Gun Crazy (Warner Archive) There are film noir films and then there is Gun Crazy (1950), Joseph H. Lewis’s brilliant criminal couple-on-the-run film. It starred John Dall as a crack marksman who gets involved with a beautiful, but deadly, carnival girl (Peggy Cummins). Together they rob banks and are hunted by the law. A scene shot entirely from the back seat of a car during a robbery should be taught in every film school in the country. Peggy Cummins digs into this part with such ferocity and sex appeal it’s frightening. Tragically, she wasn’t given many screen opportunities like this again.
It’s Alive Trilogy (Scream Factory) “There’s only one thing wrong with the Davis Baby…it’s alive!” screamed the ads for the first film in a trilogy about mutant killer babies and the parents who try to protect them. The first film It’s Alive (1974) is simply about a husband and wife (actually the “Davies” family) whose baby slaughters the doctors and nurses in the hospital that helped bring it into the world. It then goes on a murderous rampage, eventually cornered by cops in the sewers of L.A. (much like the giant ants in Them !). It Lives Again (1978) is more paranoid tale about the government trying to contain and kill these freak babies. In It’s Alive III: Island Of the Alive (1987), the creatures are dumped on an uninhabited island and a couple goes there in order to rescue their offspring. All three films are directed by Larry Cohen, whose remarkable genre films were wonderfully subversive, politically on-target and always incredibly entertaining.
Dead Man (Criterion)’s Jim Jarmusch dazzling, stoned-out saga set in the Wild West. Johnny Depp plays the bespeckled, foppishly attired William Blake, an accountant who arrives out west for a job and ends up on the run and wanted for murder. Gary Farmer plays a Native American who accompanies him, mistaking him for the poet of the same name. This strange, bleakly funny journey is like flipping through a book of Remington lithographs while on peyote.
` The House That Dripped Blood (Scream Factory) A fun horror omnibus film written by Robert Bloch (Psycho) about a house haunted by a series of doomed tenants. A writer (Denholm Elliot) is composing a book about a strangler and begins to see his creation in the flesh. A retired businessman (Peter Cushing) moves in and becomes obsessed with a wax figure of Salome. Christopher Lee plays a tenant who arrives with his young daughter (who practices witchcraft). A bombastic actor (John Pertwee), playing a vampire in a movie, buys a special cloak at a curio store with curious results.
Death Smiles On A Murderer (Arrow Video) One of the most beautiful, bizarre, and utterly baffling gothic horror film. Directed by Joe D’Amato, who used his real name- Aristede Massaccesi– because he was proud of this project. And he should be. A carriage accident outside a wealthy villa of a couple reveals a mysterious girl named Greta- Ewa Aulin (Candy), who has no memory. The couple invite her to stay and both fall in love with her. Klaus Kinski plays a doctor who is intrigued when he inspects Greta. He also has an underground laboratory where he experiments with reanimated corpses. If you’re confused while watching, just ride it out. it’s very strange, but it’s also just wonderful. This impressive-looking disc has interviews with the director; a 43 minute extra on the career of Ewa Aulin, and another career assessment on Joe D’Amato.
Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals (Severin). This is Joe D’Amato at his sleazy best. Emanuelle (the gorgeous Laura Gemser) heads into the Amazon along with an archeologist (Gabriele Tinti) to find a lost tribe of cannibals. More sex and violence than any movie has a right to have. When I saw this on 42nd St. under the lurid title Trap Them And Kill Them, the audience went bonkers. You will too, watching this gorgeous transfer.
Moonrise (Criterion) Frank Borzage’s moody, lyrical 1948 masterwork about a tormented soul- Danny (Dane Clark in a stunning performance), haunted his entire life by the fact that his father was hanged for murder. Bullied as a child and ostracized as an adult, he’s quick-tempered on the outside but also gentle, as with the half-wit (Harry Morgan) he protects and the schoolteacher (Gail Russell) he deeply loves. The movie begins with a murder and guilt that drives a man to paranoia and finally to redemption. It’s like a film noir that doesn’t play by that genre’s rules. It’s a psychological drama. It’s a romance. It’s just a great film.
Of Unknown Origin (Scream Factory) Screw Moby Dick. If you want to see the best movie about a man pitted against a beast it’s this 1983 film directed by George P. Cosmatos starring Peter Weller as a house-proud husband and father who does battle with an almost supernaturally smart rat hiding in his walls. Trust me, this is just the best. Suspenseful, outrageous and genuinely scary.
Wild At Heart (Shout Factory) This fabulous 1990 David Lynch film is based on a Barry Gifford novel and stars Nicolas Cage as Sailor, just out of jail and reunited with his great love Lula (Laura Dern). They jump in a car and head for California but Lula’s monster mother Marietta (a wickedly amusing Diane Ladd) pays some goons to have Sailor killed. There are moments of such wonderful craziness in this movie, including Nicolas Cage’s exuberant Elvis interpretation, Sheryl Lee showing up in a floating bubble as Glinda The Good Witch, Crispin Glover’s bizarre cameo and a really scary Willem Dafoe as the psychotic Bobby Peru (with a set of gross teeth).
Midnight Cowboy (Criterion) The only X-rated movie to ever win a Best Picture Oscar. John Schlesinger directed this emotionally poignant tale of a greenhorn from Texas- Joe Buck (Jon Voight), who shows up in New York City with big dreams but ends up a male hustler living in squat apartments with a limping, hot-headed vagrant- Ratso (Dustin Hoffman). Sylvia Miles really is hilarious in a supporting role and the movie still packs a punch at the end. Based on a book by James Leo Herlihy. This is a new 4K digital restoration, with lots of extras.