A treasure-trove of trash and goodies this month on Blu-ray like the fabulously insane Boom!, The Alligator People and Can’t Stop The Music, to stunning film-noirs like This Gun For Hire and The Big Clock, the sensational Permanent Green Light, not to mention two Lana Turner melodramas to die for.
Boom! (Shout! Select) Joseph Losey’s fabulously bombastic version of Tennessee Williams’ play The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, starring Elizabeth Taylor as the wealthy and terminally ill Sissy Goforth living on her own island and screaming over loudspeakers her memoir to her harried assistant (Joanna Shimkus). The location where they shot in Sardinia is stunning, with a mountainous climb to the house and guarded by killer dogs and a sadistic servant (Michael Dunn) barring the way. Up the mountain comes the poet Christopher Flanders (Richard Burton), but as the Witch Of Capri (a howling funny Noel Coward) tells Sissy, he’s the “angel of death” who only visits elderly women when they are on the brink of death. Everything is screamingly arty and overblown- especially the outrageous outfits Taylor wears. The hilarious audio commentary is by director John Waters– a huge fan of the film.
Frankenstein 1970 (Warner Archives) Boris Karloff plays Baron Victor Von Frankenstein, his face hideous scarred by the Nazis during World War II. He lives in a gloomy castle in Germany, and, needing money for his secret experiments in a hidden room in the basement, he allows a film crew to shoot a horror movie on the premises. Not surprisingly, a monster is stitched together (this time using an atomic reactor to bring his creature to life) which runs amok, killing off the cast and crew. Gorgeous Cinemascope black & white, this Allied Artist movie was shot on Warner Brother’s lot, and eagle-eyed director Frank Henenlotter (Basket Case) pointed out to me the “Maltese Falcon” as a prop on the set. See if you can spot it.
A Delicate Balance (Kino Classics) One of Edward Albee’s greatest plays, directed brilliantly by Tony Richardson for the American Film Theater. Paul Scofield plays Tobias and Katharine Hepburn Agnes, a wealthy, uptight Connecticut couple who spend their evenings acerbically squabbling over drinks with the husband’s alcoholic sister (a fiery Kate Reid). Their friends (Joseph Cotton and Betsy Blair) show up unexpectedly claiming they suddenly became “frightened” and ask to stay there for a while. Lee Remick, arrives as Tobias and Agnes’ daughter, fleeing another failed marriage, put out that neighbors are camped out in “her” room. The performances are staggering in this intense filmed version of Albee’s dark comedy.
The Alligator People (Shout! Factory) One of the truly great “stupid monster” movies of all time, starring a frequently screaming Beverly Garland who travels to a remote Louisiana mansion searching for her missing husband only to find he has been transformed, by mad scientists, into a hideous half-man/half-alligator. Lon Chaney Jr. plays the “hate-crazed Cajun” in this black & white 1959 Cinemascope howler, finally given the beautiful digital restoration it deserves.
The Heiress (Criterion) Based on Henry James’ Washington Square, this brilliant 1949 William Wyler-directed film stars an unforgettable Olivia de Havilland as the shy, plain daughter of a tyrannical father (Ralph Richardson). She is courted by a handsome, young man (Montgomery Clift) who her father fears is a fortune hunter. One of those films that gets better with repeated viewings, if just to savor the performances by de Havilland and Clift, which are magnificent. This is a 4K restoration with scores of fascinating extras, including a short film on the great costume designer Edith Head.
Permanent Green Light (Altered Innocence) Now out on Blu-ray is directors Dennis Cooper & Zac Farley‘s thrillingly perverse film, that easily made my 10 Best Film list. A tormented young man, surrounded by others who lust for him, dreams of strapping himself with bombs and blowing himself up- like a terrorist, but only hurting himself. Cooper & Farley’s film is lyrical yet rigorously Bessonian, and aches with unrequited passion, confused teenage angst, and stinging black humor. A brilliant, disturbing, but darkly rewarding experience.
The Nightcomers (Kino) Michael Winner directed this British prequel to Henry James’ The Turn Of The Screw. Marlon Brando plays the gardener Peter Quint and Stephanie Beacham Miss Jessel, the governess of the orphaned children Flora and Miles. The lonely youngsters play at the remote country mansion and spy on the sadomasochistic relationship between Quint and their caretaker. I was really taken with this film when it first came out and thought it was moody, disturbing and with a surprisingly intense performance by Marlon Brando, who, by then, was usually phoning in his work. Aside from his dubious Irish accent, he’s sexy, dangerous and riveting in this unheralded gem.
Can’t Stop The Music (Shout! Factory) A camp-classic capitalizing on the marginal popularity of the heterosexually-challenged disco group The Village People. Actress Nancy Walker incompetently directed this enjoyable mess starring Bruce Jenner, Valerie Perrine, Steve Guttenberg and features a jaw-dropping, Busby Berkeley-like number set in a locker room in which partially nude men whip towels at each other and dive into a pool in time to “YMCA.”
Funny Games (Criterion) A fiendish and unrelenting 1997 film by Michael Haneke (Cache) about two serial killers (in white gloves) who torture a married couple and their young son at their lakeside home. The family gets the upper hand once but the killers “rewind” the film to further turn the thumbscrews to the audience. It’s exciting that this seminal film by Haneke is getting the “Criterion” upgraded treatment.
Emanuelle And Francoise (Severin) This sleazy rarity by Italian exploitation great Joe D’Amato has never been on disc in America. It stars Rosemarie Lindt as Emanuelle who gets revenge for her sister Francoise’s (Patrizia Gori) death by seducing Carlo, the cad boyfriend (George Eastman) who used to pimp Francoise out to pay his gambling debts. Emanuelle chains Carlo in a soundproof room with a two-way mirror, drugs him and forces him to watch her have sex with an assortment of men and women (including his girlfriend). The plot was stolen from a Greek film called The Wild Pussycat, but D’Amato gives it his own twisted spin. A surreal banquet where Carlo imagines the guests eating body parts and a sardonic, ironic ending make this all pretty jaw-dropping. Eastman made many film with D’Amato (aka Aristede Massaccesi) and was quite fond of him. He reveals in an extra on the disc that he was the one who came up with the film’s twist ending.
The Seduction (Shout! Factory) Morgan Fairchild plays a popular L.A. TV newscaster who gets relentlessly stalked by an obsessed photographer (Andrew Stevens) in this enjoyable thriller directed by David Schmoeller (Tourist Trap). I remember how audiences cheered on Times Square when Fairchild turns the tables on this creep (because the police fail to do anything) and chases him down with a rifle. The cinematography by Mac Ahlberg is just sensational. Extras include wonderful interviews with Morgan Fairchild and Andrew Stevens who both have fond memories of each other and the production.
Death Warmed Up (Severin) New Zealand splatter film directed by David Blyth made years before Peter Jackson’s gore classic Bad Taste. A mad scientist is experimenting with human subjects at an island asylum. Michael (hunky Michael Hurst) has a score to settle with the doc- who injected him with an experimental drug when he was young and programed him to kill his own parents. Michael arrives on the island with his buddy and two girls and they are chased by motorcycles, madmen and mutants. Impossible to track down since the old days of VHS (the negative was accidentally destroyed) this is a bloody blast. Actor David Letch gives an amusing interview on the Blu-ray on how he got the role of the fiendish hospital attendant “Spider” (“I’ll get you all!”).
Bitter Moon (Kino) A young British couple (Hugh Grant & Kristin Scott Thomas) on a romantic sea cruise are unwittingly drawn into the confidences of a bizarre couple whose degenerating S & M relationship is related in great detail. Peter Coyote is fiendishly funny as the dissipated wheelchair-bound writer spinning the tale of his sick relationship to a titillated Grant. Director Roman Polanski’s wife Emmanuelle Seigner is sexy as Coyote’s overtly sensual wife. Macabre and fun like a Roald Dahl short story, where you turn the page with apprehension and delight. Criminally under-appreciated, hopefully this stunning Blu-ray will turn on a new audience to this Polanski gem.
This Gun For Hire (Shout! Factory) A 4K restoration of an excellent 1942 film noir with a career-best performance by Alan Ladd as Philip Raven, a hired killer who is paid off with counterfeit money and goes after his employer (a traitorous government spy) for revenge. Veronica Lake plays the girlfriend of a cop looking for Raven who meets Philip on a train and gets sucked into his nightmarish web. Darker in tone that the other two film noirs Ladd and Lake (The Glass Key & The Blue Dahlia) made but just as terrific.
The Devil’s Nightmare (Mondo Macabro) A 1970 Belgian/Italian-produced Euro-horror film about a bus-load of tourists who get stranded at a mysterious castle and are attacked by a beautiful succubus (Erika Blanc). The murders all vaguely represent the “7 Deadly Sins” in this fun chiller, which looks extraordinary on Blu-ray and finally includes the French-language version which is preferable to the goofy dubbed version (which still has its charms). Extras include an interview with the director- Jean Brismee, and an entertaining short with Belgian film maker Roland Lethem, who tells some hilarious anecdotes about the making of the film.
Blue Velvet (Criterion) David Lynch’s daring dark masterpiece is given the Criterion treatment. This 1986 film starred Kyle MacLachlan as a young man who returns home when is father is hospitalized and finds a human ear on the ground during a walk. With goading from a policeman’s daughter (the wonderful Laura Dern), he tries to hunt down clues which leads him to a mysterious chanteuse (Isabella Rossellini) and a terrifying criminal named Frank Booth (played with frightening gusto by Dennis Hopper). It’s a surreal nightmare classic. This includes the 50 minutes of extra footage and documentaries about the making of this amazing film.
Escape From Women’s Prison (Severin) In this 1978 Italian exploitation film a team of female tennis players have their bus overtaken by four escaping female convicts and end up at the villa of a judge in a tense hostage situation. With Lilli Carati (To Be Twenty) who plays a political radical, this has all the requisite nudity and sleaze of these kind of movies. Included on the disc is a fascinating interview with the director- Giovanni Brusadori, and the Italian language version of the film.
Portrait In Black (Kino) A gloriously trashy thriller starring Lana Turner as a wife conspiring with her lover (Anthony Quinn) to kill her cruel, shipping magnate husband (Lloyd Nolan). A mysterious blackmailer turns up to make their life hell. With Sandra Dee as Turner’s daughter, Ray Walston and the great Anna May Wong, this has lots of sardonic twists. Turner’s jewelry alone (supposedly priced at over a million dollars) will knock your eyes out.
Madame X (Kino) No one suffers better in mink than Lana Turner. This oft-filmed Ross Hunter-produced melodrama stars Turner (in a terrific performance) as a mystery woman on trial for murder. What she doesn’t know is that the handsome young attorney defending her (Keir Dullea) is really her son. Years before the disapproving mother-in law (Constance Bennett) forced Lana to leave her prominent husband (John Forsythe) and son and fake her own death. Like a Douglas Sirk film that he didn’t direct, it’s feverishly soapy and fun.
Earthquake (Shout Select!) If only the Blu-ray included “Sensurround”- the gimmick used in theaters for this all-star 1974 disaster movie. (If you want- just turn up the bass on your speakers full blast until your ceiling caves in for the proper effect). An earthquake unsettles Los Angeles, but a much bigger one is on the way, while all these people go about the dramas of their lives little knowing what’s to come. Starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene among many, many, other poor souls. The destruction of the Mulholland dam is a highlight at the end of this wonderful catastrophe, directed by the same man who directed those creepy Val Lewton-produced 1940s chillers like The Seventh Victim, Isle Of the Dead, Bedlam and The Ghost Ship– Mark Robson. This 2-disc set also includes the longer TV version.
The Big Clock (Arrow) John Farrow’s sensational 1948 film noir starring Ray Milland as George Stroud, editor-in-chief for “Crimeways” magazine working for his tyrannical boss Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton– fiendishly good). He suddenly finds his is being set up to take the fall for the murder of Janoth’s mistress (Rita Johnson) and goes into hiding in the clock tower of the monolithic Janoth building, trying desperately to prove his innocence. Maureen O’Sullivan (Farrow’s wife) plays Stroud’s devoted wife, and a hilarious Elsa Lanchester plays an offbeat artist and key witness. Beautifully directed by Farrow and atmospherically filmed, this is incredible suspenseful and wildly entertaining.
There are a number of must-sees in this list, especially the Albee and Polanski and anything with Lana Turner or Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake.
This is a spectacular assortment, Dennis. Thanks!!!
So exciting. I wanna come over and watch The Big Clock.