The Grandier High Witches!

We've got updates to yesterday's movie-nerd-rupturing news that Ken Russell's 1971 masterpiece The Devils has gotten a 4K restoration and it will premiere at Cannes later this month -- it's going to play in U.S. movie theaters too! It's getting a one week theatrical engagment on october 1th and there's the poster above -- the poster calls this "The Director's Cut" and they sent out more detail via their press release:

"Assembled from the original camera negative, this new 4K restoration presents Ken Russell's definitive vision of THE DEVILS by referencing the edit he privately constructed in 2004. KEN RUSSELL'S THE DEVILS is the uncut and unfiltered theatrical experience that Russell always envisioned - and the first time the film will be presented restored and in 4K... This new 4K restoration of Ken Russell's masterpiece was assembled from the original camera negative. The film's sound has been remastered from original English Composite 35mm Mag Film, transferred at 96kHz, plus other original film elements in selected spots as needed. "

Granted it's only been twenty-four hours but this news is still breaking my brain -- I can't believe the White Whale has been speared! While not confirming confirming a physical media release I hugely doubt we need to worry about that at this point -- now that it's not a one time Cannes thing I fully expect a 4K disc down the road. Hopefully in time for the holidays so every one of us sickos can gift our families The Devils in their stockings! Anyway they also sent along some images from the restored film and prepare to have your eyes blown back through your heads after the jump...

HOLY! F*CKING!! HELL!!!

Yes I realize that's the French poster for Ken Russell's The Devils there, but that's the poster I actually own and which hangs on my bedroom wall, so that's the one I'm using to share this incredible news I really wondered whether I'd ever be able to share in my entire life -- this movie, long banned and buried by the studio, has officially gotten a 4K restoration from Warnes Brothers and it will be premiering at Cannes this month. HELL HATH OFFICIALLY FROZEN OVER, Y'ALL. 

ME REACTING TO THIS 'THE DEVILS' NEWS

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) May 5, 2026 at 4:10 PM

There have actually been little whispers of this for the past several weeks so I'm not exactly crapping my pants here as I totally one hundred percent would have if this had come completely out of nowhere -- and to the people who were doing the whispering I can only say thank you, since nobody wants to crap their pants. Okay maybe our President does. But not me! I can safely say I am not a person who wants to crap my pants. Now do you see why you keep coming back here? You come for news about a notorious film classic that's been hidden away for literal decades and instead I go on a coprophilia tangent. Keepin' y'all on ya toes, baby! Just like Ken Russell did! 

For real though this is incredible fucking news. I have a DVD from the U.K. (or Germany?) of the movie, but obviously a 4K upgrade showcasing this film's tremendous beauty -- those Derek Jarman sets, my god! --  along with the fact that this is apparently trhe longest cut assembled since its release... well this is the movie news of the year, hands down. I know the version of the film I saw at MoMA ages ago before Russell died (he was there, I shared the air with Ken Russell, I am still not over that) was a longer version of the film than I'd seen before, but I'm terrible at keeping track of what cut's from what version et cetera. So how much of the "Rape of Christ" sequence has been dug up??? I'm agog y'all. AGOG. While I go on agogging below is a doc I uploaded onto YouTube thirteen years back that shows some of the "lost" footage (it's age-restricted cuz NSFW obviously):

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Three Musketeers (1973)

Athos: You will find, young man, that the future 

looks rosiest through the bottom of a glass.

Today Criterion has released a 4K double-feature of Richard Lesters' two 1970s Musketeers movies which starred Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay, Richard Chamberlain, Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Geraldine Chaplin, and Charlton Heston -- these swashbucklers are great fun and I highly recommend them both. With a cast like that how could I not? The movies were supposed to be a single film but they became so over-tuffed that Lester had to split them into two -- ahead of its time that! They're the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One of their day! (In that the sequels in both cases don't just call themselves "Part 2" and be simple about it but instead go with The Final Reckoning and The Four Muskeeters respectively.) 

Boyfriend just called Michael York (in Three Musketeers specifically) "Teen Beat Gollum" and I don't know about you but that's a thing I don't believe I will ever un-think pic.twitter.com/JJk0gHGMZZ

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) August 30, 2020

May Showers Meet Umbrellas at Criterion

One of the most beautiful and romantic and perfect movies ever made, Jacques Demy's musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, starring Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo as perhaps the most gorgeous couple ever put on-screen, is getting a 4K upgrade from the Criterion Collection in May! We knew this was coming because the restoration of the film played theaters earlier this year but it's still banner news! They have released this film in a box-set of Demy's movies before but I don't think any of us who love it will be able to resist upgrading it to 4K -- if ever a movie was made for 4K it's this one, with its color-scape that will make your eyes explode.

I watch this movie about every six months and never grow tired of it and I could just post pictures from it all day honestly, but Criterion has a busy May release calendar -- they're dropping six movies! Seven actually since one of these is a double-feature! So we should move on and get to the rest of the month. That double feature is Richard Lester's two Musketeers movies from 1973 and 1974, which star Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay, Richard Chamberlain, Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Geraldine and Chaplin among many others -- these movies are a lot of swashbuckling big-cast 70s fun. 

Next up a pair of classics I've been meaning to see for a very long time but still haven't yet -- Charles Burnett's 1978 Los Angeles poetic race drama Killer of Sheep and Abbas Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us from 1999. Killer of Sheep always make the "best movies ever made" lists while the Kiarostami film is sometimes called his greatest achievment and given the competition for that title that's really something. Any lovers of these two out here? 

Then there's Bruce Robinson's two Richard E. Grant showcases Withnail & I and How To Get Ahead in Advertising -- these I know are both fantastic movies since I've seen them both! I'm especially infatuated with the latter, which I only saw a couple of years ago and was blown away by. It feels super ahead of its time and is very very very funny. And then finally the sixth release is a 4K upgrade of In the Heat of the Night, because if there's one thing we need 200% more of in 2025 it's slapping white racists across the face. Gimme!

Which Is Hotter?

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Ken Russell's film Women in Love starring Alan Bates and Oliver Reed and Alan Bates and Oliver Reed wrestling naked and oh some women too... award winning ones at that... 

... came out in the United States fifty years ago today! That was about four months after it premiered in England, and I imagine it caused quite the scandal here like it did in the UK, given all the famous peen flopping around for the very first time on a mainstream screen. That said I know, I know, basically every single time I post about this movie I post about its naked wrestling scene...

... even though there's plenty else to recommend it -- but one, I am me, (speaking of recommendations I really recommend you scroll through our Bates / Reed archives) and two, I did some checking and I actually have somehow never asked the most basic question of all?

bike tracks

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The film's been given the glorious Criterion treatment and I just went ahead and bought myself a copy today as a treat to me as I sit holed up here at home -- I recommend you, providing you've got rent and food and all of that covered, do the same. The DVD that I have now is pretty shitty, comparatively, and I can't wait to watch it all, top to bottom, in that grand 4K restoration...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Devils (1971)

Grandier: Don't look at me! Look at your city! If your city is destroyed, your freedom is destroyed also... If you would remain free men, fight. Fight them or become their slaves.

Every time Criterion hints at their slate of upcoming releases, like especially with their News Years cryptic puzzle drawings, my mind goes straight to Ken Russell's The Devils. Every time. Will this be the year we finally get the full and uncut 117-minute version of The Devils on blu-ray? It seems like buffoonery, chicanery, yes the both, that in the year 2020 the film as originally intended is still practically impossible to see.

There's a 109-minute version on Shudder now, but I think the infamous so-called "Rape of Christ" sequence remains edited out. I've posted this before (I'm the one who uploaded it onto YouTube) but the documentary Hell on Earth, which talks the movie and has some clips from that sequence, is right here if you're curious:

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Anyway I really should do the man a favor and bring up one of his other movies whenever it's Oliver Reed's birthday -- he was born on this day in 1938 and we do love him so, in everything he did...

... but until I get my uncut Criterion blu-ray of The Devils it's just gonna haunt and nag at me every single time Reed or Ken Russell comes up. And this movie feels especially on point in the mad mad mad mad mad world that we live in today. Nobody got where we were headed better than Ken Russell.

Who Wore It Best?

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I have posted about the 1975 film Royal Flash before -- directed by Superman director Richard Lester it stars Malcolm McDowell as well as nude-wrestling-friends Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, seen above -- but I still haven't watched it, even though that earlier post makes note of the movie being available to watch for free here on ye olde internet. It's uploaded onto YouTube now, even:

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But since I just stumbled upon these photos of Bates & Reed being their typical scamp selves and I to be quite frank am having a real case of the braindead Mondays this afternoon, let's just give ourselves a luxurious stache poll to soak in and call it a day:

survey tool

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Women in Love (1969)

Gudrun: You don't think one needs
the experience of having been married?
Ursula: Gudrun, do you really think
it need be an experience?
Gudrun: It's bound to be possibly undesirable,
but still an experience of some sort.
Ursula: Not really.
More likely to be the end of experience.
Gudrun: Yes, of course, there is that to consider.

Even though it fights against everything in my nature I'm going to try to post about this movie without posting anything from the naked wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Ollie Reed, because it's the legend Glenda Jackson's 83rd birthday today and she deserves the goddamned attention for once. She is Glenda fucking Jackson, after all! Respect is synonymous. And in serendipitous news I'm actually going to see her on Broadway in King Lear this very weekend thanks to the generosity of a good friend of MNPP. (Thank you, beloved friend.) I'll try not to stop the show in the middle of her performance to ask her about the naked wrestling scene. I'll try. I can't make any promises. It won't be her birthday then.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

I'll Never Forget What's'isname (1967)

Georgina: Why didn't you find a desert island somewhere?

Andrew: There aren't any. They're all radioactive.

Our boy Olly Reed was born on this day in the year 1938 and so here we are, wishing him a happy even though he's, you know, dust and all. I had never even heard of this movie until five minutes ago, much less seen it -- its director Michael Winner, who went on to make the Death Wish trilogy (not to mention the horror film The Sentinel) later in life, worked with Oliver six times, so I think it's safe to assume he liked to drink. Also in this film: Orson Welles! Here's a shot of them all together:

They must have had quite the set parties. Anyway have any of you seen this movie? I found these two bits of info from the film's Wiki somewhat interesting:

"In the United States, the film was denied a MPAA seal of approval due to a scene between Oliver Reed and Carol White which supposedly implied cunnilingus. Winner, in his audio commentary, said he considered the scene to show masturbation. The Catholic League inaccurately described it as "fellatio".[citation needed] Universal distributed the film through a subsidiary that was not a member of the MPAA. Along with a similar scene in Charlie Bubbles (1967), this helped to bring about the end of the Production Code in the USA and its replacement with a ratings system.

The film has been wrongly named as the first mainstream film to propose the use in the dialogue of fuck. In fact, the BBFC certified the film after demanding the removal, or at least obscuring, of the word fucking in June 1967, three months later than Ulysses, which suffered heavier cuts. The error seems to have arisen because of a longstanding lack of easily obtainable film release date information."

Good Morning, World

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I have a mystery! When I was doing this week's "Siri Says" series for the year 1964 (check the post out here) I came across a 1964 film called The System (also known as The Girl-Getters) from director Michael Winner that stars Oliver Reed, leading me to stumble upon that photo there, which the internet has labeled as a picture of Oliver Reed in The System. I don't think that's Oliver Reed though, is it? I mean it's a weird angle, darkly lit, and runs deep through the uncanny valley - I suppose it could be? I don't fucking know. Help me! Is that him, or do you know who that is? Save my sanity, please, I beg of you! (Editor's Note: My sanity hinges on much more than this single photograph, so don't bother.) Here is another picture of Oliver in the film which is definitely Oliver:

Great Moments In Movie Shelves #158

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Mark Twain's book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court comes up several times across the run of John Landis' one hundred percent perfect horror classic An American Werewolf in London, repeatedly underlining David's fish-out-of-water (excuse me... werewolf out of water?) status. His nurse and romantic interest Alex reads it to him as he convalceses; specifically this passage:

"A Word of Explanation. It was in Warwick Castle that I came across the curious stranger whom I am going to talk about. He attracted me by three things: his candid simplicity, his marvelous familiarity with ancient armor, and the restfulness of his company - for he did all the talking. We fell together as modest people will in the tail of the herd...."

And then later, while he's holed up in her apartment as the full moon appears, it is this book that he's picked back up to pass the time with when he has his little, you know, conversion...

In the book the titular Connecticut Yankee idealizes the myths of Arthurian Legend but comes to see it wasn't quite like he imagined, and similarly David references several werewolf movies over the course of An American Werewolf in London - I love how his references are to American movies while Alex, who's a Londoner, first thinks of Oliver Reed when she thinks of a wolf man - in order to color in and understand his situation. There's no need to go to the library and read up on lycanthropes when you've got Claude Rains and Lon Chaney Jr. around to help.

Good Morning, Ollie

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While I prepare myself both mentally and physically - lots of laps, lots of breathing exercises - for the Alan Bates retrospective about to hit The Quad here in New York, let's take a minute to wish a happy birthday to Bates' wrestling partner du jour the great Oliver Reed, who was born 80 years ago today. These gifs are from a scene in the 1967 film The Shuttered Room (watch the entire clip here), which I have never seen but sounds like something I should - it's based on a story by HP Lovecraft and is about a couple (played by Gig Young and Carol Lynley) who move back to her ancestral home when her parents die, and find it cursed. (Never heard that one before.) Oliver plays the "lecherous cousin." Annnnd of course he does. Anybody seen it?

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1963

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We had to take some time off from our "Siri Says" series - where I ask my phone to pick a number between 1 and 100 and then choose my five favorite movies from the corresponding year - because the New York Film Fest had me pretty busy and these posts are a bit of a commitment. But now we're trying to get back into the ol' routine and so here we are - today's number is "63" and so let's take a look at the Movies of 1963!

And 1963 is a great year to get on Halloween, because 1963 was a crazy busy year for Horror. As if the filmmakers could sense what was going to happen that November scares were everywhere - Alfred Hitchcock saw terror dropping out of the sky, three-name wunderkinds Hershell Gordon Lewis and Francis Ford Coppola were hacking everybody to bits in the US while Hammer hooked the UK and Bava bathed Italy in red, and Vincent Price had no fewer than six movies in theaters (most of them with Roger Corman, who had his own factory of fright going). My faves aren't entirely thrills and chills but it's a hefty percentage...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1963

The Haunting

(dir. Robert Wise)

-- released on August 25th 1963 --

Charade

(dir. Stanley Donen)

-- released on December 5th 1963 --

Black Sabbath

(dir. Mario Bava)

-- released on August 23rd 1963 --

The Leopard

(dir. Luchino Visconti)

-- released on March 29th 1963 --

The Birds

(dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

-- released on March 29th 1963 --

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Runners-up: 8 1/2 (dir. Fellini), Dementia 13 (dir. Francis Ford Coppola), Hud (dir. Martin Ritt), The Raven (dir. Corman), X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes (dir. Corman), Jason and the Argonauts (dir. Don Chaffey), The Haunted Palace (dir. Corman), The Girl Who Knew Too Much (dir. Bava), Contempt (dir. Godard)

Never seen: The Great Escape (dir. John Sturges), Bye Bye Birdie (dir. George Sidney), Lilies of the Field (dir. Ralph Nelson), The Prize (dir. Mark Robson), Diary of a Madman (dir. Reginald Le Borg), Tom Jones (dir. Tony Richardson), Paranoiac (dir. Freddie Francis), Irma La Douce (dir. Billy Wilder), Shock Corridor (dir. Samuel Fuller), Blood Feast (dir. Herschell Gordon Lewis)

What are your favorite movies of 1963?

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5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1961

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I have something to tell you guys. I changed Siri's voice. Siri is no longer a woman - I found out you can have Siri sound like an Australian Man, and so Siri now sounds like an Australian Man, and it's every bit as hot as you expect that to be. I'm living the movie Her now, just the Crocodile Dundee version! Call it Mate! Ahem. Anyway I just thought y'all should know that since I have to switch pronouns now for these posts - now when I ask Siri to choose a number between 1 and 100, he will reply. 

And this week he replied with "61" and so we're visiting The Movies of 1961. After Siri gave us a stacked year last week with 1992 I was relieved this one's a bit simpler. And then after relief came panic because the list of movies I haven't seen is longer than the list of ones I have. Who knew 1961 held such a hole in my knowledge heap? And it seems like such a strong year for international cinema too. Y'all can tell me what to catch up on below but for now...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1961

The Hustler

(dir. Robert Rossen)

-- released on October 22nd 1961 --

The Mistifts

(dir. John Huston)

-- released on February 1st 1961 --

Breakfast at Tiffany's

(dir. Blake Edwards)

-- released on October 5th 1961 --

Viridiana

(dir. Luis Buñuel)

-- released on May 17th 1961 --

The Innocents

(dir. Jack Clayton)

-- released on December 25th 1961 --

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Runners-up: Judgement at Nuremberg (dir. Stanley Kramer),  Splendor in the Grass (dir. Elia Kazan), The Pit and the Pendulum (dir. Roger Corman),  The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (dir. José Quintero), The Curse of the Werewolf (dir. Terence Fisher), Victim (dir. Basil Dearden), 101 Dalmatians (dir. Wolfgang Reithermann), West Side Story (dir. Robert Wise), Mothra (dir.  Ishirô Honda)

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Never seen: The Parent Trap (dir. David Swift), Raisin in the Sun (dir. Daniel Petrie), El Cid (dir. Anthony Mann), Yojimbo (dir. Kurosawa), Last Year at Marienbad (dir. Alain Resnais), Lover Come Back (dir. Michael Gordon), La Notte (dir. Antonioni), The Children's Hour (dir. William Wyler), Leon Morin, Priest (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville), Homicidal (dir. William Castle), Accattone (dir. Pasolini), Through a Glass Darkly (dir. Bergman)

What are your favorite movies of 1961?

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