August is usually referred to as the last kiss of summer. Well someone is slipping tongue with these new Blu-ray releases which are seriously off the charts. From the towering performance by Kim Stanley in The Goddess to the whacked-out The Executioner: Part II, to a bizarre Josef von Sternberg film starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, to Todd Haynes’ mesmerizing Safe (with a career high performance by Julianne Moore), to Martin Scorsese’s underrated domestic violence musical- New York, New York, to Warner Brothers’ visionary fantasia of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Throw in a couple of Jean-Claude Van Damme movies in 4K, the sublime romantic thriller Charade, a unique British vampire film The Hand of Night, the bonkers Indonesian action movie Devil’s Sword and two 3D features, including one starring Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin! The summer goes out with a bang, indeed.
The Goddess (Imprint) Not surprisingly, the biography of actress Kim Stanley by Jon Krampner was called “Female Brando.” The deeply troubled yet wildly talented Stanley was absolutely astonishing on stage or on film. And this 1958 movie, with a screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky vaguely based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, affords Kim Stanley a vehicle to shine brightly. We follow Emily Ann Faulkner (Stanley) from an impoverished childhood to aspiring actress in Hollywood. After achieving stardom, Emily marries a famous boxer Dutch Seymour (Lloyd Bridges) but their marriage crumbles as her fame rises. Eventually we see Emily guarded over by fearsome secretary (Elizabeth Wilson) and kept serene by mountains of medications. Directed by James Cromwell, the film is a fascinating and tragic portrait of the pitfalls of Hollywood success but also a golden opportunity to watch an actress at the height of her power and genius.
The Executioner: Part II/Hell Riders (Vinegar Syndrome) The Executioner: Part II (1984) stars Renee Harmon as intrepid reporter Celia Amherst, who teams up with police Lieutenant Roger O’Malley (Christopher Mitchum) to hunt for a masked killer targeting rapists and murderers. The vigilante is an ex-soldier with PTSD who says “I came back- but I ain’t home!” The original Executioner is a 1970 George Peppard spy film that has little to do with this. This film was directed by James Bryan (who did the slasher film Don’t Go in The Woods) and he shot the movie on weekends to keep the equipment rental costs down. It’s a typical grindhouse Rambo-movie, but it’s so bad it’s a lot of fun. Renee Harmon gets tied to a bed by a pimp/drug lord and there’s a great scene where she impales a bad guy to a couch with a samurai sword and then watches in disbelief as the man (still attached to the couch) comes after her. I also liked it when the vigilante shoves a live hand grenade under a man’s facemask and says, “I’m your judge. I’m your jury. I’m your executioner!” This is a 4K UHD restoration from the camera negative. Hell Riders (1984) Tina Louise plays a blackjack dealer from Las Vegas driving through the desert who gets attacked by a bunch of bikers- the Hell Riders. The leader of the gang (with really bad teeth) is Snake (Russ Alexander) who tries to join forces with another biker gang. The leader of that gang says: “For fucks sake- you got a screw loose or something? Who do you think you are- Adolf Hitler, Rommel, Bela Lugosi- all rolled up in one shit-covered gob?” Tina makes it to the town and is attended to by kindly Dr. Dave (Adam West). When she asks him what the town is like he replies: “Living in Ramsburg is like waiting for a patient to die.” The bikers terrorize the local diner but Dr. Dave beats up Snake and forces them out of town. They return later, throw the Sheriff and Dr. Dave in jail and go on a murderous rampage. Finally, the townspeople pick up rifles and blow the bikers away. Renee Harmon wrote the script (along with director James Bryan), produced the film, and plays a mean biker chick wearing a shiny black outfit and cowboy hat. She breaks into a home and takes a switchblade to a wedding dress, slashing it to ribbons, saying: “I don’t like pwetty dwess!” Tina Louise and Adam West were paid $10,000 each and most of their scenes are close-ups so that their stand-ins could run around during the rest of this ludicrous mess.
Macao (Warner Archive) 1952 RKO film noir reteaming of two of producer Howard Hughes’ faves- Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, who arrive by boat to the exotic Macao. Mitchum is mistaken for a NY detective by gambling house owner Vincent Halloren (Brad Dexter). Halloren hires Julie (Jane Russell) as a singer at his casino and she gets to belt out Johnny Mercer’s “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road).” William Bendix plays a mysterious salesman. Thomas Gomez a shady cop. And the inimitable Gloria Grahame is wasted as the gal who shakes the dice at the casino. Directed by Josef von Sternberg, of all people, whose imperious attitude didn’t sit well with the down-to-earth Robert Mitchum (according to Jane Russell in an amusing anecdote on the audio commentary with film noir expert Eddie Muller and screenwriter Stanley Rubin). Another extra on the disc is the notorious TCM “Private Screenings” episode with host Robert Osbourne interviewing Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. Mitchum answers in monosyllabic grunts to every question and mercifully Jane Russell graciously tries to fill in the blanks with an obviously frustrated Osbourne.
Safe (Criterion) In his earlier films, such as Poison and Dottie Gets Spanked, director Todd Haynes explored characters who were ostracized for being different. In his dark, dazzling and haunting 1995 film Safe, Carol White (Julianne Moore) is an upwardly mobile L.A. “homemaker,” and right from the start you feel her increasing sense of remoteness from her family, friends- even her furniture. When her “allergies” mysteriously escalate, she searches for the cause of her ailments, eventually heading into the desert to a commune of other immunologically afflicted souls, where she desperately tries to lessen her feelings of isolation and fear. Moore gives a beautifully modulated performance as Carol, her fragility and “separateness” is frighteningly palpable. Even in aerobics class, she is just a few beats off from the rest of the group. It’s the ultimate view of the outsider who’s forced either by disease or mental damage to exile themselves from the real world. Haynes plays it straight throughout, never revealing whether he is being ironic, and it works. The spacious framing and hollowed-out sound adds an eerie grace.
New York, New York (MVD Marquee Collection) I have such fondness for Martin Scorsese’s 1977 musical/heartbreaker about a brilliant but volatile jazz musician Jimmy (Robert De Niro) and talented singer Francine’s (Liza Minnelli) post-War rise to stardom. Their stormy love affair is a major part of the film, but Scorsese’s encyclopedic film knowledge offers the opportunity for him to throw in his favorite influences from MGM musicals to riffing on a Warner Brothers film like The Man I Love. Both De Niro and Minnelli are extraordinary and Scorsese brings out the best in both of them. Cinematically, the film is a wonder, and the director’s use of artifice (with obvious sets and fake skylines) only add to the joy of the movie. This sublime two-disc set includes a new 4K scan and restoration from the original camera negative of the expanded cut of the film (and includes the 12 minute Happy Endings movie segment). The Blu-ray disc is the theatrical cut and includes many extras.
The Wages of Sin (Kino Lorber) 1938 exploitation sleaze classic gets a 4K restoration by the UCLA Film & television Archive. Poor Marjorie Benton (Constance Worth)- she slaves all day in an industrial laundry to bring back money to her deadbeat family. She goes out to a speakeasy with her girlfriend and has her first “Tom Collins” and even a drag off of a “reefer” and meets gangster Tom Kilonis (Willy Castello). Tom strings her along, promising marriage, but ends up pimping her out to men at a nearby hotel. Eventually he dumps her off at a bordello run by Fat Pearl (Clara Kimball Young) who takes one look at her and says, “she’s a cute little trick.” Marjorie escapes the whorehouse, returns to Tony’s apartment and shoots him dead. And his new girlfriend too. There’s a trial and then these words appear on the screen: “The jury is still out. What will the verdict be? What would your verdict be?” $1,000 in cash and prizes are offered for the best answers. It’s highly doubtful anyone won. Extras include Something Weird Video’s roadshow shorts including “Females Fight in the Dressing Room.”
Eureka (Imprint/Via Vision) Astonishing 3 hour 37 min. mostly sepia-toned Cinemascope film by Aoyama Shinji about the devastating aftermath of a bus jacking. A young brother and sister have been struck silent since the frightening ordeal and the bus driver (Koji Yakusho from Shall We Dance) is so shell-shocked he ran away from his wife and relatives and wandered for two years. He returns home and begins work as a laborer, but a trail of serial killings point to him as suspect. His family rejects him and he moves in with the two children, who now live alone (their mother abandoned them and their father died) and along with a goofy visiting cousin set off on a road trip in a reconverted bus. This 2000 film is part existential road movie, part John Ford western (The Searchers come to mind). It’s amazing to look at (the cinematography by Tamura Masaki is exquisite) and it’s unbelievably powerful.
Crime Wave (Warner Archive) Taut, suspenseful 1954 film noir, helped immeasurably by the inspired direction of Andre de Toth, who shot it documentary-style on the streets of L.A. Three men rob a gas station, killing a policeman, which causes tough-talking, toothpick-chewing, homicide Detective Sims (Sterling Hayden) to throw out a dragnet for the killers. Poor parolee, now on the straight-and-narrow, Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson) and his wife (Phyllis Kirk) are held at gunpoint and forced to go along with the crooks’ plan to rob a bank. Director Andre de Toth had previously worked with Phyllis Kirk and Charles Bronson (who plays one of the criminals) in House of Wax (1953). The Blu-ray comes with informative audio commentary by film noir historian Eddie Muller and author James Ellroy.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Warner Archive) Famed director and producer Max Reinhardt’s successful theatrical production of this Shakespeare fantasia at the Hollywood Bowl caused Warner Brothers to mount a massive production on film. A young, lovely Olivia de Havilland was chosen to play Hermia, in love with Lysander (Dick Powell) but pursued by her father’s choice- Demetrius (Ross Alexander), while lovesick Helena (Jean Muir) pines for him. Meanwhile the Duke of Athens- Theseus (Ian Hunter) is set to marry the Queen of the Amazons Hippolyta (Verrree Teasdale) and has offered anyone who mounts a play that amuses the Court a daily stipend for life if it’s a success. So, a merry band heads to the forest to create a play (these include Warner Brothers favorites like James Cagney, Joe. E. Brown, Hugh Herbert and others). Meanwhile Oberon (Victor Jory), the king of the fairies is arguing with his Queen Titania (Anita Louise) and this leads to the mischievous elf Puck (Mickey Rooney) to pass through the forest, sprinkling a love potion and confusing everyone. Visually this 1935 movie is astonishing (with unforgettable fantasy sequences) and this restored print for Blu-ray really dazzles. William Dieterle was assistant director to the project since Reinhardt did not speak English at the time. Kenneth Anger (Scorpio Rising) always said he played the Changeling Prince in this film but that was bullshit. This is the original, full 133-minute version with Overture and Exit Music. It won two Academy Awards at the time- for cinematography and editing.
Charade (Criterion) I never thought I could love this 1963 romantic thriller more- but this new 4K UHD restoration from Criterion just blew my mind. Everything about this movie clicks- from the superb direction of Stanley Donen, the memorable score by Henry Mancini, the glorious Audrey Hepburn, decked out in Givenchy fashion, and the 100-watt charm of Cary Grant. Hepburn plays Regina, returning to Paris from a vacation in the French Alps to find that her husband is dead (he is thrown from a train at the beginning of the movie) and her entire apartment is completely empty. The police tell her that her late husband auctioned off everything in the flat while she was away. But all these shady characters show up at her husband’s funeral- one even sticks a pin in the corpse to make sure he is really dead. They seem to be searching for a lot of money owed to them and Regina is clueless about all of it. Cary Grant plays an American Regina met in the Alps who tries to help her navigate this mystery. Then bodies start piling up in this incredibly enjoyable film. This was the highest grossing film in the country for five weekends straight when it was released. Unadulterated pleasure from beginning to end. It reminds me of a scene in the film where Audrey Hepburn says to Cary Grant, “You know what’s wrong with you? Nothing.”
Death Warrant (MVD) God forgive me, but I saw a ton of these Jean-Claude Van Damme films on Times Square when they opened and the rather seedy audiences (and I include myself) always had a great time with his martial arts fight sequences, not to mention his invariable nude scenes. This 1990 film directed by Deran Sarafian, stars Van Damme as Quebec detective Louis Burke who brought down the notorious serial killer “The Sandman” (Patrick Kilpatick), who murdered his partner. He agrees to go undercover (as an armed robber) at the notorious Harrison State prison in California because a number of bizarre murders suggest a killer is on the loose there. He insinuates himself with the other prisoners, particularly Hawkins (Robert Guillaume) and Priest (Abdul Salaam El-Razzac), who know what’s what there. Cynthia Gibb plays a lawyer posing as his wife. He finds that there is something more nefarious going on with the guards and the warden, connected to the killings. But then, who shows up but “The Sandman” to really blow his cover. This one is a lot of fun and looks spectacular in 4K UHD. Violent and wonderfully nuts.
Lionheart (MVD) An enjoyably dumb 1990 Jean-Claude Van Damme martial arts movie. Directed by Sheldon Lettich, Van Damme plays Lyon Gaultier who escapes from the French Foreign Legion and makes it to Los Angeles to be with his hospitalized brother, who was set afire by a drug gang. When he arrives, he finds that his brother has died but his sister-in-law Helene (Lisa Pelikan) and young daughter are in real financial straits. Lyon ends up participating in a series of underground street fights for the unscrupulous Cynthia Caldera (Deborah Rennard) to help Helene, but two thugs hired by the French Foreign Legion are also hunting Lyon to bring him back to East Africa. This great looking 4K UHD is a scan of the original negative of the extended cut of the film (an extra 6 minutes). It’s every cliché in the book but the fight scenes are pretty fabulous and, as per usual, Van Damme shows his butt in a nude scene (this time in glorious 4K).
Broadway Melody of 1938 (Warner Archive) Eleanor Powell plays Sally Lee, a stowaway aboard a ship carrying a race horse she has a strong connection to. George Murphy and Buddy Ebsen play Sonny and Peter, two song-and-dance men hired to care for the horse. Dashing Robert Taylor plays a Broadway agent who recognizes Sally’s dance and singing potential and falls for her. There’s a side story concerning a rooming house filled with eccentric out-of-work performers run by Alice (played by brassy, bigger-than-life Sophie Tucker). A teenage Judy Garland soulfully sings (to a photo of Clark Gable) ”You Made Me Love You (I Didn’t Want To Do It),” and that scene catapulted her to stardom. George Murphy and Eleanor Powell exuberantly dance to “I’m Feeling Like a Million,” but her finale, decked out in a men’s tuxedo, “Got a Pair of New Shoes,” is an absolute knockout.
Devil’s Sword (Terror Vision). I think Mondo-Digital’s review for this bonkers 1984 Indonesian film says it best: “One of the most jaw-dropping fantasy/action films ever unleashed.” Mixing martial arts, mythology and comics, the film is about the beautiful, fearsome Crocodile Queen who rounds up handsome, unmarried, men from villages for her erotic pleasure (and to keep her youthful beauty). One village defiantly stages a marriage, much to the Queen’s displeasure, and she sends an evil warrior to kill everyone. Mandala (handsome Eurasian action star Barry Prima) rides to the rescue on horseback and he heads to a magic mountain to maneuver through a booby-trapped cave to capture the “Devil’s Sword” before the evil minions of the Crocodile Queen reach it. In Pete Tombs book Mondo Macabro, he describes the film as such: “An endless procession of weird and wacky scenes parades in front of our disbelieving eyes. Gory fights with heads being severed and numerous disembowellings. A deadly parasol. A man on a flying rock. A cage full of cannibal sex slaves. A stone-headed Cyclops whose single eye is very obviously a car headlamp. And, of course, the sexy Cannibal Queen herself.” This includes the Indonesian vocal track with subtitles but the dubbed English version is absolutely hilarious. With new interviews with Barry Prima and other cast and crew members.
The Bubble (Kino Lorber) A wonderfully bizarre 1966 sci-fi film written and directed by Arch Oboler (also known as Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth). It introduced the Space Vision 3-D system, which was unlike the costly and cumbersome two camera systems previously used. Mark (Mod Squad’s Michael Cole) and his pregnant wife Catherine (Deborah Walley) and pilot Tony (Johnny Desmond) land during a storm in a private plane to discover they are in a weird town with kooky architecture and statues and where costumed people walk up and down the street or repeat the same lines robotically. An invisible bubble covers the town. There is a place called the “station” where you sit in a chair and get shock treatment. Like an extended Twilight Zone episode. The 3-D effects are fun- like a tray with beers floating in a bar, a fireman sticking a ladder in your face or creepy masks levitating. This was out on Blu-ray before but this is the roadshow version that is 21 minutes longer! This is presented in 2D but also in stereoscope 3-D and also anaglyphic 3-D (with red and green glasses included).
Money from Home (Kino Lorber) A 4K restoration by Paramount Pictures and 3-D Film Archive of a 1953 Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin 3D musical comedy. It’s based on a Damon Runyon yarn so it’s set (of course) during the Prohibition era in New York City and the colorful cast of characters have names like Honey-Talk Nelson (Dean Martin), Virgil Yokum (Jerry Lewis) and a bunch of horse track racing enthusiasts like “Philly the Weeper,” “Milk Ear Willie,” “The Society Kid,” “Lead-Pipe Louie,” “No-Knees Nolan,” or head bookie Jumbo Schneider (Sheldon Leonard). Jumbo wants a horse race fixed and because Honey-Talk owes him cash he wants him to romance the horse owner (Marjie Millar). Jerry Lewis plays Honey-Talk’s cousin who is an animal hospital intern and “horse whisperer” named Virgil. Extras include a documentary short with Bob Furmanek, who, as a young man became Jerry Lewis’s archivist and is the President and founder of the 3-D Archive. Also included is a private recording Dean Martin made as a surprise for Jerry Lewis’s 27th birthday that is rude and a riot.
The Hand of Night (Vinegar Syndrome) Strange little 1968 British film starring William Sylvester (Devil Doll) as Paul Carver, an architect who arrives in Morocco still haunted by the death of his wife and children in a car accident a few months earlier. “I’m the harbinger of death,” he drunkenly tells a bartender. A German archeologist- Gunther (Edward Underdown) befriends him on the plane and invites him to a party where he is bewitched by a mysterious, dark-haired woman named Marisa (Aliza Gur). He follows after her down the circuitous streets and ends up in the “Court of the Servants of Night,” a castle ruin which transforms into a luxurious space where Marisa reclines against pillows and dancing girls twirl around. He wakes in the desert under the blinding sun and is rescued by his archeologist friend. No one believes his story of Marisa and the “Court.” Gunther’s assistant Chantal (Diane Clare) tries to talk reason to the gloomy Paul. Gunther suggests to Paul that Marisa might just be a vampire. Everything seems to be about choosing between “light and darkness.” It also might be tied to the strange tomb that Gunther has just uncovered. Directed by Frederic Goode (Valley of the Kings/The Syndicate). With audio commentary by film historians Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons. The film was also known as Beast of Morocco
