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THE DEPARTED: Any new film by Martin Scorsese is cause for celebration. His latest, the cop thriller THE DEPARTED, is cause for dancing in the streets. It is an Instant Classic, vintage Marty right up there with GOODFELLAS and CASINO, violent and funny, more complex than either of those masterworks. Jack Nicholson is sublime as another great Scorsese villain, the equal of Daniel Day-Lewis’ Bill the Butcher or Robert DeNiro’s Jimmy Conway; Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg do the best work of their careers, and Scorsese gives actress Vera Formiga (a familiar face in many indies, including her Sundance-winning turn in DOWN TO THE BONE) a mainstream movie-star making role (a la Juliette Lewis in CAPE FEAR, Lorraine Bracco in GOODFELLAS and Cathy Moriarty in RAGING BULL). At the NBR screening of THE DEPARTED, I asked DiCaprio, the veteran of Scorsese’s GANGS OF NEW YORK and THE AVIATOR, how, after decades of police movies and TV shows, the genre could be as revitalized as it is in THE DEPARTED. The actor commented, simply, that Martin Scorsese knows his vintage movies – words that should be heeded by every film student out there. Know what’s come before, the way a writer studies Shakespeare and Faulkner. It is no coincidence that our greatest living director is also one of our greatest film historians. As Peter Bogdanovich has said, if you haven’t seen a movie from 1932, it’s not an old movie, it’s a new movie. Every frame of THE DEPARTED is informed by Scorsese’s prodigious cinematic knowledge, yet he creates an entirely new and original masterpiece. It’s not to be missed, and I look forward to repeat screenings.
IFC FILMS has four interesting indie films recently released on DVD. LONESOME JIM (2006), directed by Steve Buscemi and written by James C. Strouse, is a real sleeper, a charming comedy about a young man (Casey Affleck) who moves back home to his small town family (Seymour Cassel, Mary Kay Place and Kevin Corrigan) and falls for a beautiful and wise local girl (Liv Tyler). This simple tale is quirky and eccentric but never self-conscious, and is highly recommended. Buscemi and Strouse provide audio commentary, and there’s a making-of featurette. 12 AND HOLDING (2006), directed by Michael Cuesta and written by Anthony S. Cipriano, is a brilliant examination of a group of kids’ passage from childhood to the adult world with a stunning ensemble of young actors headed by Conor Donovan, Jesse Camacho and Zoe Weizenbaum. Daring and dramatic, it deserves a wider audience than it received theatrically. Cuesta provides commentary and deleted scenes. Aric Avellino’s AMERICAN GUN (2006) is a one-sided but still compelling anti-gun diatribe, distinguished by the performances of its ensemble cast (Maria Gay Harden, Forest Whitaker, Donald Sutherland, Tony Goldwyn). Finally, Wim Wenders’ LAND OF PLENTY (2006) is a post 9/11 drama starring Michelle Williams and John Diehl that takes a hard look at America in the aftermath of terror. Wenders can always be counted on for intriguing and personal filmmaking and this is no exception. The director also provides audio commentary and deleted scenes.
20th CENTURY-FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT: Following up their first volume of Warner Oland Charlie Chan mysteries, Fox brings us THE MR. MOTO COLLECTION VOLUME ONE, consisting of THINK FAST, MR. MOTO (1937), THANK YOU, MR. MOTO (1937), THE MYSTERIOUS MR. MOTO (1938) and MR. MOTO TAKES A CHANCE (1938), all directed by Norman Foster and based on the John P. Marquand character. Unlike the Chans, which are very dated today, the Motos are brisk fun, blessed by the incredible Peter Lorre in the title role of the globetrotting Japanese detective. Lorre became internationally famous as the child killer of Fritz Lang’s M (1931); fleeing Nazi Germany he worked in England for Alfred Hitchcock (THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, THE SECRET AGENT), went to MGM for Karl Freund’s MAD LOVE (1935) and Columbia for Von Sternberg’s CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (1935) before signing a long-term contract with 20th. He made eight Motos between 1937 and 1939, laying the groundwork for a big-screen popularity that resulted in THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) and CASABLANCA (1943). The Moto films make great use of standing sets and director Foster really knew how to create the proper atmosphere for mystery and mayhem (Moto is a particularly bloodthirsty good guy). The Motos also employ a variety of terrific Golden Age character actors, including John Carradine, Sig Ruman, Erik Rhodes, Sidney Blackmer and J. Edward Bromberg. Fox has filled the discs with choice extras, including excellent featurettes on Lorre, Norman Foster, studio executive Sol Wurtzel, and stuntman extraordinaire Harvey Parry.
PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT has released two of my candidates for the year’s best DVDs – and they’re about as diverse as it gets: APOCALYPSE NOW: THE COMPLETE DOSSIER and SOUTH PARK: THE COMPLETE EIGHTH SEASON. PHE has put together the ultimate set for one of the greatest movies in film history – Francis Coppola’s groundbreaking Vietnam epic. We get both the original 1977 masterpiece and the expanded 2001 APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX, both, for the first time, with audio commentary by the Maestro himself. I love Coppola’s commentaries on the GODFATHER films, and his APOPCALYPSE commentary is just as honest, enlightening, educational and entertaining. For the first time I’m aware of, for example, the director reveals why he replaced Harvey Keitel with Martin Sheen – he realized after shooting commenced that he needed a more “passive” actor than the electric Keitel. This set also treats us to a 17-minute reading of T.S. Eliot’s 1925 poem “The Hollow Men” as recited by Marlon Brando; excerpts are heard in the film but this is the complete reading never heard outside the Zoetrope editing room. Thirteen deleted scenes are also included, featuring Brando and Dennis Hopper, among others, and there are a slew of technical featurettes covering Vittorio Storaro’s dazzling cinematography, the innovative Walter Murch sound design, the first use of Dolby’s six-channel Stereo Surround, the unique “ghost helicopters,” the Bob Moog synthesizer soundtrack, and the music, editing and mixing of the movie, for which Coppola shot a million feet of film. Another featurette details the restoration for APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX, and another reunites the members of the Navy Patrol boat 24 years later – Albert Hall (The Chief). Frederic Forrest (Chef), Sam Bottoms (Lance the Surfer) and Lawrence Fishburne (Mr. Clean), only 14 years of age at the time of the 238-day Philippines shoot.
The eighth season of SOUTH PARK (2004) is for me the absolute funniest of them all, the season featuring Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s most brilliant and brutal, with 14 episodes on three discs. Cartman pretends to be handicapped so he can win the Special Olympics (“Up the Down Steroid”), Butters competes in a dance-off (“You Got F’d in the A—“), Cartman’s masquerade as a robot takes him to Hollywood (“Awesome-O”), Cartman becomes possessed by Walmart (“Something Walmart This Way Comes”), Trent Boyett is out of juvenile detention and out for revenge (“Pre-School”). But the three genius episodes all involve the cult of celebrity: “Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset,” in which Paris Hilton visits South Park; “The Jeffersons,” a howlingly funny assault on Michael Jackson; and the piece de resistance, “The Passion of the Jew,” in which the boys see THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST with differing results … Stan and Kenny go to Mel Gibson’s house in Malibu to demand their money back, while Cartman becomes president of the Mel Gibson Fan Club and organizes an anti-Semitic neo-Nazi rally. After eight years, Parker and Stone still know how to create razor-sharp satire; if you’ve been thinking about picking up one of these sets, Season Eight is the one.
SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT: The new Steven Zaillian version of ALL THE KING’S MEN has much to recommend it (outstanding performances from Sean Penn, Jude Law and Jackie Earle Haley, great cinematography and production design) but just as much that doesn’t work (muddled narrative, bombastic James Horner score). SPHE has released the original 1949 version, an ahead-of-its-time political drama that still packs a punch. Based on the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Robert Penn Warren novel, which in turn was inspired by Huey “Kingfish” Long, adapted and directed by Robert Rossen (THE HUSTLER), ALL THE KING’S MEN tells the story of Willie Stark, a backwoods Louisiana everyman who rises to become a despotic governor. The movie won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Broderick Crawford as Stark) and Best Supporting Actress (Mercedes McCambridge as his mistress). It’s still a powerful picture. The DVD has a featurette on the new version, and a theatrical trailer for the original.
Sony has also released another in a series of Three Stooges collections; this one entitled STOOGES ON THE RUN. Some of Moe, Larry and Curly’s funniest shorts are here – POP GOES THE EASEL (1935), DISORDER IN THE COURT (1936), DIZZY DOCTORS (1937) and CALLING ALL CURS (1939) – from the heyday of their long stint at Columbia, fully restored and remastered. What is really remarkable about this disc is that the shorts are not only available in their original black-and-white, but also in a “Chroma Choice” process that colorizes them in a quite pleasing manner, not like the old colorization process of the past. I of course – and I hope you! -- prefer the black-and- white originals, but the color shorts are worth a look if only for the novelty.
HALLOWEEN HORRORS: Classic horror fans have been waiting for Warner Home Video’s HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS OF HORROR COLLECTION since it was announced, and it is worth the wait. Eight horror classics are collected here: Tod Browning’s stylish MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935) has fantastic atmosphere courtesy of Browning and cinematographer James Wong Howe, with the inimitable Bela Lugosi as Count Mora and spooky Carrol Borland as his daughter Luna (the film is a remake of Browning’s lost 1927 Lon Chaney vehicle LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT); Boris Karloff has one of his greatest roles in Charles Brabin’s THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932), relishing every evil nuance of Sax Rohmer’s arch-villain, assisted by nymphomaniac daughter Myrna Loy (her second nympho role of 1932 after LOVE ME TONIGHT!); Karl Freund’s stunning MAD LOVE (1935), with megalomaniac surgeon Peter Lorre replacing the hands of a famous pianist (Colin Clive) with the hands of a killer; and another Browning, THE DEVIL-DOLL (1936), with Lionel Barrymore in little old lady drag wreaking revenge on his enemies with miniature living dolls, a sci-fi device that anticipates THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957). These four films were MGM pictures, made with lavish production values and great art direction. The set includes two Warner horrors – Michael Curtiz’ DOCTOR X (1932), in beautiful two-strip Technicolor, with Fay Wray, Lionel Atwill, Preston Foster and Lee Tracy in a pre-Code gem about the “Moon Killer,” who dons “synthetic flesh” before stalking his victims on moonlit nights; and Vincent Sherman’s THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X (1939), a B-movie with a pre-stardom Humphrey Bogart (!) brought back from the dead, a role he would poke fun at for the rest of his career. This picture is still fun, especially for Bogie fans, but the other pictures in this set are bona fide classics. There are some great audio commentaries here, from historians and authors who know what they’re talking about: Scott McQueen on DOCTOR X, Greg Mank on THE MASK OF FU MANCHU, Kim Newman and Steve Jones on MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, Steve Haberman on MAD LOVE and RETURN OF DOCTOR X (along with the film’s director, the late Vincent Sherman). This is another fabulous must-have collection from our friends at Warner Home Video.
Universal wrote the book on horror, of course, and Universal Studios Home Entertainment celebrates the 75th anniversary of the two movies that started it all with two-disc Legacy Series editions of Tod Browning’s DRACULA (1931) and James Whale’s FRANKENSTEIN (1931). Both films look and sound better than they ever have, and both include Kevin Brownlow’s superlative TCM documentary UNIVERSAL HORRORS, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, chronicling the studio’s Golden Age terror flicks. FRANKENSTEIN includes a well-done documentary on Karloff, commentaries by Rudy Behlmer and Sir Christopher Frayling, a documentary on the making of the film, a poster and stills archive, pop-ups with anecdotal tidbits, and a 1932 “comedy” short subject BOO!, comprised of clips from NOSFERATU and the lost film THE CAT CREEPS (1930). DRACULA is similarly laden with appealing extras – a documentary on Lugosi, a making-of documentary, commentary by David Skal and Steve Haberman, the pop-ups, an alternative score by Philip Glass performed by the Kronos Quartet, and a real treat – the 1931 Spanish-language version of DRACULA, with an entirely different cast, directed by George Melford on the same sets; his cast and crew would come in after the American crew left and shoot his version (these were the days before dubbed versions). Many feel that this version is much more cinematic, but agree that Carlos Villarias is no match for the great Bela Lugosi.
Universal empties its vaults on Karloff with THE BORIS KARLOFF COLLECTION, a mixed bag of goodies and baddies. NIGHT KEY (1937) is a mild little B picture with a very mild Karloff as a kindly old inventor. Rowland V. Lee’s TOWER OF LONDON (1939) is a fine backlot epic with Basil Rathbone excellent as Richard III and Karloff menacing as his High Executioner Mord. THE CLIMAX (1944), a follow-up to the studio’s 1943 hit THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, is a bore, notably only for its views of the “Phantom” Stage and the Technicolor cinematography (Karloff’s first in color). THE STRANGE DOOR (1951) is a delight, with Karloff the henchman for crazy nobleman Charles Laughton, who overacts shamelessly with great, entertaining gusto, and THE BLACK CASTLE (1953) is another Gothic period piece with Boris as an heroic doctor, co-starring with Richard Greene and Lon Chaney, Jr. The collection is definitely for Karloff completists, and it’s been bargain priced. Universal also surprises us with INNER SANCTUM MYSTERIES: THE COMPLETE MOVIE COLLECTIONS, with six B-movies based on the famous radio show, all introduced by a disembodied head floating in a glass ball, all starring Lon Chaney, Jr. CALLING DR. DEATH (1943), WEIRD WOMAN (!944), DEAD MAN’S EYES (1944), THE FROZEN GHOST (1945), STRANGE CONFESSION and PILLOW OF DEATH (1945) are a must for Chaney fans, and offer plenty of old-fashioned dementia, each running about one hour. It’s really great to see Universal making more and more of its vintage titles available to film fans – Cary Grant, Bing Crosby and Preston Sturges collections are on their way soon.
RONALD REAGAN endured many years of ridicule for his acting career once he became a professional politician, with BEDTIME FOR BONZO (1951) a favorite target of late night comedians and media flacks. Warners’ RONALD REAGAN SIGNATURE COLLECTION disproves them all with a collection of five outstanding Reagan pictures. It’s remarkable that KINGS ROW (1941) ever got made in Hollywood at all; the Gothic American small-town turn-of-the-century drama hints at incest, abortion and insanity during an era when single beds were taboo on screen. Sam Wood directs from William Cameron Menzies’ visually dynamic production design, aided by James Wong Howe cinematography and Erich Maria Korngold’s music, which sounds a lot like John Williams’ (much) later STAR WARS score. Warner Brothers put together a stellar cast that in addition to Reagan includes Claude Rains, Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Betty Field, Charles Coburn and Judith Anderson, and the movie was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture in a year that included CITIZEN KANE, HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, THE LITTLE FOXES, SUSPICION, THE MALTESE FALCON and SERGEANT YORK. Reagan gives his finest performance as the happy-go-lucky good-time Charlie with a tragic future, and thought so much of the part himself that he named his autobiography after his penultimate line of dialogue: “Where’s the rest of me?” The collection includes another movie with a famous line (“Win one for the Gipper!”) – KNUTE ROCKNE-ALL AMERICAN (1940), for years a tough picture to see because of rights issues. Pat O’Brien plays the title role, with Reagan as football hero George Gipp. Reagan plays another sports hero, baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander in THE WINNING TEAM (1952), opposite Doris Day, a frank drama about Alexander’s bout with alcohol. Reagan also excels in Vincent Sherman’s THE HASTY HEART (1950) about recovering G.I.’s, based on the John Patrick play, but the revelation of this set is Stuart Heisler’s STORM WARNING (1951). Ginger Rogers comes to a small Southern town to visit sister Doris Day and brother-in-law Steve Cochran, only to stumble upon a murderous Ku Klux Klan chapter. Reagan is the crusading District Attorney who takes on the KKK single-handed; the movie has an effective film noir style crossed with a 1930s Warners social drama like BLACK LEGION (1937). Unseen for years, STORM WARNING has another strong Reagan performance … the very same year as BEDTIME FOR BONZO!
John Gallagher
jgmovie@gmail.com
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