with the Colorado River playing the title role.)

Wayne stars as Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke, the tough but fair commander of a U.S. cavalry regiment encamped in an isolated spot that puts them in constant conflict with warlike Apache tribes nearby. This is yet another fully-realized performance by Wayne which thoroughly disproves the notion that he couldn't act, or that he was a one-note actor who only ever played himself.

One day Yorke's own son Jeff (Claude Jarman Jr. of THE YEARLING in a likable performance), whom he hasn't seen in fifteen years, appears as a new recruit. It seems that, having failed the mathematics requirements at Westpoint, he immediately enlisted in the cavalry after lying about his age. 

 

As if this didn't create enough tension, Yorke's estranged wife Kathleen (O'Hara)--with a little thing called the Civil War having come between them for all those years--shows up to have the boy discharged and take him home. But the dedicated young Jeff, to his father's obvious approval, will have none of it, as they both share the same sense of duty and honor.

Thus begins the film's main dramatic thrust as the long-separated couple rekindle their ever-smoldering romantic obsessions while wrestling over the fate of their son, even as the war between the cavalry and the Apaches reaches a boiling point.

Action fans can look forward to three major battle setpieces: one, the launching of a blistering nocturnal raid by the Apaches upon the encampment; two, when a wagon train of women and children being escorted away from the camp is suddenly set upon by Apache warriors, with only a small group of soldiers to defend them; and three, a climactic clash in which Yorke and his troops descend upon the Apaches' stronghold in order to rescue the civilians.

 

Those expecting constant thrills and a breakneck pace, however, may be disappointed. Quentin Tarantino once referred to Howard Hawks' RIO BRAVO as a "hangout film", since one of its main joys is in simply hanging out with its characters. Here, in addition to those irresistible stars, numerous scenes allow us to just pass the time with the supporting players or listen in as they serenade us with a selection of western songs.

These include the likes of Ben Johnson and Harry Carey, Jr. as a couple of very laidback but capable hillbilly recruits, Chill Wills as the easygoing regimental doctor, J. Carroll Naish as a world-weary general, and the choral group Sons of the Pioneers featuring silver-throated Ken Curtis (who would later achieve television immortality as Festus on "Gunsmoke"). The film's musical and comedy vignettes could almost be itemized on a bill of fare as an evening's program of entertainment.

 

The new Blu-ray release from Olive Signature is a high-definition digital restoration that brings out the pristine beauty of Ford's visuals. The disc's bonus menu offers interviews with Ben Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr., Claude Jarman, Jr., and Patrick Wayne, several featurettes, a trailer, a commentary track, and essays by film historians.

There are those who consider RIO GRANDE the lesser of Ford's three cavalry films, but for me it's just as rich and satisfying a viewing experience. Perhaps it's because the relatively slower pace and simpler story give it more room to breathe. You don't just rush through this movie; instead, you settle in and spend some quality time with it.



YEAR: 1950
GENRE: DRAMA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 105 min
RATING: N/A
VIDEO: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W
AUDIO: MONO

OLIVE SIGNATURE FEATURES

    New High-Definition digital restoration
    Audio commentary by Nancy Schoenberger
    “Telling Real Histories” – Raoul Trujillo on representations of Indigenous Americans in film
    “Songs of the Rio Grande” – Marc Wanamaker on the Sons of the Pioneers
    “Strength and Courage” – Patrick Wayne on his father
    “Bigger Than Life” – with Claude Jarman, Jr.
    Visual essay by Tag Gallagher
    “The Making of Rio Grande” – with Leonard Maltin
    Essay by Paul Andrew Hutton
    Theatrical trailer

US+CANADA
STREET: 11/17/20
CAT: OS022
UPC: 887090602204
SRP: $39.95

RIO GRANDE -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle