Hey folks, Harry here with the first two weeks of July. I’m posting this now – because I’m going to be leaving for Minneapolis/St. Paul for a convention/orgy up there called CONVERGENCE. I look forward to just kicking back and getting wildly intoxicated and geeky with a ton of intoxicatingly geeky geeks. So – I leave you good folks in the hands of Moriarty, Quint and Herc. I hope you enjoy the first two weeks worth of recommendations. This is a pretty damn strong group of films. Hope ya find something you’ve never heard of and come to love.
Tuesday - JULY 5th, 2005
BR>Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 2 (BORN TO KILL / CLASH BY NIGHT / CROSSFIRE / DILLINGER (1945) / THE NARROW MARGIN (1952))
This Tuesday is a helluva Tuesday for Broken Nosed Crime Thrillers and Noirs. And we’ll kick it off with this… another fantastic box-set from Warner Home Video.
First up is Robert Wise’s BORN TO KILL with Lawrence Tierney – This is a title I own in 16mm, but then I’m a total Robert Wise freak. I love his films. Here you’ll see wondrous use of light and shadow. Tierney is such a great thug, just a man that killing is a reflex action in his life. With Elisha Cook Jr and Walter Sleazak and the Noir dame du jour Claire Trevor. This is filled with great character actors with popping hot lines to deliver. Claire gets to use this one, “I'm just warning you. Perhaps you don't realize - it's painful being killed. A piece of metal sliding into your body, finding its way into your heart. Or a bullet tearing through your skin, crashing into a bone. It takes a while to die, too. Sometimes a long while.” Disc has commentary with audio excerpts from Robert Wise.
Next is CLASH BY NIGHT – a wonderful Noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan, Barbara Stanwyck, Marilyn Monroe and J. Carrol Naish. Film is essentially the cheating wife story. Poor Paul Douglas gets his heart ripped out as Stanwyck does the wicked sticky with Robert Ryan – who is ten times the man Douglas is. In that triangle you have a set up for the betrayals and heartache that follows. Monroe has a very small role, but shines in what little time she has. Disc features a commentary by Peter Bogdanovich and samplings of his audio tapes with Fritz Lang. Great feature on this wonderful film.
Yes! Edward Dmytryk’s CROSSFIRE – Dmytryk is responsible for my fave noir of all time, MURDER,MY SWEET – and this noir with Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Robert Young, Lex Barker, Gloria Grahame, Paul Kelly and more is just thrilling. Nominated for 5 Academy Awards – this is one of the great Noirs that too often is overlooked. Though it did win the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture, and definitely deserved it. Could very well be my favorite Robert Ryan performance along with his turn in Robert Wise’s ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW. Disc has a featurette on the film, as well as a commentary with film historians and excerpts of Dmytryk himself!
DILLINGER – I love Lawrence Tierney’s turn as John Dillinger, and while I love John Milius’ film to death – this is just the more NOIR-y turn on the Dillinger tale. Great supporting cast with Edmund Lowe, Anne Jeffreys, Eduardo Ciannelli and the ever present Elisha Cook Jr. Philip Yordan’s screenplay was nominated for an Oscar – and it is that type of quality. John Milius provides a commentary with excerpts from an interview with Yordan. Underrated film!
THE NARROW MARGIN (1952) – So much better than the remake. Film was directed by Richard Fleischer – and features a neat B-movie cast in the story of a lady set to give evidence up on the mob – and they’re out to kill her on her train trip from Chicago to L.A. This film features a Commentary by William Friedkin that also has some feedback by Richard Fleischer. Very cool! Great Box Set!
Maiku Hama Private Eye Trilogy ( THE MOST TERRIBLE TIME IN MY LIFE / THE TRAP / STAIRWAY TO THE DISTANT PAST )
Now this is really cool! Made in the 90s by Kaizo Hayashi – this is a fantastic set of three films all featuring the detective Maiku Hama. THE MOST TERRIBLE TIME IN MY LIFE starts off as a simple missing brother mystery that turns into a nightmarishly screwed up situation involving gang warfare. The film is just gorgeous black & white. The film is less like American Noir – and more like a French New Wave flick. Awesomely cool film. The next two features are in popping hot color. Gorgeous look. The second in the series is called STAIRWAY TO THE DISTANT PAST which brings the Detective’s long estranged stripper mother back into his life, revealing the name of his father. Whom he then seeks out. Things, of course, get fucked. Beautiful film. While the first two films have a fun degree of humor – the third in the series, THE TRAP is far more brutal. I really can’t recommend this series enough. Basically an unknown series in the West. Hopefully this will go a bit of the way towards rectifying that.
POINT BLANK
Do you want one of the greatest crime films of all time? A movie that boils off the screen and simmers in your memories? Well – this is it! John Boorman’s POINT BLANK with Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson has been on my list of… I gotta get it on DVD, for quite some time. Now we’re getting the DVD done right with commentary between John Boorman and Steven Soderbergh – plus two great period featurettes on Lee Marvin and this film. If you saw Brian Helgeland & Mel Gibson’s PAYBACK – that was the modern day version of the same Richard Stark novel that was the basis for POINT BLANK. Brilliantly shot and Lee Marvin is just a slow moving train wreck of a goon in this movie. He wants the money he’s owed – and he’ll kill anyone and everyone that’s between him and what’s his. Absolutely one of the great crime films.
PROZAC NATION
Christina Ricci has grown up real nice, and this is the film that let’s you in on it all. This film was unfortunately kinda buried by Miramax – and didn’t get nearly the push that it should have. The film lays out sex and drugs and the skewed expectations of a generation without a solid family behind them. Film marks the fantastic addition of Ms Ricci to the pages of Mr Skin’s Skincyclopedia. Fantastic cast and story makes the film worth picking up for more than the DVD cover. Jessica Lange, Anne Heche, Jason Biggs and others really make this a great hard R story. Really good film.
STANDER
Here’s the film that was made with every ounce of the fist in the face glory that I wish to God had been in Tom Jane’s PUNISHER film. The story of a South African police officer tired of the brutality he’s forced to dish out on a regular basis. Instead – he turns bad, using the riots as a distraction and using his crime fighting expertise to become a Bank Robber with a 1000 faces. Absolutely fan-fucking-tastic crime film. After going to prison – he finds a way to break out and continue his streak and it’s just great. When you watch this film – just imagine this performance in the hack p.o.s. that Marvel stuck us with.
Tuesday – JULY 12th, 2005
BILL & TED’S MOST EXCELLENT COLLECTION))
Oh hell yeah! I can’t believe there’s people you can have sex with legally that were only 1 year old when BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE came out. Somehow – that rules – yet sucks all at once, cuz… Do they know the glory of Wyld Stallions? The significance of air guitar? The glory of Conan Lee and an aluminum baseball bat? Do they know the number I’m thinking of right now? This set has both the original masterpiece and the somewhat bogus BILL & TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY – though I giggle like a school girl through most of it. There’s a 3rd DVD in this box that is 100% extras – with an all new documentary, a conversation between the two insane screenwriters that created this series. A cartoon episode, history beats and much much more. So pick this up and… PARTY ON!!! DUDE!!!
BBC’s THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA (3 DVD Set)
I have always loved this series made by the BBC – with the big budget film coming later this year – we know the effects and production design will be superior – but this version is a pretty damn good adaptation of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, PRINCE CASPIAN, THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER and THE SILVER CHAIR. Each dvd comes with a game and a few very weird games. Running nearly 9 hours – you won’t likely get a more complete version of this epic series. Home Vision… heh… they put out HANZO THE RAZOR… and this. Somehow that cracks me up.
FREAKED
Anchor Bay – You Rule! I can not believe there’s a 2 disc dvd with this many extras all loaded aboard. Taking advantage of Alex Winter’s other great films coming out the same day, they’ve gone and put out this latex masterpiece of total freaked out absurdity. Ok – so what do you get? Well there’s the film. Commentary by Alex Winter & Tom Stern. Trailers, deleted scenes, the screenplay, a conversation with the writer, and a featurette called Hijinx in Freek Land. That’s disc 1. Then there’s a feature length alternative version of the film made out of the rehearsal footage. There’s early script readings, bizarre makeup tests – two short films by Winter and Stern. And More. This is a great dvd of an utterly twisted film. Great DVD.
J.S.A.
This was Chan Wook Park’s first great film. It is a testament to his talent that each of his following films (SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE and OLDBOY) were actually greater than the film before it. Having said that – had this been his only film, Park’s importance in the world of Korean film would be sealed. Set in the DMZ – on a little bridge joining/separating North & South Korea… a crime takes place that threatens to destabilize this highly volatile area of the world and the Neutral Country investigation uncovers a cover-up that leads to… well, trust me. This is brilliant. Some of you already own the Korean dvd of this film, this is a heads up for you folks with Region 1 players that have been left out of the loop. The film is apparently being made in English and somehow has something to do the U.S. / Mexico border… cuz… ya know, that zone is very much like the DMZ in Korea. Sigh.
MILLION DOLLAR BABY (3 Disc Deluxe Edition)
I know most people think I hate this film… I don’t. I just don’t feel it was the Best Picture of last year. It is a very very good film. Mainly Paul Haggis’ screenplay and for me personally – Eastwood’s performance was the real standout of this film. This is just solid filmmaking and a very strong script performed by actors delivering performances that completely met expectations. In terms of a female boxing film, I prefer GIRLFIGHT, but that’s me. This set is loaded with extras plus the soundtrack CD.
THE RAINMAKER
God I love Burt Lancaster as a con man. I’m convinced… if anyone could sell me the Brooklyn Bridge, it’d be him. Here he comes to a ranching area promising to deliver Rain for a price. He’s a powerfully charismatic man in this film. You should see Katharine Hepburn’s tomboy rancher. Stunning performance which garnered her an Oscar nomination. I just wish that this had some decent extras. The film is worth the rather cheap price they’re selling this for though.
RUBBER JOHNNY
We’ve all scene the trailer for RUBBER JOHNNY… I’m actually frightened by this DVD. Look at that cover. I just. Chris Cunningham is one of the most power visual directors not directing a feature film today. Can you imagine a horror film by him? I can’t – but I know my reaction… It’d be like reading the necronomican aloud… you’d be driven stark raving mad by it. This is just a 6 min piece – with a bizarre 40 page book and I guarantee… you’ve never seen anything like this. Disturbing, hypnotic and just unsettling. Not to be viewed on drugs. It isn’t safe. Great Aphex Twins soundtrack to this. Be Afraid!
SAMURAI BANNERS
Simply Great. I know I tend to recommend some sort of new Samurai film each month – but that’s because Japan’s Samurai films were genius. I mean, seriously – what’d you think of SWORD OF DOOM? Was I wrong? Absolutely not. This is another one, this time featuring a brilliant turn by Toshiro Mifune as a Samurai General under Takeda. The action here is great – but that isn’t the key issue at work here. There’s a lot more to this film and Mifune delivers another towering performance.
TALES FROM THE CRYPT – First Season
The wonderful first season of HBO’s TALES FROM THE CRYPT. Containing all 6 1st season episodes on 2 DVDs. There’s a history of Season 1 extra, a special new introduction by the Crypt Keeper and a feature on adapting the comics to the screen. 1. THE MAN WHO WAS DEATH, 2. AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE, 3. DIG THAT CAT.. HE’S REAL GONE, 4. ONLY SIN DEEP, 5. LOVER COME HACK TO ME, 6. COLLECTION COMPLETED. These were directed by Robert Zemeckis, Richard Donner, Howard Deutch, Tom Holland and Mary Lambert. Great casts throughout including M. Emmet Walsh, Amanda Plummer, Lea Thompson, Larry Drake, Joe Pantoliano and Bill Sadler. Great Season – a great series!
UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (Criterion Collection)
Pretty much my favorite film out of the first two weeks of July. Preston Sturges is one of the great writer/directors in the history of film. And UNFAITHFULLY YOURS is one of his absolute most wickedly hilarious and cinematic films. Starring a brilliant Rex Harrison and my 3rd cousin 3 times removed (heh) Linda Darnell – the film was remade by Dudley Moore (in an incredibly shitty version.) The film takes place in the mind of Rex Harrison that suspects his wife, Linda, has been unfaithful to him. So, while he conducts a symphony – he plots how he is going to kill her. Absolutely brilliant and fall down hilarious. If you like the work of Charlie Kaufman, the Coen Brothers or Woody Allen… this is better than anything they’ve ever done! Brilliant.
