The
Cobweb (1955*)/Knights
Of The Round Table
(1953*)/Martial Law: Lo
Wei's Wuxia World: Black Butterfly,
Death Valley
(both 1968) and Vengeance
Of A Snow Girl
(1971/MVD/Eureka! Blu-ray Set)/Prisoner
Of Zenda (1952/*all
MGM/Warner Archive Blu-rays)
Picture:
B/B/B/B-/B-/B Sound: B-/C+/B-/C+/C+/C+ Extras: C/C+/B/B-
Films: C+/B-/C+/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Cobweb,
Knights
Of The Round Table
and Prisoner
Of Zenda
Blu-rays
are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series and can be ordered from the link below.
Now
for a look at how epics moved to CinemaScope, then cheaper scope
landed up being picked up by relatively less expensive, if still
elaborate, films...
In
an amusing turn, all three big screen MGM films we are reviewing from
Warner Archive are films we have never reviewed before, but we have
reviewed their limited edition soundtrack releases. As surprising,
all three are still in print from their original run, so we have
included updated links.
Vincente
Minnelli's The
Cobweb
(1955) is a melodrama that is trying to deal with the dark side to
the point of almost being a Noir, but Minnelli was always making
works more complex than most in his time. Too bad dated and campy
moments keep getting in the way. We reviewed the excellent music
score from the film, by Leonard Rosenman and Johnny Green at this
link:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/915/Cobweb/Edge+Of+The+City+(Limited+CD
You
can now still order the great-sounding limited edition CD directly
at:
https://www1.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/3558/THE-COBWEB-EDGE-OF-THE-CITY/
As
for the film, it is about a mental hospital with all kinds of trouble
and not just from its patients, but staff old and new as the workers
are getting all wrapped up in all kinds of their own conflicts, so
you can see this is only going to hinder helping those who need it
most. A few scenes are so bad and politically incorrect, you'd think
you were watching a spoof of such films, but that is not the case.
The
great cast includes Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Lillian Gish,
Charles Boyer, Gloria Grahame, Oscar Levant, Susan Strasberg, John
Kerr, Paul Stewart, Bert Freed, Mabel Albertson and Fay Wray, so
Minnelli never had trouble landing a great cast. That's good,
because they are one of the only reasons this does not really go off
the rails. The only other thing is, especially for working in a
hospital, so many people are smoking all the time throughout, I was
surprised a few were not diagnosed or dead from long cancer by the
last act. Still, all Minnelli films are worth a look, even a mixed
one like this. Nice it got restored.
Extras
include an Original Theatrical Trailer, CinemaScope MGM animated
cartoon The
Egg and Jerry
and a 1955 Salute
To The Theaters
reel from MGM at the time that promoted this film among others...
Richard
Thorpe's Knights
Of The Round Table
(1953) is still one of the best King Arthur films and the Miklos
Rozsa score helps it out, especially when some shots and visual
effects have not dated as well as others so its nice to finally have
it on Blu-ray. We reviewed the excellent soundtrack CD with great
sonics at this link:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/944/Knights+Of+The+Round+Table/King's+Thief+(Limited+CD
You
can now also still order the great-sounding limited edition CD
directly at:
https://www1.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/3372/KNIGHTS-OF-THE-ROUND-TABLE-THE
As
for the film, you have Robert Taylor in great form as Lancelot, Ava
Gardner as The Queen, Mel Ferrer as the King and a solid cast backed
by a big budget and full color (MetroColor versus the likes of
Technicolor, but looking good just the same; the posters only say
'color' as they apparently did not know which format they were going
to use) as a love triangle develops against the backdrop of war,
conflict, battles and more. I love how the screenplay skips most of
the fantasy/magic sides of the tale and being one of MGM's early
CinemaScope films, they did go all out in a way that still shows and
makes it (especially resonated like this is) shows why they were
still one of the biggest studios around.
Stanley
Baker, Anne Crawford, Robert Urquhart, Niall MacGinnis, Anthony
Forwood, an uncredited pre-James Bond film series Desmond Llewellyn
and uncredited Dana Wynter make up that supporting cast. If you like
this tale, you must see this film among any other films to TV shows
on the subject, so here it is.
Extras
include an introduction by Mel Ferrer, newsreel footage of the
premiere, CinemaScope live action MGM short Jubilee
Overture,
CinemaScope MGM animated cartoon Droopy
Knight
and an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Next
is a set of ninja films, Martial
Law: Lo Wei's Wuxia World
featuring Black
Butterfly,
Death
Valley
(both 1968) and Vengeance
Of A Snow Girl
(1971) make up this new set of restored Shaw Brothers films with
Director Wei. Black
Butterfly
is a Robin Hood story that takes a wild turn when the
rob-from-the-rich
hero, a gal whose father was a successful swordsman, starts stealing
wealth from a criminal gang!
Death
Valley
has a Lord murdered by his niece (Angela Yu Chien), so that Lord's
heir (Yueh Hua) lands up fighting a dangerous, hired swordsman (Chen
Hung-lieh) in the murdered figurehead's absence.
And
Vengeance
Of A Snow Girl
(snow turns up often when sword-wielding women show up in this genre
for some reason) has a young lady (Li Ching) with physical issues
wanting revenge when her parents are killed over the ownership of the
legendary Tsui Feng Sword! Certainly reminiscent of Tarantino's Kill
Bill
the mostly of the three, it has its moments too.
All
well done with great costumes, sets, production design, use of color
and decent battle scenes, this is still a set for fans of the genre
only, as important as Wei is as a filmmaker, filmmaker in the genre
and others who are curious might need more patience. I have to give
the benefit of the doubt that these were more impressive in their
time before they became more imitated. Either way, here is the best
way to see them outside of a mint condition film print and Eureka!
Has created the best set of the possible, as usual.
Extras
in this Limited Edition
[2,000 copies] release includes:
Limited
edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Gregory Sacre
(Gokaiju)
Limited
edition collector's booklet featuring new writing on all three films
in this set by Hong Kong cinema expert Camille Zaurin
New
audio commentaries on all three features by action cinema experts
Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
and
Hong
Kong Hustle
- new interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong on the life
and work of Lo Wei.
Last
but not least is the new restored Blu-ray edition of Richard Thorpe's
The
Prisoner Of Zenda
(1952) which also remains one of the most popular and liked versions
of this tale. We first covered its soundtrack by Alfred Newman, et
al, which we covered in from this CD in my review here:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1093/Prisoner+Of+Zenda+(1952,+Limited+CD
You
can now also still order the great-sounding limited edition CD as
well, directly at:
https://www1.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/3805/THE-PRISONER-OF-ZENDA-MGM-1952
This
time, Stewart Granger is a man who would be a king, Rudolf, the actor
eventually playing dual roles as the king and his cousin. So the
cousin has to play king, but will it work, after he is kidnapped as
he was about to have his coronation? The king's half brother (Robert
Douglas) is the one up to no good and backed by the equally sinister
Rupert (James Mason) as royal loyalist Colonel Zapt (Louis Calhern)
turns to Rudolf to stop them.
Deborah
Kerr is great as the Princess, Jane Greer, Peter Brocco, Francis
Pierlot, an uncredited Kathleen Freeman and Lewis Stone (from the
1927 silent version) make up the fine supporting cast. Now you can
see the money and talent on the screen like never before and this is
a Zenda worth seeing (or if you have seen it before, again) as
restored as possible.
Extras
include the 1927 silent version of the film with Lewis Stone (Newman
did the score for that one too,) two radio drama versions (Ronald
Colman/Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Lux
Radio Theater
and Screen
Director's Playhouse
version with Colman and John Cromwell at about an hour each) and an
Original Theatrical Trailer.
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 2.55 X 1 digital High Definition
image on The
Cobweb
and Knights
Of The Round Table
has some flaws from distortion from the old CinemaScope lens system,
but color (MetroColor) is usually really good and you get some nice
shots throughout. Some flaws are simply permanent and the actual
materials have only a few more here and there/ This is when the
scope films were wider before having to permanently accommodate
optical soundtracks and permanently became 2.35 X 1. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mixes om both films are
using mixdowns of the original 4-track magnetic stereo, so some of
the sound is permanently lost and Knights
suffers more issues in this respect, more noticeable as compared to
that great CD release noted above. Until the original 4-track
magnetic masters (or good copies) are somehow discovered, these are
the best soundtracks theses films will have until then.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the Wuxia
films can show the age of the materials used and the older single
anamorphic lenses (dubbed ShawScope no matter the lenses, but likely
Kowa brand) have distortions that can be as distracting as old
CinemaScope. Butterfly has the least flaws, all have good color and
some of the films (especially the last two) have more faded parts and
flaws than the first. The
Mandarin PCM 2.0 Mono mixes also show their age, with the latter two
films sounding especially boxy and limited, but they were theatrical
monophonic releases and with limited budgets, such issues are to be
expected.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Zenda
can in small spots show the age of the materials used, but this is
far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film and it
does a fine job of reproducing the look and colors of the 35mm
dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor prints that would have been issued at the
time. However, the original theatrical monophonic sound, here in
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono sound, has only aged so well, also
reflected in the monophonic CD we reviewed a while ago. Too bad MGM
threw out the stereo copies of the music, or this could have sounded
better.
To
order
any or all of the three Warner Archive Blu-rays, The
Cobweb,
Knights
Of The Round Table
and Prisoner
Of Zenda,
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
