Boxcar
Bertha
(1972/Scorsese/American International/MGM/Twilight Time Limited
Edition Blu-ray)/Captive
(1915/Paramount/Olive
Blu-ray)/Cat People
(1942/RKO/Warner Bros./Criterion Blu-ray)/High
Noon (1952/Republic/Olive
Signature Edition Blu-ray)/On
Dangerous Ground
(1952/RKO/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Patterns
(1956/Rod Serling/Film Detective Blu-ray)/The
Rain People
(1969/Coppola/Warner Archive DVD)
Picture:
B/B/B/B/B/B-/C Sound: B-/B/B-/B-/B-/C+/C Extras:
C/D/B/B-/B-/D/D Films: C+/C+/B+/B+/B+/B/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Boxcar
Bertha
Limited Edition Twilight Time Blu-ray is now out of print, but
Sandpiper Pictures reissued a basic edition of it in 2022 while we
wait for a 4K upgrade, while the On
Dangerous Ground
Blu-ray and The
Rain People
DVD (and now, Blu-ray as well) are now only available from Warner
Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the
link below.
Up
next are a mix of classics and underseen films by some of the most
writers and directors ever...
Martin
Scorsese's Boxcar
Bertha
(1972) has Barbara Hershey as the title character in this 1920s Roger
Corman-produced gangster film wanting to capitalize on Penn's Bonnie
& Clyde
(1967), but despite more talent than usual involved for a Corman
film, the results are ambitious-but-mixed. Hershey
and David Carradine are good together as two lovers who are on the
take, but its low-budget limits still show somewhat and some scenes
just don't work. Despite that, it does a decent job of evoking and
portraying the period.
It
is also a surprise it is being issued as a Twilight
Time Limited Edition Blu-ray, a first for a Scorsese film, but there
is still a larger audience for even this flawed film, and handling it
like this will hopefully give it new attention. The Corringtons, who
wrote the original Omega
Man
with Charlton Heston (later remade as the Will Smith I
Am Legend;
both from the Richard Matheson book) wrote the screenplay and the
supporting cast includes John Carradine, Barry Primus and Bernie
Casey. Also, even more so than when the DVD was issued, the period
props were easier and cheaper to get in the early 1970s then they are
now or will ever be. Thus, you should give this one a good look.
Extras
include a brand-new illustrated booklet on the film including
informative text and another excellent, underrated essay by the great
film scholar Julie Kirgo, while the Blu-ray adds a fine-sounding
Isolated Music Score and an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Cecil
B. DeMille's Captive
(1915)
is one of the oldest films we've ever reviewed, but we can NEVER
review enough silent cinema, especially since the majority of it has
been lost to neglect, hatred of the arts and the highly flammable
nature of the first film stock known as nitrate. Still, here we are
with an early film from the man eventually known for his giant epic
films and is the 12th
feature he made, even at 51 minutes, the year of Griffith's Birth
Of A Nation.
A woman named Sonya (Blanche Sweet) suffers after her brother is
killed, but is 'given' a Turkish captive (House Peters) to help her
with tough farming work. They start liking each other, but sad new
unexpected events start to twist and turns their lives.
Not
bad at all for its time, helping a young Paramount Studios build
itself into the #2 studio in Hollywood. Since so many of the
pre-1948 Paramount films are not seen enough (outside if early gems
like this, lost films and the titles owned by Universal, who does not
promote them much), it is worth seeing just for the style and feel
the studio was developing at the time. DeMille would soon move into
sound and epics, but would return to relatively smaller films (see
Madame
Satan
(1930) reviewed elsewhere on this site) at times, proving he could
handle all kinds of filmmaking. Captive is certainly worth a good
look.
There
are no extras, but for such an old film, that would have been nice.
Jacques
Tourneur's Cat
People
(1942) is one of the all-time Horror, Thriller, Suspense classics, a
groundbreaking tale pf psychological horror and more made just as
filmmakers like Hitchcock were exploring early ideas of what
psychology was and making them cinematic. One of the biggest hits
RKO ever had, the film stars Simone Simon as a young sketch artist
who is about to discover she may be linked to a terrifying past and
legacy that she cannot escape, but a young man (Kent Smith) starts to
fall for her when they meet, but can even he help her against the
terror that is about to begin?
In
one of the best developments in recent home video, Warner Bros. has
finally decided to start licensing films to Criterion, thus making
this Blu-ray possible (when Criterion had 12-inch LaserDiscs of RKO,
Warner films up to 1948 and MGM titles to 1986, they were by way of
Turner Entertainment before the current Warner Studio bought his
company) and just as Warner continues to spend big to fix their back
catalog. That helps make this great new edition possible.
Extras
include an illustrated high-quality paper foldout on the film
including informative text, transfer details and an excellent essay
Darkness
Betrayed
by film scholar Geoffrey O'Brien, while the Blu-ray adds the
excellent 2005 feature length audio commentary track by Gregory Mank
including archival audio clips by Simone Simon, an interview with the
great Cinematographer John Bailey on the look of the film, 1979
interview with Director Tourneur on the film and the feature-length
documentary on the film's producer, Val
Lewton: The Man In The Shadows
(2008), narrated by Martin Scorsese.
Know
that Warner Archive is issuing other Lewton/RKO thrillers on DVD we
will cover soon and hope for more on Blu-ray and DVD soon.
Fred
Zinneman's High
Noon
(1952) is the classic Revisionist Western that did flt in the face of
the Hollywood Blacklist and may have helped temporarily save the
genre in the long run by getting it to be more honest. We previously
reviewed the much referenced, discussed and imitated film (think
Peter Hyams' Outland)
at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7136/High+Noon+(1952/Lionsgate+2-Disc+Ultimate+Editi
This
is the first of two releases in Olive Pictures new Signature Edition
Blu-ray series (the other being the other giant Republic Pictures
Western groundbreaker Johnny
Guitar,
which we hope to see soon) with upgraded transfers and new extras in
this case. Thus, it is worthy of a Criterion release all around and
the lone man again evil criminals and a scarred, complacent town
making things much worse is as relevant as ever before. With the
recent wave of revival (if not revisionist) Westerns we've seen, its
interesting how well this holds up to them. This is now the edition
to get.
Extras
include an illustrated booklet with Nick James' essay Uncitizened
Kane,
while the Blu-ray disc adds an Original Theatrical Trailer and four
Making Of featurettes: Mark Goldblatt talking about the film's
editing in A
Ticking Clock,
A
Stanley Kramer Production,
Imitation
Of Life: The Hollywood Blacklist and High
Noon
and Oscars
& Ulcers: The Production History of High
Noon
narrated by the late Anton Yelchin.
Nicholas
Ray's On
Dangerous Ground
(1952) is the great, true, real, authentic Film Noir with (as noted
before) the amazing Ida
Lupino as a blind woman who might just have screwed-up police officer
Robert Ryan's last chance for some kind of redemption after his life
has taken a bad turn, but her brother will twist things further. A.
I. Bezzerides, who's Kiss
Me Deadly
(1955, reviewed on Criterion Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) a few
years later would be the peak of the Noir movement, wrote an amazing,
enduring screenplay here. Ward Bond, Charles Kemper and Ed Begley
also star in this winner produced by ever-great John Houseman and
featuring a music score by Bernard Herrmann so incredible, that it
may be one of the greatest he ever created. As soon as it kicks in
with the opening RKO logo, the film just takes off like all great
films do.
Warner
has issued this classic RKO Studios film through their Warner
Archive series (only sold online) in a restored edition that along
with Cat
People,
shows their work to restore the RKO Catalog is moving along extremely
well. There is an excitement in seeing RKO's best films restored to
their unique, original luster and then, the studio's greatness and
influence on world cinema becomes all the more clear. It is an
under-reported event for all serious film fans.
Extras
here include an Original Theatrical Trailer and repeat the fine
feature length audio commentary track from the DVD by film scholar
Glenn Eriksen. Note that Film Score Monthly's FSM CD music
soundtrack label's limited edition release of Herrmann's score
reviewed elsewhere on this site is still not sold out, if you're
interested in getting it while supplies last.
Fiedler
Cook's feature film of Rod Serling's Patterns
(1956) has Van Heflin in his most underrated performance as an up and
coming corporate executive, hired off of being an engineer to be in
the rather cold, inefficient offices of the big company that seems to
want him to replace longtime executive Briggs (Ed Begley), but both
are pawns for the CEO (future Twilight
Zone
alum Everett Sloane) who want to replace the 'old guy' early with the
new hire so he himself can wield the most continuous power there.
However, the personable engineer is not stupid and so easily bought
off, controlled or sold out, leading to a battle rarely seen or
heard.
Film
Detective has released the first Blu-ray of the film we know of and
it is a welcome addition in the format of an orphan, public domain
film of serious importance. If anything, it is more relevant than
ever as is the case with Serling's best work. If you've put off
seeing this one or just found out about it, here's your chance to
catch up with a real gem.
There
are sadly no extras, but this is a title that really needs some.
Francis
Ford Coppola's The
Rain People
(1969) is not his first feature film, but a somewhat underrated drama
with James Caan as a one-time big football player in a small town,
but something is wrong. We slowly learn he was in an accident that
ruined his life and caused permanent brain damage, while Shirley
Knight is a woman sick of her confined life and leaves her husband,
discovering our one-time sports hero. The result is a road trip
movie with a difference, a personal character study penned by Coppola
the is beautiful at times, dark and with a healthy cynicism of how
oddly our inhumanities in even small measures ruin things
unexpectedly.
Robert
Duvall turns up later in a key role and despite some obvious moments
at times, the film just holds up together to the end. I like the
look ad feel of this work and it is a personal breakthrough for
Coppola as well as a great showcase for some of the best actors
everyone was about to hear more of.
There
are no extras here or on the new Blu-ray edition from Warner Archive,
but you can read more about the new release at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16438/American+Sniper+4K+(2014/Warner+4K+Ultra+H
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition
image transfer Boxcar
shows the age of the materials used somewhat, but this looks like a
new HD master and surpasses the old MGM DVD with much better color,
color range, clarity and Movielab & DeLuxe color processing looks
great throughout.
This is as authentic to the film as everything I've ever seen on it
and you'll be impressed with the upgrade.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white with tinting, digital High
Definition image transfer on Captive
is in amazing shape for a film over 100-years-old and though it can
show the age of the materials used, so much of it looks fresh and new
as this has miraculously survived. Those not used to seeing silent
movies will be very surprised and even stunned by how good some shots
look and proves
the greatness of celluloid film (nitrate, acetate and
polyester/ESTAR) yet again.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Cat
People
is a great upgrade from so many poor, older transfers of the film,
though a few parts can obviously show the age of the materials used.
Video Black is rich, yet shadow detail is excellent and revealing of
the true look of the film in ways not
seen in a very long time, really experiencing the kind of darkness
the filmmakers intended, including demo shots. Like future
Lewton-produced films, it came up with a new look in Horror that is
still with us today and more than holds up and influences cinema to
this day. Impressive!
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on High
Noon
shows the age of the materials used for the opening credits and in a
few other spots, but this too is far superior a transfer to all
previous releases of the film with major improvements of over depth,
detail, jetter blacks, more ivory whites and just how good the film
was as originally shot. Even with an older Blu-ray issued, this is
the best the film has ever looked outside of the best 35mm prints.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Dangerous
sometimes shows the age of the materials used, but this is far
superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film, including
the Warner DVD we covered years ago as this is a brand new HD master
from the original 35mm camera materials. The result has demo shots
and shows
a side of Noir
hat has been hidden, even buried in the RKO archives for too long.
See it and be impressed!
The
1080p 1.66 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Patterns
can definitely show the age of the materials used, but this is far
superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film on DVD,
including the old Roan Group release (later reissued by Troma when
they bought that catalog, then did little with it). Being an orphan
film, the 35mm materials are not in great shape and little money was
available to restore it, but this is the best I've seen as a film
fan, so as a big Serling fan who loved the Twilight
Zone
Blu-ray releases, this belongs on the shelf next to all 5 seasons of
that all-time classic.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Rain
comes from a good print with good color, but is a soft older transfer
with little flaws throughout and the film was originally issued in
dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor 35mm prints. I like the look
of the film and some shots still look good.
Being
these films are so old, all the sound films are theatrical monophonic
releases, while Captive
has a much more recently recorded score, so its here in DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo and is fine if you land up liking it. I
thought it was well recorded and not bad, but it did not stay with me
either.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes on Boxcar,
High
Noon,
Dangerous
and Patterns
to a lesser extent, certainly improve on their older, lossy Dolby
Digital DVD presentations, offering warmer clearer sound. Of course,
they are all limited by the original source materials and recording
technology of the time, but they all sound as good as they ever have.
The same can be said for the fine PCM 2.0 Mono on Cat
People,
cleaned up from what is an original 35mm soundtrack negative (read
optical sound) that adds detail and suspense you've never heard
before from the film.
That
leaves the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Rain People a
generation down, making some dialogue hard to hear, so be careful of
overly high playback levels and volume switching. Its passable
otherwise. Nice the Blu-ray looks and sounds better.
To
order either the On
Dangerous Ground
Blu-ray and/or The
Rain People
Blu-ray or DVD, go to this link for them and many more great
web-exclusive releases at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20
-
Nicholas Sheffo
