Subjects for Further Research

February/March 2010: Subjects for Further Research

by John Gallagher

SUBJECTS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: In his groundbreaking 1963 Film Culture study “The American Cinema” (published in book form in 1968), Andrew Sarris (a 2008 NBR William K. Everson Award winner) categorized dozens of filmmakers under such headings as “Pantheon Directors” (Chaplin, Flaherty, Ford, Griffith, Hawks, Hitchcock, Keaton, Lang, Lubitsch, Murnau, Ophuls, Renoir, Sternberg, Welles), “The Far Side of Paradise” (Aldrich, Borzage, Capra, Cukor, DeMille, Edwards, Fuller, LaCava, Losey, Mann, McCarey, Ray, Minnelli, Preminger, Sirk, Stevens, Stroheim, Sturges, Vidor, Walsh), “Expressive Esoterica” (including Boetticher, DeToth, Donen, Dwan, Garnett, Penn, Tashlin, Jacques Tourneur), the controversial “Strained Seriousness” (including Frankenheimer, Jewison, Kubrick, Lumet, Schlesinger, Wise) and the even more controversial “Less Than Meets the Eye” (Huston, Kazan, Lean, Mamoulian, Mankiewicz, Milestone, Reed, Wellman, Wilder, Wyler, Zinnemann). Sarris placed Browning, Cruze, Fejos, King, Seastrom and Maurice Tourneur among the directors recommended as “Subjects for Further Research,” and Brahm, Conway, Dieterle, Del Ruth, Fleming, Heisler, Kramer, Logan, Negulesco, Quine, Sutherland, and Van Dyke in his “Miscellany.”

Published in book form in 1968, Sarris’ The American Cinema single-handedly brought the Cahiers du Cinema auteur theory to these shores. Sarris has revised some of his opinions over the last 40 years (particularly in the case of Wellman and Wilder), as many movies that were inaccessible at the time he wrote (especially early ‘30s Warners, MGM, Columbia and Fox Films) have resurfaced via DVD and the cineaste’s Valhalla, Turner Classic Movies. The availability of these “lost” films via broadcast on TCM and Fox Movie Channel reveals a number of interesting, forgotten directors worthy of re-evaluation and scholarly study, obscure filmmakers indeed at the time of Sarris’ epochal work.

Alexander Hall (1894-1968) is a perfect case. Overshadowed at Paramount by Lubitsch and McCarey, and at Columbia by Capra and Stevens, Hall, like these other “Subjects for Further Research,” was a consummate craftsman with an incredibly versatile filmography. First an actor, then an editor, Hall made his debut at Paramount with the gangster comedy MADAME RACKETEER (1932), starring Alison Skipworth and George Raft, one of the NBR’s Top Ten for that prolific and exceptional filmmaking year, and a total delight. Raft and Hall worked together again in the entertaining, fast-paced potboilers MIDNIGHT CLUB (1933) and LIMEHOUSE BLUES (1934), and Hall was also entrusted with vehicles for such disparate stars as Claudette Colbert (1933’s TORCH SINGER), Shirley Temple (1934’s LITTLE MISS MARKER), and Mae West (1935’s GOIN’ TO TOWN), all available from Universal Home Entertainment (consult www.amazon.com). Perhaps Hall’s greatest achievement of his Paramount period is the little-seen THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (1934), a Revolutionary War farce with Rebel maid Joan Bennett falling in love with Hessian soldier Francis Lederer. Moving to Columbia (whose library is regularly and thankfully screened on TCM) in 1938 with the Edward G. Robinson crime pic I AM THE LAW, Hall became one of Harry Cohn’s biggest earners, with a string of hit romantic comedies at the intimate little studio: GOOD GIRLS GO TO PARIS (1939) with Joan Blondell, THE DOCTOR TAKES A WIFE (1940) with Loretta Young and Paramount loan-out Ray Milland, HE STAYED FOR BREAKFAST (1941) with Loretta and Melvyn Douglas, THIS THING CALLED LOVE (1941) with Rosalind Russell opposite Douglas, BEDTIME STORY (1941) with Loretta and Fredric March, THEY ALL KISSED THE BRIDE (1942) with Douglas and MGM loan-out Joan Crawford, MY SISTER EILEEN (1942) with Russell and Janet Blair, SHE WOULDN’T SAY YES (1945), again with Russell, and especially HERE COMES MR. JORDAN (1941), starring Robert Montgomery and Claude Rains, for which Hall received his only Oscar nomination. All these pictures feature a Who’s Who of Golden Age character actors, and demonstrate Hall’s consistently inventive comedic direction.

In the middle of this exceptional run, Columbia’s Harry Cohn loaned his romcom ace to gargantuan MGM where Hall directed the dull comedy THE HEAVENLY BODY, with William Powell and Hedy Lamarr, before being called back to Columbia to guide Cary Grant in the much more interesting ONCE UPON A TIME (Metro contract man Vincente Minnelli finished THE HEAVENLY BODY). After directing Rita Hayworth in the gorgeously Technicolored fantasy DOWN TO EARTH, Hall returned to Paramount for one of Bob Hope’s best non-Bing comedies, THE GREAT LOVER (1949), then finished his career free-lancing with more comedy: at 20th, LOVE THAT BRUTE, a remake of the gangster farce TALL, DARK, AND HANDSOME (1941); at Universal, the Ronald Reagan comedy LOUISA (1950) and UP FRONT (1951), based on Bill Mauldin’s G.I. books; at MGM, the best Mario Lanza musical, BECAUSE YOU’RE MINE (1951); at Columbia, a dreadful remake of THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937), LET’S DO IT AGAIN (1953) with Jane Wyman and Milland; and, again at MGM, FOREVER DARLING, starring Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball (Hall’s former fiancée).

HERE COMES MR. JORDAN is available from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and SPHE’s “Icons of Screwball Comedy” set from last year includes Hall’s BEDTIME STORY, MY SISTER EILEEN (his best film after JORDAN), and SHE WOULDN’T SAY YES. THE HEAVENLY BODY is available from the Warner Archive Collection, FOREVER DARLING as part of Warner Bros.’ LUCY & DESI COLLECTION. With TCM currently licensing films from Universal (owners of the 1929-1949 Paramount library, long missing from view), hopefully Hall’s early Paramounts will resurface. There’s an emotional warmth to Hall’s movies that could have only come from the man himself, and his contributions have been unjustly unsung. Romantic comedies continue an astounding popularity to this day, so let’s remember an artist who helped create the genre, an artist with boundless heart, Alexander Hall.

The output of Erle C. Kenton (1896-1980) is completely schizophrenic … and seriously entertaining. He started as an actor and general factotum at the Mack Sennett fun factory in 1914 (at the same time as Chaplin), advanced to directing two-reel comedy shorts five years later, and on to features in 1920. Through the rest of the silent era he churned out dozens of bread-and-butter programmers (eight in 1927 alone), mostly for Carl Laemmle’s Universal Pictures, moving to Columbia and Paramount when talkies came in. He directed Columbia’s entry in the All Talking-All Singing-All Dancing musical sweepstakes, SONG OF LOVE (1929), then guided Barbara Stanwyck in her second starring role (not happily for the 22-year-old starlet), MEXICALI ROSE (1929). Stints at Tiffany and Warners yielded forgotten Pre-Codes LEFTOVER LADIES (1931), X MARKS THE SPOT (1931), LOVER COME BACK (1931) and STRANGER IN TOWN (1932); by 1932 he was on Paramount’s directorial staff for his finest work. GUILTY AS HELL (1932) is a slam-bang whodunit highlighted by the verbal sparring of Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe; ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932), with a virtuoso performance by Charles Laughton as the insidious Dr. Moreau, atmospheric Karl Struss photography, and Bela Lugosi’s animalistic refrain “Are we not men!” (this is one of the most requested unavailable-on-DVD titles in the Universal/Paramount catalogue); FROM HELL TO HEAVEN (1933), a take on the GRAND HOTEL (1932) multiple-storyline formula set at a resort hotel and racetrack, starring Paramount contractees Carole Lombard and Jack Oakie; the eye-popping Pre-Code comedy SEARCH FOR BEAUTY (1933), available in Universal’s PRE-CODE HOLLYWOOD COLLECTION; and YOU’RE TELLING ME (1934), one of W. C. Fields’ best, also available on DVD. There were a couple of good Jean Arthur pictures at Columbia, PARTY WIRE and THE PUBLIC MENACE; an excellent diving drama with Lowe and Lugosi, THE BEST MAN WINS (all three in 1935); and a series of “B” action dramas (GRAND EXIT, THE DEVIL’S SQUADRON, COUNTERFEIT, THE DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, RACKETEERS IN EXILE) that would be fun to discover on TCM. After free-lancing, and directing two Jean Hersholt dramas based on the actor’s popular Dr. Christian radio series, Kenton ended up at Universal. Every Monster Kid who grew up watching the Universal horrors on Shock Theatre, or weekend morning Abbott and Costellos, owes a debt to Kenton, who alternated between directing classic fright flicks like THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942), HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944), HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945), and THE CAT CREEPS (1946), with Bud and Lou’s PARDON MY SARONG (1942), WHO DONE IT? (1942), IT AIN’T HAY (1943), HIT THE ICE (1943), and uncredited, IN SOCIETY (1944), all among the team’s top ten wartime box-office bonanzas. Kenton wound down his career directing 50s TV shows like RACKET SQUAD and THE PUBLIC DEFENDER.

Roy William Neill (1887-1946) is an especially fascinating filmmaker, a craftsman who could occasionally surmount the strictures of low-budget B movie studio filmmaking and exhibit considerable style and panache. Like the Pre-Code Warners work of Wellman, Del Ruth, Bacon and LeRoy, Neill’s early 30s movies have started to appear from the mists of the Columbia vaults, again thanks to TCM. His father was a sea captain, and the future filmmaker was born on Dad’s ship off the coast of Ireland. A series of short two-strip Technicolor femme-oriented historical dramas (THE LADY OF VICTORIES, THE CZARINA’S SECRET, THE VIRGIN QUEEN, CLEOPATRA) in 1927-28 led to Neill’s assignment to helm the decidedly masculine Technicolor epic THE VIKING (1928), beautifully preserved with gorgeous cinematography enhancing the stirring adventure (TCM occasionally broadcasts the movie). The Technicolor Corporation produced these films independently, and King-of-the-Hollywood-jungle MGM picked up THE VIKING for release. Neill, however, wasn’t rewarded with an MGM directing contract; instead he found himself at lowly Columbia Pictures, still in its Gower Gulch salad days, where he became one of Harry Cohn’s most reliable directors. Among Neill’s gems seen recently on TCM are wonderful Pre-Codes like THE GOOD BAD GIRL (1931) with Mae Clarke; THE CIRCUS QUEEN MURDER (1933), an hour of mystery bliss with Adolphe Menjou, Greta Nissen and Dwight Frye; WHIRLPOOL (1934), a key film in creating the Jean Arthur persona soon to be exalted by Capra, Cohn and the public; BLIND DATE (1934), an engaging comedy starring a young and effervescent Ann Sothern; and two exceptional horror films -; the genuinely scary voodoo drama BLACK MOON (1934) starring Fay Wray, and the atmospheric period thriller THE BLACK ROOM (1935), featuring some of the finest work of Boris Karloff’s long career playing twins, one good, one evil. Four years before Columbia launched Warren William in a series of LONE WOLF mysteries, Neill directed Melvyn Douglas in the title role in THE LONE WOLF RETURNS (1935), much revered by mystery movie buffs. There are another dozen Neill Columbias from this period that will hopefully turn up on TCM; based on the films we have seen, there’s no doubt that titles like FIFTY FATHOMS DEEP (1931, according to IMDB a lost film), THE MENACE (1932, with a pre-stardom Bette Davis), THAT’S MY BOY (1932), a football drama written by Norman Krasna and featuring a callow young John Wayne, JEALOUSY (1934) a Nancy Carroll/George Murphy boxing picture, and the social drama MILLS OF THE GODS (1934) with Fay Wray could yield some genre gold. And what self-respecting genre lover wouldn’t be interested in Neill titles like AS THE DEVIL COMMANDS, FURY OF THE JUNGLE and ABOVE THE CLOUDS (all from 1933)?

Between 1937 and 1940, Neill made 15 pictures in England (1937’s GYPSY was scripted by Terence Rattigan), a variety of dramas, mysteries and comedies, including the excellent 18th Century highwayman adventure DOCTOR SYN (1936), starring George Arliss. The advent of World War Two brought the director back to Hollywood, specifically to Universal, where, like Erle Kenton, he did interesting genre work despite Universal’s cost-cutting management. There was the pre-noir crime drama EYES OF THE UNDERWORLD (1942), the wartime espionage thriller MADAME SPY (1942), the musical comedy RHYTHM OF THE ISLANDS (1942), a campy Technicolored Maria Montez-Jon Hall adventure, GYPSY WILDCAT (1944, scripted by, of all people, James M. Cain!)), the best of Universal’s “monster rally” movies (1943’s FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN with Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, Jr., in their respective titular roles), and no less than eleven Sherlock Holmes pictures starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in a still popular series of mystery movies. Neill’s swan song was the compelling noir BLACK ANGEL (1946), based on the Cornel Woolrich novel, a favorite of the Cahiers set, released just four months before his death at the age of 59.

Soundman-later-director Edward Bernds (recipient of a special NBR film technology citation in 1997) in his highly recommended memoir Mr. Bernds Goes to Hollywood: My Early Life and Career in Sound Recording at Columbia with Frank Capra and Others (The Scarecrow Press, 1999) has high praise for Roy William Neill (and, initially, not such kind words for Erle C. Kenton): “Neill was an Irishman. His speech was that of a well-educated Englishman, but with a touch of Irish lilt … (he was) courteous and considerate of people with whom he worked ... Crew members called him ‘Rocking Chair Neill’ because, on every film, he demanded that the prop man provide him with a rocking chair. He differed from other Columbia directors in many ways. He was not quick-tempered or profane, as some of them were, nor was he imperious, as Kenton was. He did not refer to lines of dialogue as ‘titles’; he had stage experience, and took pains with the way lines were delivered. I liked Neill but disliked working with him because we invariably worked long hours on his films. In the morning Neil was an artistic, painstaking director, working as though he had a generous A picture schedule. At the lunch break the production office would discover that Neill had used one-half of his time to film one-third of his scheduled day’s work. The production office cracked the whip; Neill tried to become a fast, efficient B director, but he didn’t know how to be fast and efficient. We invariably ended up working far into the night, while Roy Neill rocked, gently, in his rocking chair.”

Stephen Roberts (1895-1936) had an interesting but tragically short-lived career, contributing to a handful of Pre-Code Paramounts. Like Capra, Garnett, McCarey, and Stevens, Roberts began with two-reel silent comedy shorts, 80 (!) titles between 1923 and 1930, mostly for Jack White’s Mermaid Comedies. Universal hired him to helm Slim Summerville two-reelers when sound came in; in early 1932 he graduated to features at Paramount. His first movies there were SKY BRIDE (1932), an aerial drama with Jack Oakie and Richard Arlen, LADY AND GENT (1932), a boxing drama starring George Bancroft with decent support from 24-year-old John Wayne, and THE NIGHT OF JUNE 13 (1932), an “all-star” melodrama with Clive Brook, Frances Dee, Gene Raymond, Adrienne Allen, Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland -; all three pictures have been buried in the Universal/Paramount vaults for decades. IF I HAD A MILLION (1932) was a truly all-star Paramount production, with seven directors (Ernst Lubitsch, William Seiter, Lucky Humberstone, Norman Taurog, Norman Z. McLeod, James Cruze, Roberts) and 16 writers (including Joseph L. Mankiewicz in an early gig) contributing to an anthology about a dying tycoon randomly giving his millions away to names picked out of the phone book instead of his own family of vultures. Gary Cooper, W.C. Fields, Alison Skipworth, George Raft, Charles Laughton, Jack Oakie, May Robson, Dee, Raymond, Ruggles and Boland headlined (an episode starring Marlene Dietrich and Fredric March, to be directed by Lothar Mendes, was scrapped before production). Roberts directed a cynical but ultimately sweet episode about a hooker (Wynne Gibson) who spends the first part of her money on a hotel room and a bed in which -; for a change -- she can sleep alone, and the sentimental but rewarding finale with Robson turning a harsh senior citizens’ home into a paradise for the elderly.

The notorious STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE, which Roberts directed in 1933, is in dire need of accessibility, as it is a key film in triggering the Production Code. Miriam Hopkins starred in this adaptation of William Faulkner’s Sanctuary, and it’s remarkable that this picture was even made in the first place. Sordid and sexual, it’s also beautifully directed; while repertory houses like the Film Forum have screened the movie in recent years, it has yet to appear on TCM. When studios bought remake rights to a movie, the deal usually included negatives of the original productions; hence MGM ended up owning the Mamoulian Paramount DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1932) when they made their 1941 Fleming picture, as well as the James Whale Universals WATERLOO BRIDGE (1931) and SHOW BOAT (1936) when they did their 1940 and 1951 versions, respectively. In 1941 Warners and Raoul Walsh made the 1890s Cagney/DeHavilland/Hayworth romp THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE, based on the James Hagan play One Sunday Afternoon, and acquired the 1933 film of the same name directed by Roberts and starring Gary Cooper and Fay Wray. TCM unveiled the picture a few years ago, and it’s wonderful, played for drama by Roberts rather than the rollicking comedy of Walsh, less nostalgic, more acerbic.

THE TRUMPET BLOWS (1934), a bullfighting drama, has some compelling mise-en-scene, but is hampered by Paramount’s casting of George Raft, Adolphe Menjou and Sidney Toler as Mexicans! The director signed with RKO in 1935 and made ROMANCE IN MANHATTAN, a moving Depression drama starring Ginger Rogers and Francis Lederer, THE LADY CONSENTS (1936), another in a long line of tear-jerking Ann Harding vehicles, but handled deftly by Roberts. THE MAN WHO BROKE THE BANK AT MONTE CARLO (1935) is a real joy, made on loan for Darryl Zanuck’s Twentieth Century Pictures, a Lubitsch-style sophisticated comedy starring debonair Ronald Colman, beautiful blonde Joan Bennett, and tortured Colin Clive. Poor dupes of dupes float around on the internet; let’s hope Fox Movie Channel brings a pristine version to cable. STAR OF MIDNIGHT (1935), with William Powell and Ginger Rogers, and THE EX-MRS. BRADFORD (1936), with Powell and Jean Arthur, are minor comedy/mystery classics in the vein of THE THIN MAN. Two months after the release of THE EX-MRS. BRADFORD, Roberts was dead of a heart attack at the age of 41, a great loss for Hollywood considering the caliber of work he was creating. His four RKOs air on TCM, and hopefully we’ll be seeing his earlier Paramount films there before too long.

SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT: With catalogue titles on DVD drastically reduced by the majors, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment keeps making buffs happy with exceptional releases. BAD GIRLS OF FILM NOIR VOLUME 1 & VOLUME 2 takes us deep into the always interesting Columbia Pictures vaults for eight rarities. Volume One features Evelyn Keyes in THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK (1953), unknowingly putting millions at risk with a virus she carries. In TWO OF A KIND (1951), Lizabeth Scott gets involved in an inheritance scam, and jeopardizes Charlton Heston in BAD FOR EACH OTHER (1953). One of the treasures of the collection is THE GLASS WALL (1953), with Vittorio Gassman in his American debut as an illegal immigrant in New York City, aided by Gloria Grahame, with a great deal of location photography in a Manhattan that no longer exists. Volume Two has three pictures with Cleo Moore, a forgotten B-movie Marilyn: ONE GIRL’S CONFESSION (1953), WOMEN’S PRISON (1955) with Ida Lupino, and OVER-EXPOSED (1956). Cleo is also on view in the set in the bonus vintage TV episode “Remember to Live;” Volume One has “The Payoff” with Howard Duff, written by a pre-fame Blake Edwards.

THE WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION continues its aggressive program with great new releases every month spanning the silents through the 80s. A recent wave of titles focused on early talkie musicals, including SUNNY (1929), a rare opportunity to experience 20s Ziegfeld sensation Marilyn Miller. GOLDEN DAWN (1930) simply must be seen to be believed. Richard Barrios in his definitive book on the era, A Song in the Dark (Oxford University Press, 1995), writes, “Words can be such paltry objects -; too much so, certainly, to convey the bejeweled horror that is GOLDEN DAWN … if it were one whit less ludicrous, it would be one of the most offensively racist films ever made; as it is, completely bereft of taste, finesse, aesthetic faculty, or simply good sense, it’s an unparalleled exercise in unintentional humor.” Barrios is dead-on in his evaluation.

Woody Van Dyke’s 1928 silent-with-synchronized-sound-effects WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS, an Academy Award winner for Clyde DeVinna’s striking Tahiti location cinematography, holds up beautifully after eight decades, and demonstrates how far the silent cinema had advanced aesthetically, just as talking pictures were coming into play, sending the mobile cameras of the silent masters indoors, in most cases, to microphone-in-the-vase sound stages.

Discover adorable and talented Marian Marsh (1913-2006) in two Pre-Codes treasures, BEAUTY AND THE BOSS and UNDER EIGHTEEN, both WB pictures from 1932. A sparkling screen presence who shot to stardom playing Trilby to John Barrymore’s SVENGALI (1931) at the age of eighteen, Marsh was never seen to better advantage at Warners than in these two disparate movies. Archie Mayo’s UNDER EIGHTEEN is quintessential Depression drama, with tenement girl Marian engaged to honest working man Regis Toomey, innocently embroiled with millionaire Warren William … as only then-production chief Darryl Zanuck knew how to produce ‘em, a year before leaving Warners to start 20th Century Pictures (merging with Fox in 1935). Roy Del Ruth’s BEAUTY AND THE BOSS reunites Marsh and William in a European corporate setting, the Pygmalionesque story casting Marsh as an ugly duckling who transforms into a radiant beauty. Before Cagney, before Davis, before DeHavilland, Marsh butted heads with Jack Warner and found herself demoted to Columbia, where in 1935 she nonetheless excelled in Roy William Neill’s THE BLACK ROOM and especially for Josef von Sternberg, as the prostitute in his neglected version of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, starring Peter Lorre in his first American film. By the end of the decade, after being reduced to B-movies, she married and left the business, leading a happy life and living to the ripe old age of 93.

AN AMERICAN ROMANCE (1944) is a lesser known King Vidor. The director of THE BIG PARADE (1925), THE CROWD (1928), HALLELUJAH! (1929), STREET SCENE (1931), THE CITADEL (1938) and NORTHWEST PASSAGE (1940) created an unofficial trilogy of movies with the themes of War (THE BIG PARADE), Wheat (1934’s OUR DAILY BREAD) and Steel (AN AMERICAN ROMANCE). Lavishly produced in Technicolor at MGM, the film tells the epic story of a poor Czech immigrant (Brian Donlevy) who rises through the iron mines to become a leader of industry. It’s a powerful, ambitious work, and would no doubt have been one of the great Golden Age films if Vidor had been able to cast his first choice, Spencer Tracy, in the lead role. Still, it’s worth seeking out, as is any Vidor film for that matter.

The Archive also offers some long out of sight TV movies, including the excellent 1985 THE BAD SEED, starring Blair Brown, David Carradine, Lynn Redgrave, with Carrie Wells as evil little girl Rachel Penmark. Originally produced on Broadway, directed in 1956 by Mervyn LeRoy, this version features the play’s original ending, deemed too shocking for 50s audiences.

Go to WarnerArchive.com to browse the hundreds of titles in the ever-growing collection. More highlights next time.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT: The Coen Brothers’ A SERIOUS MAN (2009), winner of the NBR Award for Best Original Screenplay, is even more ironic than their usual offerings, a dark comedy set in suburban 1967 with some genuinely affecting moments and some of the best performances ever in a Coen Bros. film (Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Fyvush Finkel, Adam Arkin, Michael Lerner, and the hugely underrated Fred Melamed). There’s a wonderful period prologue depicting a Yiddish folktale, a truly genius ending, and in between, a movie that only the Coens could pull off. Extras include “Becoming Serious,” about the making of the film and the reasons why the Brothers consider it their most personal film; “Creating 1967,” a featurette showcasing the perfect work of the filmmaking team recreating the era; and “Hebrew and Yiddish for Goys,” offering some entertaining translations.

Ang Lee’s TAKING WOODSTOCK (2009) is a major disappointment. When it chronicles the behind-the-scenes machinations of the festival promoters the movie is very good, but for most of its running time Lee is concerned with a young man (Demetri Martin) running a motel near the festival site with his incredibly poorly conceived parents. The Coens took flack in some critical quarters because of their depiction of Jewish suburbanites circa 1967, but I haven’t read anything about Lee’s egregious clichés in his portrayal of Martin’s 1969 Borscht Belt parents. Liev Schreiber is always good (this time as a transvestite), as is Eugene Levy as Max Yasgur, but overall, TAKING WOODSTOCK just doesn’t work.

As a tie-in with the new Benicio Del Toro/Anthony Hopkins THE WOLFMAN, the Universal Legacy Series debuts the original 1941 THE WOLF MAN: SPECIAL EDITION. Lon Chaney Jr. found his signature role as Larry Talbot, infected by a werewolf (Bela Lugosi) and cursed to satiate his bloodlust when the moon is full. The movie looks and sound better than it ever has, and the cast is much better than average for a 40s Universal horror, including Claude Rains, Ralph Bellamy, Warren William and Maria Ouspenskaya in the Horror Hall of Fame role of the gypsy Maleva. The two-disc set includes a making-of featurette, archives of advertising materials, original trailers for lycanthropic classics, expert commentary by historian/author Tom Weaver, an exploration of werewolf mythology, an excellent documentary on Chaney, and two pieces that have appeared on other Legacy sets, “He Who Made the Monsters: The Life and Art of (Special Makeup Artist) Jack Pierce,” and the brilliant Kevin Brownlow feature documentary UNIVERSAL HORRORS, pretty much the last word visually on the subject (in print, it’s Tom Weaver’s book of the same name, published by McFarland Press).

Movie mavens knew within just a few minutes that Quentin Tarantino’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (NBR Top Ten, 2009) is a movie lover’s movie: main titles accompanied by Nick Perito’s cover of Dimitri Tiomkin’s “Green Leaves of Summer” from John Wayne’s THE ALAMO (1960); the powerful opening with the mesmerizing Denis Menochet as French farmer LaPadite that tips QT’s hat to the first scene of Leone’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (1969); and the DIRTY DOZEN premise (hand-picked commandos, in this case Jewish G. I.’s, and a charismatic leader, in this case Brad Pitt instead of Lee Marvin, playing no less than Lt. Aldo Raine, an homage to Aldo Ray, star of Raoul Walsh’s war movies BATTLE CRY and THE NAKED AND THE DEAD). Homages abound in this WWII fantasy/commando/revenge movie: casting DARK OF THE SUN star Rod Taylor as Winston Churchill, characters named after his DARK OF THE SUN co-star Yviette Mimieux, Mexican B-movie star Hugo Stiglitz, German director Bernhard Wicki, Hollywood B movie auteur Edgar Ulmer, and 70s Italian giallo seductress Edwige Fenech. Tarantino also uses a Parisian cinema as a major location, and even offers a sidebar on nitrate film. All the Tarantino trademarks are here -; chapter breaks, exquisite mise-en-scene, crackling dialogue, a rock ‘n roll sensibility, over-the-top-violence, long elaborate set pieces, bravura performances by a large cast, fantastic recycling of movie soundtrack music (including lots of obscure Morricone and an effective use of David Bowie’s “Puttin Out Fire” from Paul Schrader’s 1982 CAT PEOPLE). The piece de resistance of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (the very title a variation on Enzo Castellari’s 1978 B-movie INGLORIOUS BASTARDS) is the performance of German actor Christophe Walz, playing a Gestapo blend of Sherlock Holmes and Columbo. Special features include extended and alternate scenes, the Nazi propaganda film-within-a film (NATION’S PRIDE), a roundtable discussion with Tarantino, Pitt and Elvis Mitchell, and a featurette on cinematographer Robert Richardson.

KINO: Sisters Constance and Norma Talmadge were two of the biggest stars of the 1920s: Norma actually deposed Mary Pickford from her Number One Box Office Star slot in 1920. Many of their films are lost, those that survive have been inaccessible. Kino rectifies this with THE TALMADGE COLLECTION, two double feature DVDs. Younger sister Constance is represented by HER NIGHT OF ROMANCE (1924), co-starring Ronald Colman, and in a dual role, HER SISTER FROM PARIS (1925), both directed by Sidney Franklin, both light romantic comedies in the Lubitsch style. Norma stars in Frank Lloyd’s crime drama WITHIN THE LAW (1923), shot on location in New York City, and, in a rare comedic performance, opposite Ronald Colman in Clarence Brown’s KIKI (1926). Devoted to excellence in contemporary as well as vintage cinema, Kino also releases Kay Pollak’s AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, Sweden’s 2005 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. A sweet and beautiful picture involving the return to a small town of a successful international conductor, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN deserves the wider audience this release will afford it.

FLICKER ALLEY releases a follow-up to its epic and highly recommended five-disc, thirteen-hour box set GEORGES MELIES: FIRST WIZARD OF THE CINEMA with GEORGES MELIES ENCORE, featuring 26 new discoveries from the French pioneers 1896-1911 output. Fantasies with Melies trick work, dramas, slapstick comedies, military re-enactments, five hand-colored films -; there’s a wealth of magic here from the dawn of cinema. As a bonus, Flicker Alley has included two films by Segundo de Chomon often thought to be the work of Melies.

Another collaboration between Flicker Alley’s Jeff Masino and Film Preservation Associates’ David Shepherd is the three-part serial MISS MEND (1926), a delightful Russian action serial in the grand Pearl White tradition, condemned in fact in the Soviet Union as too Western a form of entertainment for the masses. Under the direction of Fedor Ozep and Boris Barnet, the show is loaded with impressive stunts, chases, picturesque locations, and a feminist heroine decades ahead of her time. Flicker maintains its high standards with a high-def master from 35mm film elements, with a new large-orchestra score by Robert Israel.

BLU-RAY: Blu-ray players keep coming down in price (Sonys are available online for $125 with lesser brands even cheaper) and the studios are maintaining a steady flow of product. Among the best of recent releases: Luc Besson’s 1994 LEON (U. S. title: THE PROFESSIONAL), one of the best pictures of that decade, an action thriller with tremendous emotional resonance from the performances of Jean Reno in the title role of a “cleaner” (hit man), and, in a spectacular debut, 12-year-old Natalie Portman in Louise Brooks hairstyle as his unlikely sidekick. There’s virtuoso work from Gary Oldman in a memorable portrait of evil and an abundance of wit, suspense and action. The Sony Blu-ray includes the U. S. theatrical and the extended international version, featurettes on Reno and Portman, and a fascinating retrospective view from cast and crew.

I’ve seen Martin Scorsese’s GOODFELLAS (1990) dozens of times (I’m obviously not alone); watching the Blu-ray is like seeing it for the first time. GOODFELLAS is one of the greatest of gangster pictures (no less than Roger Ebert called it “the best mob movie ever”), perfectly directed by the Maestro. From the first frame, Scorsese propels his narrative forward with lightspeed velocity, one incredibly memorable scene after another, brilliantly acted by a huge cast headed by Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci (in his Oscar-winning role), Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, Frank Vincent, Catherine Scorsese (Marty’s mom), Debi Mazar, Mike Starr, Tony Sirico, Chuck Low, Samuel L. Jackson and Frank Sivero. Scorsese frequently eschews original musical score for “found” music (e.g. MEAN STREETS, RAGING BULL, CASINO), and his choices of songs-as-score are impeccable here (like Donovan’s flower-power “Atlantis” while Pesci stabs Frank Vincent to death on the barroom floor). Warner Bros. Home Video has released a 20th Anniversary Blu-Ray destined to be one of the top releases of 2010. The two-disc set includes ample extras and commentaries, a handsome booklet, and Constantine Nasr’s brilliant documentary PUBLIC ENEMIES: THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE GANGSTER FILM, originally broadcast on TCM. The classic Wellman/Walsh/ Curtiz/Cagney/Bogart/Robinson Warners pix are all here, but the filmmakers don’t neglect the original Hawks/Hughes SCARFACE, or a tantalizing clip from the restored Von Sternberg UNDERWORLD (1927), screened a few years ago at the New York Film Festival but missing in action from Paramount on DVD or cable ever since. Four vintage mob-themed Warner cartoons are a special bonus: I LIKE MOUNTAIN MUSIC, SHE WAS AN ACROBAT’S DAUGHTER, RACKETEER RABBIT and BUGS AND THUGS.

WHV’s THE WIZARD OF OZ 70TH ANNIVERSARY ULTIMATE COLLECTOR’S EDITION on Blu-ray and DVD is essential. The 1939 Victor Fleming fantasy was remastered with each of the original Technicolor camera negatives scanned to give us twice the resolution of the previously released (and already gorgeous) DVD release. This most beloved of movies is lovingly, lavishly presented with a slew of specials: new and archival commentary tracks, a restoration featurette, the terrific docs THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ and MEMORIES OF OZ, songwriter Harold Alen’s home movies, outtakes and deleted scenes, a sing-along track, a well-done and overdue documentary on Fleming, a new featurette with reminiscences of seven original Munchkins, two 1914 L. Frank Baum Oz movies (THE MAGIC CLOAK OF OZ and THE PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZ), the TV bio-pic THE DREAMER OF OZ (1990) starring John Ritter as Baum, reproductions of archival materials, a lovely book on the 1939 picture, even a collectible WIZARD OF OZ watch, and much more . . .

All three BOURNE movies (THE BOURNE IDENTITY, THE BOURNE SUPREMACY, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM) are available from Universal with both Blu-ray and DVD versions on one disc, with nearly 20 bonus features on each title. It’s billed as “The Perfect Hi-Def Movie Experience;” it’s not just hyperbole, it’s pretty near true. Wong Kar-Wai’s sumptuously visual films really benefit from Blu-ray. Kino has released his underworld extravaganza FALLEN ANGELS (1995), remastered from a new HD transfer, with three behind-the-scenes features, an interview with master cinematographer Patrick Doyle, trailers and still gallery.

BOOKS: There have been at least a dozen books published on Billy Wilder, including Cameron Crowe’s Truffaut on Hitchcock style, so is another one necessary? The answer is a resounding yes when it’s written by veteran Gene Phillips, author of books on Kubrick, Lean and Coppola. In Some Like It Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder (The University Press of Kentucky), Phillips presents Wilder the Berlin film apprentice, Wilder the raconteur, Wilder the Hollywood writer-director with a staggering filmography: DOUBLE INDEMNITY, THE LOST WEEKEND, A FOREIGN AFFAIR, SUNSET BOULEVARD, ACE IN THE HOLE, STALAG 17, SABRINA, THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, SOME LIKE IT HOT, THE APARTMENT … and these just in the fifteen-year period between 1944 and 1960. The author provides a film-by-film assessment, including the films he wrote in Berlin, and later for Lubitsch, Leisen and Hawks, but the real value of this volume lies in Phillips’ oral histories, compiled over the course of decades. He extensively interviewed Wilder himself, as well as colleagues William Wyler, Howard Hawks, John Huston, George Cukor, Otto Preminger, Garson Kanin and Fred Zinnemann (his reminiscences comprise the book’s foreword) -- and also spoke with Olivia De Havilland, Christopher Lee and the late Fred MacMurray, Pat O’Brien, screenwriters Ernest Lehman and Samuel Taylor, and producer Edward Small. Highly recommended.

John Gallagher

jgmovie@gmail.com