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January/February 2012: Digital Cinema Archaelogy
by
John Gallagher
DIGITAL CINEMA ARCHAEOLOGY: There’s a treasure trove of primary film history research at http://mediahistoryproject.org/, where the Internet Archive has digitized and posted select runs from the ’10s through the ’70s of more than 40 trade magazines, including Business Screen, Moving Picture World, Photoplay, Motion Picture News, Harrison’s Reports, and The Hollywood Reporter. Movie lovers can get lost for hours with all the terrific ads and art, editorials on the state of the picture business, reviews, production charts, box office grosses, announced projects … the works. There are endlessly fascinating tidbits of cinema archaeology in these pages, e.g., The Hollywood Reporter January1933-May 1934:
Woody Van Dyke slated to direct TREASURE ISLAND at MGM in Technicolor (it was made a year later by Victor Fleming in black-and-white); Josef von Sternberg announced to direct Greta Garbo in (QUEEN) CHRISTINA (Rouben Mamoulian directed it when Sternberg had story issues with writer-producer Carey Wilson); Sternberg to direct Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in THE PRIZEFIGHTER AND THE LADY for MGM and producer Howard Hawks (the movie was made with Myrna Loy and Max Baer, with direction started by Hawks before being replaced by Jack Conway); William Powell, then Chester Morris, to star in Universal’s THE INVISIBLE MAN (it became the screen debut of Claude Rains); Ralph Bellamy and Anita Louise starring in Frank Borzage’s A MAN’S CASTLE at Columbia (the roles were played by Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young); at Paramount, Mae West wants Clark Gable for I’M NO ANGEL (studio contractee Cary Grant was cast), and is announced to star as THE QUEEN OF SHEBA; three years after the release of his silent CITY LIGHTS Charlie Chaplin announces his first talking picture will team him with Wallace Beery in a comedy about a court jester and his king; six months later Chaplin announces he’ll do a street waif story with Paulette Goddard (it became MODERN TIMES, released in 1936), then a remake of his 1923 A WOMAN OF PARIS with Goddard, then star as NAPOLEON (previously announced as an Edward G. Robinson vehicle at Warners); Wallace Beery, Clark Gable and Robert Montgomery announced for MGM’s MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (Gable remained but Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone were cast instead); William Wellman to direct Gary Cooper, Gloria Swanson and Sam Jaffe in Sam Goldwyn’s BARBARY COAST (it was made by Howard Hawks, starring Joel McCrea, Miriam Hopkins and Edward G. Robinson); W.C. Fields to star as RIP VAN WINKLE at Paramount for producer William LeBaron.
Many items revealing retakes and added scenes by uncredited directors: Mitchell Leisen on Wesley Ruggles’ George Raft-Carole Lombard BOLERO, Jack Conway on Lowell Sherman’s Cary Grant-Loretta Young BORN TO BE BAD; Sam Wood on Edmund Goulding’s Norma Shearer-Robert Montgomery RIPTIDE; George Cukor on W. S. Van Dyke’s Gable-William Powell-Myrna Loy MANHATTAN MELODRAMA. The items are endless and offer a real insider’s look at the workings of the studios during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Surfing around I came across this piece of early NBR history from page one of the February 10, 1933 edition of The Hollywood Reporter, reporting on the organization’s ninth annual confab (Jean Harlow and Leslie Howard were the guests of honor):
NATIONAL BOARD LAUDS “FUGITIVE,” PANS CENSORS
New York -- The first day’s meeting of the annual convention of The National Board of Review, at The Pennsylvania Hotel here, got underway yesterday with a full attendance, who listened to speech after speech. The highlights of the first session were addresses made by Dr. LeRoy Bowman and Dr. Frank Astor. Bowman, who is head of the Child Study Association of America, took the stump for the Warner production of I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG. He said: “It was the most artistic film of last year and one of the best of many years. While present day fans are still intrigued by exciting, dramatic and perilous situations in pictures, they prefer action that is directly connected with the real things of life, affecting everyone today. Warners have taken advantage of that condition and offered a production that has received wide acclaim from those fans, to which I add my enthusiasm for their artistry in handling that subject.” Astor, who is head of the Child Welfare Association, delivered his bit on censorship: “There is only one censor and that is the audience. Their censorship is the most effective. They censor pictures by paying their money to see better pictures.”
Eighty years later, the NBR is still committed to freedom of expression for filmmakers the world over, as evidenced by its unique annual Freedom of Expression Award (which last month honored Yoav Potash’s CRIME AFTER CRIME and Dee Rees’ PARIAH for 2011).
HBO HOME ENTERTAINMENT has released BOARDWALK EMPIRE: THE COMPLETE SEASON (2011) on DVD and Blu-ray, winner of eight Emmys, including Best Directing for a Drama Series to Martin Scorsese (the NBR’s 2011 Best Director for HUGO), and Best Actor to Steve Buscemi as corrupt Atlantic City politician Nucky Thompson. Set in the post-World War One boom years of the 1920s, BOARDWALK is rich and novelistic, with each one-hour episode more compelling than many feature films. Scorsese directed the pilot and is an executive producer on the show, created by SOPRANOS writer-producer Terence Winter and boasting an incredible cast – Michael Shannon, Michael Pitt, Kelly MacDonald, Dabney Coleman, Shea Wigham, Paz de la Huerta, Gretchen Mol, Michael Kenneth Williams, Vincent Piazza as young Lucky Luciano, Stephen Graham as young Al Capone, and Michael Stuhlbarg as gambling kingpin Arnold Rothstein. The world of Prohibition America is brought to vivid life with drama, action and unerring period detail, with 12 episodes on five discs. Five featurettes detail the making of the series, including the creation of a 300-foot 1920s Atlantic City boardwalk in Brooklyn; character dossiers; a tour of famous New York and Chicago speakeasies with cast members; and a 30-minute documentary, “Atlantic City: The Original Sin City.” Six audio commentaries are provided by Winter, Buscemi, Williams and Shannon, directors Tim Van Patten, Brian Kirk and Allen Coulter, and writer-producer Howard Korder.
MILESTONE FILM & VIDEO’s two-disc release of Lionel Rogosin’s groundbreaking docudrama ON THE BOWERY (1956) will no doubt become one of the most important homevideo releases of 2012. Immaculately restored by Cineteca di Bologna, introduced by Martin Scorsese, the film is an American neo-realist masterpiece that completely blurs the line between documentary and fiction as it chronicles the lost souls of Manhattan’s Fifties Skid Row, the Bowery. With Morris Engel’s THE LITTLE FUGITIVE (1953), ON THE BOWERY ushered in a new wave of American indie cinema, with an especially strong influence on John Cassavetes’ SHADOWS (1960). Like Rossellini and DeSica, Rogosin used real people on real locations, scripting from improvs; the result is truly powerful, offering a gritty glimpse into the dive bars, flophouses, back streets and missions of the Bowery. This first volume of Rogosin’s films from Milestone includes his GOOD TIMES, WONDERFUL TIMES (1964), intercutting fascist atrocities culled from international archives with the banality of a London cocktail party, and OUT, made for the United Nations, about a group of refugees fleeing Hungary for Austria in 1956. Bonus features include Scorsese’s introduction, making-of documentaries for ON THE BOWERY and GOOD TIMES, WOMDERFUL TIMES by Lionel’s son Michael Rogosin, a walk through the Bowery today with Michael Rogosin retracing his father’s steps, and two documentary shorts depicting the avenue in its Skid Row days, STREET OF FORGOTTEN MEN (1933) and BOWERY MEN’S SHELTER (1972). ON THE BOWERY won the 2010 National Society of Film Critics’ Film Heritage Award, and has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION issues a newly remastered edition of Joshua Logan’s TALL STORY (1960), based on a 100-performance Broadway play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, notable as the screen debut of 22-year-old Jane Fonda. It’s entertaining fluff, as Fonda goes to college to meet a husband, setting her sights on basketball star Anthony Perkins; Ray Walston, Murray Hamilton, Anne Jackson and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marc Connelly reprising the role that earned him a Tony nomination, round out the cast. While the romantic chemistry between Fonda and Perkins leaves something to be desired, it’s clear from her first appearance in the picture that a star is being born.
HEN’S TOOTH VIDEO: Cries for a “clean screen” prompted the enforcement of the Production Code in 1934. Instead of subjects derided as seedy contemporary pictures, Hollywood turned to classic literature; Stevenson’s TREASURE ISLAND, and Dickens’ GREAT EXPECTATIONS, OLIVER TWIST, DAVID COPPERFIELD, A TALE OF TWO CITIES, and THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD all went before the cameras, and were solid hits. Agent-turned indie producer Edward Small’s contribution to the cycle was THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (1934), one of the best of the bunch. Alexandre Dumas’ 1844 adventure novel of injustice and hope was beautifully brought to the screen by director Rowland V. Lee, writers Phillip Dunne, Dan Totheroh and Lee, cinematographer Peverell Marley and a cast headed by Robert Donat (replacing John Barrymore), Elissa Landi, Sidney Blackmer and Louis Calhern. Hen’s Tooth Video has released the picture in a new digital transfer from a 35mm fine grain; the film probably hasn’t looked this good in almost 80 years. Small’s follow-up, Dumas’ THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK (1939), has also been released by HTV, also from a 35mm fine grain. Joan Bennett, Louis Hayward, Warren William, Joseph Schildkraut and Alan Hale star under director-in-decline James Whale (FRANKENSTEIN, THE INVISIBLE MAN, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, SHOW BOAT) in an entertaining swashbuckler that belies Whale’s disinterest in the project (he was replaced towards the end of shooting by writer George Bruce, then thanked Small for enhancing his bank account when the movie was a hit – Whale had a nice profit participation on the film!).
New DVDs from 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment’s MGM Limited Edition series include the WWII adventure comedy HANNIBAL BROOKS (1968), a rare good film from director Michael Winner (DEATH WISH). Oliver Reed stars as a British POW ordered by his German captors to walk Lucy the Elephant from a bombed-out zoo in Munich to Innsbruck, Austria. Michael J. Pollard, hot off his Academy nomination for BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967), at his quirky best, co-stars as an escaped POW-turned-guerilla; the transfer is beautiful, highlighting spectacular Bavarian and Austrian wilderness locations. Boris Sagal’s THE THOUSAND PLANE RAID (1969) is a low-budget but intelligent WWII aviation drama, with Christopher George advocating a one thousand B-17 daylight raid on a Nazi target. The 70s drive-in cult movie A SMALL TOWN IN TEXAS (1976) casts a terrific Timothy Bottoms as an ex-con who returns home to confront the cop (THE WILD BUNCH’s Bo Hopkins) who set him up, and reclaim his girl (STRAW DOGS’ Susan George) and son. Jack Starrett directs, delivering slam-bang car chases and stunts.
20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment continues to issue a steady stream of beloved classics on Blu-ray, most recently, for the first time, Alfred Hitchcock’s NOTORIOUS (1946), SPELLBOUND (1945) and REBECCA (1940), Billy Wilder’s THE APARTMENT, and Woody Allen’s MANHATTAN (1979) and ANNIE HALL (1977). The photography in these films is luminous on Blu-ray, crystal-clear images revealing previously undetected set details, highlighting the black-and-white work of cinematographers George Barnes (REBECCA, SPELLBOUND), Ted Tetzlaff (NOTORIOUS), Joseph LaShelle (THE APARTMENT), and Gordon Willis (ANNIE HALL, MANHATTAN). REBECCA (NBR Top Ten), from the Daphne DuMaurier Gothic romance novel, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, and SPELLBOUND, the psychological thriller with Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck, were produced by David O. Selznick with his customary quality and taste (both titles come with historian commentaries, Hitchcock audio interviews and featurettes, and in the case of REBECCA, some fascinating screen tests of Vivien Leigh and Margaret Sullavan). NOTORIOUS is one of Hitchcock’s masterworks, an adult Ben Hecht script brimming with romance and intrigue, blessed by the presence of Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains giving some of the finest performances of their careers. Same with THE APARTMENT -- the Wilder-I. A. L. Diamond script, a black comedy dealing with sexual politics in the workplace, helped break down the walls of censorship with its black comedy. Wilder favorites Jack Lemmon (his second for the director after the previous year’s SOME LIKE IT HOT) and Shirley MacLaine (her first; Wilder’s IRMA LA DOUCE would follow, also with Lemmon) are the romantic leads; with Fred MacMurray cast against type (as he was in Wilder’s 1944 DOUBLE INDEMNITY) as a serial adulterer. THE APARTMENT placed on the NBR’s Top Ten list, and was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning Best Picture, Director, Story and Screenplay, Editing, and Art Direction. Woody Allen’s ANNIE HALL made the NBR Top Ten and earned Best Supporting Actress for Diane Keaton, and marked the director’s transition from comic genius to master filmmaker. His next movie, MANHATTAN, won the NBR Award for Best Film and Best Supporting Actress for Meryl Streep (along with THE SEDUCTION OF JOE TYNAN). Woody’s romantic comedy-drama proves to be one of his most enduring works, starting with the gorgeous opening montage set to Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” the model for his opening Paris montage in MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (and running almost exactly the same length, the films’ first four minutes. Like REBECCA and SPELLBOUND, NOTORIOUS comes fully loaded with extras – commentaries with film professor Rick Jewell and Drew Casper, isolated music and effects track, three featurettes on Hitchcock and the film, a 1948 radio version with Bergman and Joseph Cotton, a restoration comparison, the original theatrical trailer, and audio interviews with Hitch. THE APARTMENT has commentary by producer/historian Bruce Block, two featurettes and the trailer. ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN are film-only.
KINO LORBER: Two classics of American cinema that fell into the public domain, with poor quality dupes on the homevideo market for years, have been released by Kino Lorber in pristine Blu-rays. The World War One romantic drama A FAREWELL TO ARMS (1932, NBR Top Ten), the first screen adaptation of a Hemingway work, was given lavish production by Paramount, with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes (one year after her Best Actress Oscar for THE SIN OF MADELON CLAUDET) as the star-crossed lovers. Frank Borzage (1893-1962), winner of two Best Director Oscars during the first five years of the Academy (7TH HEAVEN in 1931, BAD GIRL in 1931) was a true auteur, whose extraordinarily sensitive body of work is unified by films of spiritual romance, of “souls made great through love and adversity,” as the opening titles of his STREET ANGEL (1928) proclaim. Critically ignored for years, historians and filmmakers (especially Martin Scorsese) have rediscovered Borzage’s LUCKY STAR (1929), A MAN’S CASTLE (1933), NO GREATER GLORY (1934, NBR Top Ten), LIVING ON VELVET (1935), HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT (1937), THREE COMRADES (1938, NBR Top Ten), THE MORTAL STORM (1940), STRANGE CARGO (1940), TILL WE MEET AGAIN (1944), I’VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU (1946), MOONRISE (1948) and CHINA DOLL (1958). Herve Dumont, former head of the Swiss Film Archive, wrote the definitive study, Frank Borzage (2006, McFarland & Company), with a foreword by Scorsese (“I was astonished by Borzage’s artistry, by his passion, by his extraordinary delicacy,” Scorsese remarked after watching lots of Borzages in a row). The Pre-Code A FAREWELL TO ARMS was Borzage’s favorite film … and his masterpiece. Censors made dozens of cuts to the film for subsequent Post-Code reissues, and when Paramount sold the literary rights to David O. Selznick for his ill-advised 1957 Rock Hudson/ Jennifer Jones remake, only the severely mutilated version seemingly survived. Years after Selznick’s death, a 35mm nitrate of the Borzage film was discovered in the producer’s personal archive, and fully restored by George Eastman House. This is the immaculate version that Kino Lorber has released on Blu-ray, restoring Charles Lang’s Oscar-winning cinematography to its full glory.
William Wellman’s screwball comedy classic NOTHING SACRED (1937), produced by David O. Selznick, has likewise been made available on Blu-ray, mastered in HD from an original Technicolor nitrate 35mm print, preserved by George Eastman House, replacing the previous avalanche of p. d. dupes. Carole Lombard and Fredric March shine in this cynical and satirical take on the media, working from a script by Ben Hecht (GUNGA DIN, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, and rewrites on STAGECOACH and GONE WITH THE WIND, all in 1939 alone!). Hecht sets the tone in the opening titles: "This is New York, Skyscraper Champion of the world, where the Slickers and Know-It-Alls peddle goldbricks to each other, and where truth, crushed to earth, rises again more phony than a glass eye." NOTHING SACRED is a blast, one of the best American comedies ever from one of our best directors, one of our best producers, one of our best screenwriters.
WELLMAN AT FILM FORUM: With Paramount’s restoration of WINGS (1927, now available in a stunning presentation on DVD and Blu-ray from Paramount Home Entertainment, probably the most exceptional presentation of a silent film for the home market to date)), the recent Warner Archive releases of SAFE IN HELL (1931), MY MAN AND I (1952) and LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE (1958), and the aforementioned NOTHING SACRED Blu-ray, the work of William Wellman has been in the spotlight lately. Now Bruce Goldstein, much revered director of repertory programming at NYC’s premiere rep theatre, The Film Forum, has programmed the expansive WELLMAN, with forty-one of the director’s films screening between February 10 and March 1, unprecedented in New York for the appreciation and revival of this extraordinary filmmaker’s output. The series kicks off with the restored WINGS, introduced by William Wellman Jr. (winner of a 1996 NBR Award for Best TV Documentary for his documentary WILD BILL: HOLLYWOOD MAVERICK), and includes key Wellmans THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931), A STAR IS BORN (1937), NOTHING SACRED (1937), BEAU GESTE (1939), ROXIE HART (1942), THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1943), THE STORY OF G. I. JOE (1945), BATTLEGROUND (1949), THE HAPPY YEARS (1950), WESTWARD THE WOMEN (1951), ISLAND IN THE SKY (1953) and THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY (1954). Also screening are essential Pre-Codes SAFE IN HELL (1931), NIGHT NURSE (1931), THE STAR WITNESS (1931), HEROES FOR SALE (1933), and WILD BOY OF THE ROAD (1933), and extreme rarities YOU NEVER KNOW WOMEN (1926), BEGGARS OF LIFE (1928), CHINATOWN NIGHTS (1929), THE MAN I LOVE (1929), WOMAN TRAP (1929), YOUNG EAGLES (1930), THE PRESIDENT VANISHES (1934), and the Technicolor MEN WITH WINGS (1938), along with new 35mm prints of THE STAR WITNESS (1931), THE CONQUERORS (1932), THE CALL OF THE WILD (1935), THE IRON CURTAIN (1948), and YELLOW SKY (1948). The casts of these movies read like four decades of Hollywood Who’s Who: Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March, Carole Lombard, Loretta Young, Gary Cooper, Ginger Rogers, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood.
Wellman made nearly 100 movies and a whole lot of money for every studio in town (except Universal, though he did develop an unrealized project, THE S. O. B.’S, there in the early 60s). To put this daunting multi-studio program together, Bruce Goldstein collaborated with The Library of Congress, George Eastman House, Paramount, Universal, Twentieth Century-Fox, Criterion, Warner Bros., Sony, Batjac, UCLA Film and Television Archive, Academy Film Archive, Video-Cinema Films, Disney, TCM, Jake Perlin, Mike Schlesinger and Martin Scorsese. Frank Thompson (my co-author on the forthcoming Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman), and I are proud to have been consultants on the series, and honored to be liberally quoted in the calendar descriptions of the films. The complete program is available at http://www.filmforum.org/pdf/ff2_cal94_FINAL.pdf.
MORE NEW BLU-RAYS: Boxoffice Magazine’s Pete Hammond described REAL STEEL (2011, Touchstone Home Entertainment) as “ROCKY with robots,” and it’s a perfect description. A popcorn movie for the action trade, based in part on Richard Matheson’s story “Steel,” the movie benefits from the always ingratiating Hugh Jackman and remarkable robot animatronics. The two-disc DVD/Blu-ray is loaded with extras, including five featurettes, deleted and extended scenes, bloopers, and audio commentary by director Shawn Levy (the NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM movies). THE RUM DIARY (2011, Sony Pictures Classics) is a well-intentioned but ultimately misfired adaptation of the Hunter S. Thompson novel based on his early 60s adventures in Puerto Rico before he discovered drugs, directed by Bruce Robinson (WITHNAIL AND I), produced by and starring Johnny Depp as an homage to his late friend Thompson. Amber Heard is more gorgeous than the Puerto Rico locations, and bursting with star quality; hopefully she’ll be cast in the proper vehicle one of these days. Aaron Eckhart, Michael Rispoli and Giovanni Ribisi acquit themselves admirably, all the while drinking rum like it’s iced tea. Two featurettes are included. Vera Farmiga makes her directorial debut in HIGHER GROUND (2011, SPHE Blu-ray/DVD combo pack) playing an evangelical Christian, a wife and mother, who undergoes a serious crisis of faith. A 2011 Sundance and Tribeca selection, it’s an earnest, well-made, and very well-directed indie with fine performances by Farmiga, Joshua Leonard, John Hawkes and Bill Irwin. Extras include commentary by the director, producer Renn Hawkey and Leonard, deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, and a Q-and-A from the Los Angeles Film Festival. Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle have fantastic chemistry in the crime comedy THE GUARD (2011, SPHE), with Gleeson as an unorthodox cop in a small Irish village forced to work with an FBI agent to dismantle a drug ring. Writer-director John Michael McDonagh shares an irreverent wit and ear for dialogue with his brother Martin (IN BRUGES), who served as Executive Producer along with Cheadle. Bonus features include outtakes, deleted and extended scenes, the director’s short film THE SECOND DEATH, a Los Angeles Film Festival Q-and-A, and commentary by Gleeson, Cheadle and the filmmaker.
Australian director Peter Weir has made some wonderful films – PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975), GALLIPOLI (1981, NBR Top Ten), THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1982, NBR Best Supporting Actress Linda Hunt), WITNESS (1985, NBR Top Ten), THE MOSQUITO COAST (1986), GREEN CARD (1990), FEARLESS (1993), THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998, Best Supporting Actor Ed Harris), MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (1993, NBR Top Ten), THE WAY BACK (2010). Touchstone Home Entertainment has released a digitally restored Blu-ray with shimmering John Seale cinematography of one of Weir’s finest, DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989, NBR Top Ten), a poignant yet unsentimental period piece about the impact of a maverick teacher (Robin Williams) upon his students (including Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Josh Charles) at an exclusive boys’ prep school in the 50s. Twenty years on, the film is a testament to teachers who truly inspire young people (“Carpe Diem! Seize the day!” as Williams proclaims). Tom Schulman’s original screenplay won an Academy Award. Extras include commentary by Weir, Seale and Schulman; a retrospective look back with cast and crew, an outtake from a deleted scene, a tribute to the late great (and neglected) sound designer Alan Splet (THE ELEPHANT MAN, BLUE VELVET, THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING) with Peter Weir and David Lynch, and an exceptional cinematography and lighting workshop with Seale. An irresistible side note about Alan Splet -- he won a special Oscar for his work on THE BLACK STALLION (1979) but did not come to get his award. "It always happens," deadpanned host Johnny Carson. "First George C. Scott doesn't show, then Marlon Brando, and now Alan Splet!”
Barry Levinson is another of our finest directors, starting on the writing staff of Mel Brooks’ SILENT MOVIE (1976, NBR Top Ten) and HIGH ANXIETY (1977), INSIDE MOVES (1980) and AND JUSTICE FOR ALL (1976), before making DINER (1982), THE NATURAL (1984), TIN MEN (1987), RAIN MAN (1988), LIBERTY HEIGHTS (1989), AVALON (1990), BUGSY (1991, NBR Top Ten, Best Actor Warren Beatty), SLEEPERS (1996), WAG THE DOG (1997); in 1999 the NBR awarded him a special award for his Baltimore series (DINER, AVALON, LIBERTY HEIGHTS). Touchstone Home Entertainment has just released a 25th anniversary DVD of Levinson’s GOOD MORNING VIETNAM (1987), perhaps the first Vietnam War comedy, based on the true story of military DJ Adrian Kronauer (Williams), broadcasting on Armed Forces radio. In other hands, this could have been a mess, but Levinson and Williams are in perfect director-writer harmony, with Mitch Markowitz’s screenplay a jumping off point for brilliant improv radio monologues by Williams. Indeed, it’s hard to believe any other actor more suited for the role, and it’s very much his show, but Levinson perfectly balances the narrative with Williams’ solo flights. Another treat: early performances by Forest Whitaker, Robert Wuhl, the late and much missed Bruno Kirby, and a perfect 60s soundtrack. There’s a special feature on this Blu-ray that is just spectacular – raw footage of several takes of Williams’ radio monologues, as he speed-improvs from LBJ to Liberace to Nixon to Elmer Fudd in a comic phantasmagoria of pop-culture references, delivered at lightning speed. It’s jaw-droppingly good, the equal of his HBO performance a couple of seasons ago. Six featurettes and the original trailer are also included.
Gary Oldman burst onto the international film scene with his starring debut in Alex Cox’s exceptional SID AND NANCY (1986), in a riveting performance as punk rocker Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols, opposite Chloe Webb (who was impressive last year in the last few episodes of Showtime’s SHAMELESS with William H. Macy) as his mess-of-a-muse Nancy Spungen. The movie is sometimes tough to watch, but it’s a unique and original effort, and a perfect evocation of the 70s punk scene in London and New York. Criterion released a DVD of the movie in 1998; it fetches a steep price on Amazon so it’s great to have an affordable Blu-ray from 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment with typically breathtaking cinematography by Roger Deakins, who would go on to seven Oscar nominations and a 2007 NBR Career Achievement Award in cinematography. Extras on the Blu-ray include two featurettes and the trailer.
Alex Cox (along with director Nancy Savoca) was the retrospective honoree at the first ever Filmfest Oldenburg in Germany in 1994. There weren’t many people there (compared to today’s tens of thousands who attend the “European Sundance”) but I was lucky enough to be there screening a movie. Alex, an indie cult legend after REPO MAN, STRAIGHT TO HELL, WALKER and of course SID AND NANCY, was incredibly generous to all the international filmmakers, regaling us into the wee hours with what turned out to be a master class in indie survival and spaghetti Western lore. Alex has survived and flourished, with one of the best online director sites (http://alexcox.com/) The screenwriting section is especially interesting, with dozens of his scripts from the last 35 years available to read, including his legendary, unmade Keith Moon Was Here.
Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s SUPOR FRIO/COLD SWEAT (2010, Dark Sky Films) is a terrific horror thriller, smart, stylish, scary, with characters you care about and a couple of particularly nasty villains. It’s an unabashed homage to Clouzot’s classic WAGES OF FEAR (1953) – the hero (Facundo Espinosa) even wears a SORCERER T-shirt throughout, an homage to William Friedkin’s 1975 remake. Much to Bogliano’s credit, he creates an excruciating sense of suspense that completely honors the Clouzot original. In keeping with a low-budget indie ethic (and no doubt the size of his budget), the director re-sets the story from the jungle into a creepy house in urban Buenos Aires, where two decrepit fascists try to maintain the tradition of terror established in 70s Argentina. The DVD includes director’s commentary, deleted and extended scenes, poster gallery, comic book, trailer, TV and radio spots, and a behind-the-scenes featurette.
Guillermo del Toro (director of PAN’S LABYRINTH, HELLBOY and CRONOS) presents another excellent horror movie, Troy Nixey’s DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (2011, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment), based on the fondly remembered 1973 ABC TV movie. Guy Pearce and girlfriend Katie Holmes, joined by Pearce’s young daughter Bailee Madison, move into a creepy old mansion, and it isn’t long before the small demons who live in a labyrinth underneath the house make their supernatural presence known. Special features include a three-part making-of documentary and a conceptual art gallery. As a huge fan of Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 STRAW DOGS with Dustin Hoffman and Susan George, I was apprehensive about the 2011 remake (STRAW DOGS, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment). But Rod Lurie (THE CONTENDER, THE LAST CASTLE) has refashioned the original into a decent thriller, changing the occupations of the leads (James Marsden and Kate Bosworth) to screenwriter and movie star, respectively, who move to her small Southern hometown. Alexander Skarsgard (TRUE BLOOD), Rhys Coiro (ENTOURAGE’s “Billy Walsh”) and the ever-reliable James Woods make for a trio of truly threatening rednecks. There are four featurettes (including “Courting Controversy: Remaking a Classic”) and audio commentary by Lurie.
RARO VIDEO continues releasing a line of little known Italian films; two recent titles, THE OVERCOAT (1952) and COME HAVE COFFEE WITH US (1970), bring director Albert Lattuada, probably best known in America as co-director of Fellini’s debut feature VARIETY LIGHTS (1950), into overdue spotlight. THE OVERCOAT, based on the Nikolai Gogol short story, emerges as brilliant cinema, fully deserving of its reputation abroad. This is a new transfer of the original 35mm negative, digitally restored with the Turin National Film Museum, with new and improved English subtitles, cut scenes, an interview with filmmaker Angelo Pasquini, commentary by film professor Flavio de Bernardinis, and an illustrated booklet with critical analysis. COME HAVE COFFEE WITH US is a racy dark comedy (as only the Italians can make!), a marvelous vehicle for the prodigious talents of Ugo Tognazzi (LA CAGE AUX FOLLES) in an HD transfer from the 35mm negative. There’s an interview with film historian Adriano Apra, and booklet with critiques. Raro’s output is not limited to classics -- they’re also releasing exciting Italian genre titles, most recently the sexy giallo MURDER OBSESSION (1981), directed by Mario Bava mentor Riccardo Freda, and the thriller BODY PUZZLE (1992) by Lamberto Bava. Both titles are digitally restored with illustrated booklets; MURDER OBSESSION includes cut scenes and an interview with horror director S. Stivaletti.
THOMAS INCE (1992-1924) directed one of the first important American feature films (1915’s CIVILIZATION), was responsible for more than 800 films, became known as “The Father of the Western,” and created an assembly-line approach to filmmaking that was adopted by all the Hollywood studios, yet today is perhaps best known for his untimely death at the age of 42. Taken ill on a pleasure cruise on William Randolph Hearst’s yacht, where Charlie Chaplin and Marian Davies were also guests (and allegedly engaged in an affair behind Hearst’s back), rumors of foul play were rampant; in reality, Ince, who had been suffering severe health problems, died of a heart attack in his Pacific Palisades mansion. Brian Taves has written a meticulously researched biography, Thomas Ince: Hollywood’s Independent Pioneer (University Press of Kentucky), honoring the reputation of this maverick filmmaker.
John Gallagher
jgmovie@gmail.com |
