Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Architect Robert Lomax (William Holden) has taken a year off work to move to Hong Kong and attempt to make it as an artist. It’s possibly a mid-life crisis, but what does he have to lose? He meets a young girl, Susie Wong (Nancy Kwan), and is instantly attracted to her – from a model point of view, of course! As the pair get used to each other, a romantic connection is formed, despite Suzie working as a prostitute when she’s not modelling.

This is a gorgeous-looking film (thanks to the legendary cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth – no relation) that takes in some eyebrow-raising themes, including the surprisingly frank depiction of the sex trade some women in Hong Kong work in and the violence they often endured (Suzie brags to her colleagues that Lomax beat her up like it’s a badge of honour and display of true love). Holden is fabulous as a man who goes out of his comfort zone to live his dream. The standards of the time are laid bare in the conversations of the Americans in Hong Kong, as well as the hypocrisies. Sylvia Sims’ character (who falls for Lomax) is a little underwritten and as such comes across as very clichéd. The film packs a massive dramatic punch towards the end that is at odds with the light, romantic nature of what proceeds it.

For those who enjoy spotting cameos from familiar faces, there are brief, early screen appearances for Bernard Cribbins and Lionel Blair.

Imprint’s Blu-ray shows the film off at its best. It’s also given an impressive amount of extras, including two feature-length documentaries: one focusing on the enigmatic star Nancy Kwan and another (on a separate disc and only available as part of this limited edition release) being a 2008 film looking at the influence of Chinese culture on Hollywood. The film has a cult following and it’s easy to see why, and this release will please its fans.

Short-lived genre anthology series Tales of Unease predates both Thriller (1973-76) and Tales of the Unexpected (1979-88) by several years but displays many of those shows’ dramatic motifs. Adapted for the small-screen from a set of popular horror anthologies compiled by John Burke, this single run of seven episodes was made for London Weekend TV and broadcast across the ITV network in 1970.

Mixing moments of mild peril with supernatural scares, the series offers a confident mix of contemporary, near-future and historical tales, all of which dramatise unnerving (rather than nerve-jangling) thirty-minute stories. The scripts by an eight-strong writing team are well crafted, and familiar faces from 1970s’ TV drama populate every story, including Talfryn Thomas, James Hazeldine, Susan George and Neil McCarthy. Like most anthologies, it is an uneven collection. The standout episodes include ‘It’s Too Late Now’, a salutary tale about the consequences of neglecting a long-suffering partner, and ‘Calculated Nightmare’, a darkly prescient speculation about the dangers of office automation. There’s some mischievous wit in ‘The Old Banger’, as a troublesome car refuses to be abandoned, while ‘Bad Bad Jo Jo’, in which an obnoxious film producer gets his comeuppance, is the collection’s only painfully dated stinker.

These diverse stories all come with bleak and downbeat endings, but can’t always claim to fully deliver the promised sense of disquiet. There’s a lack of Thriller style shocks, and few of the twists guaranteed in Tales of the Unexpected. While enthusiasts for classic-era British TV drama will find more than enough going on, uncertainty about the show’s identity perhaps explains why not enough viewers tuned-in in 1970 to win Tales of Unease a recommission.

TALES OF UNEASE is available on DVD from Network on OCTOBER 17th

Directed by the legendary Don Siegel Madigan teams Hollywood legends Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda in a brutal tale of crime. Commissioner Russell (Fonda) tries to keep his precinct in order.  Detectives Madigan (Widmark) and Bonaro (Harry Guardino)  are given seventy-two hours to apprehend a violent, cold-blooded killer.

Madigan can be viewed as a template for Dirty Harry, which Siegel would later direct. Both use real locations in which they are set. Both are gritty and hard-edged, and both feature protagonists that bend the rules to breaking point. And with such a great cast and director Madigan should surely be a great film. Sadly, it’s not.

The problem is the tone of the film is all over the place. The opening sequence is pure Siegel. It’s tight and taut as Madigan and Bonaro break into a suspect’s apartment. The resolution is the same and a sterling example of how to create an action scene. But the domestic scenes have more in common with a daytime soap opera and are clearly studio-bound. Russell Metty’s cinematography is used to stunning effect on location, but it simply can’t help the interior shots that look no better than a TV movie. Don Costa’s score is another detractor. The scenes scored to action sound more like the theme to a late-night talk show, and the romantic scenes are so bombastically saccharine that they practically scream, “Listen to the sweeping strings, the swell of the orchestra, this is romance!”

Despite the film’s flaws, Henry Fonda gives an outstanding performance as Commissioner Russell. It’s a measured, almost taciturn performance, but he commands your attention when on screen. Russell is not a man to trifle with despite his calm, softly spoken demeanour. Widmark too gives an excellent performance. He’s tired, cranky and prone to violence. He seems to care more about his job than his faltering marriage. The only misstep in his character occurs during an encounter between him and Russell where he seems to become a chastised schoolboy for no apparent reason.

Indicator has provided yet another excellent package of extras. The most interesting is the Super 8 cutdown home cinema presentation version of the film. The picture is washed out, the sound crackles and pops, and the edits of excised scenes are jarring, but before the advent of VHS this was Home Entertainment for those that could afford it.

The audio commentary with writers and film experts Barry Forshaw and Kim Newman is particularly informative. Siegel was constantly at loggerheads with producer Frank P. Rosenberg, which helps to explain the films uneven tonal shifts. Along with the original theatrical trailer and image gallery is an excerpt from the French television programme Cinéma cinemas in which Richard Widmark talks about his career. And then there’s the isolated music and effects track, which is probably best avoided unless you have a penchant for late-night talk show themes and romantic music lacking any nuance at all.

Although indelibly linked with its run of classic, lurid horror movies from the late 1950s until the early 1970s, Hammer Studios also dabbled in other genres such as thrillers, comedies, and historical or pseudo-historical adventures. They even draped themselves in lincoln green and put their own spin on the enduring legend of Robin Hood in three films including 1954’s Men of Sherwood Forest, 1960’s Sword of Sherwood Forest and 1967’s A Challenge for Robin Hood. The latter two titles are celebrated in style with superb new Blu-ray transfers in an impressive new boxset that takes us back to the heady simple days of a cheery Robin and his good-natured Merry Men robbing from the rich to give to the poor and indulging in a bit of fleet-footed swordplay with the nasty Sheriff of Nottingham. Hooray!

Richard Greene reprises his role as Robin from the popular TV series that came to an end the previous year in Sword of Sherwood Forest. Curiously, this version of Robin appears entirely unconnected to the TV series as it depicts our hero’s first encounter with all-new Maid Marion (Sarah Branch) and pitting his wits against Hammer doyen Peter Cushing as the Sheriff who plots to assassinate the Archbishop of Canterbury. There are a couple of nods to Hammer’s horror predilections in scenes where the Sheriff orders one of his queasy lackeys to exhume the recently-deceased body of a fugitive played by an uncredited Desmond Llewellyn and the Sheriff’s brutal slaying of Martin of Eastwood (Derren Nesbitt, again uncredited)  after he’s given him information about Robin and co’s whereabouts. It all ends with a fine old swordfight in a crowded chapel and a routing for surly Oliver Reed who makes an early movie appearance (also uncredited, oddly) as snarly Lord Melton.  Seven years later, Hammer returned to Sherwood Forest for an interesting new ‘origin’ for Robin in A Challenge for Robin Hood; now played by the likeable, if slightly miscast, Barrie Ingham, Robin De Courtenay is cast out into the Forest when his rascally cousin frames him for killing his brother. He crosses swords with John Arnatt’s seedy Sheriff of Nottingham almost immediately but is taken under the wing of a bunch of notorious outlaws hiding in the Forest. A quick test of his archery skills determines that he’s a natural leader and, with his jolly new gang in tow, he sets out to save Will Scarlet (Douglas Mitchell) from being hanged and to exact his revenge against his scheming less-than-perfect cousin. Comic relief is provided by Alfie Bass and Norman Mitchell as two dim-witted pie sellers and James Hayter is an exceedingly good Friar Tuck.

Neither film professes to be a classic interpretation of the Robin Hood story but they’re terrific fun in their own right., They look gorgeous and vivid on Blu-ray and Indicator has gone to town with the supporting material that includes an 80-page souvenir booklet, a poster, commentaries, new featurettes (Kim Newman discusses screen portrayals of Robin, for example), archive audio recordings and much more. It’s an embarrassment of riches, a terrific haul of swag that would delight even Robin himself.

Robin Hood at Hammer is available now on Blu-ray from Indicator

While conducting their clandestine affair, Paulie (Carol Ohmart) and Marsh (Tom Tryon) overhear plans for a jewel robbery while the owners are on holiday. Seeing this as a way out of her marriage, Paulie convinces Marsh to hijack the robbers and take the valuable loot. Unfortunately, Paulie’s husband (James Gregory) also happens to be Marsh’s boss and he has found out about their affair.

This fun noir-ish thriller was directed with zest by the legendary Michael Curtiz, most famous for Casablanca, but who also helmed the classic early two-strip colour horror pictures Doctor X and Mystery of the Wax Museum. While the plotting is a little messy, it’s always watchable and boasts a bonus of Nat ‘King’ Cole performing a song at the mid-point. The film also marks the first screen appearance of Broadway star Elaine Stritch (best known in the UK for the ‘70s sitcom Two’s Company, where she played opposite the stuff Donald Sinden).

Ohmart – also making her screen debut – is electrifying as the infatuated lover who has grown tired of her wealthy husband but not of the comforts. Her jealousy of the young secretary Jody Lawrance burns from the screen, but Tyron is a little too wet to be a convincing leading man. Curtiz builds some palpable tension in scenes in which Tyron may be caught out by the law (led by the brilliant E.G. Marshall), and these moments alone make the film unmissable.

While the Imprint Blu-ray is light on bonus features (with just a commentary and the trailer available), the film is interesting enough for fans of obscure Hollywood thrillers.

The Scarlet Hour is available on Blu-ray from Imprint in Australia. 

Charlton Heston dons a fedora as a shady character in this adventure that became one of the influences for Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Harry Steele (Heston) is a Jack-the-lad grifter working in Peru as an unofficial tour guide who hatches a plan to get out of the area when he meets a young Romanian, Elena (Nicole Maurey). Elena is being pursued by a pair of immigration officers, so Harry decides to steal their plane and head off to find a legendary Incan treasure.

While Heston sports the look of Indiana Jones, his morals are very different. Steele is in it for the money rather than archaeological reasons. His world-weary cynicism is the only thing that stops him from becoming a dislikeable character. Directed by Jerry Hopper (who would later helm episodes of TV series such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea), it’s a rollicking adventure and Heston is impressive as the roguish lead. Visually, it’s a Technicolour marvel, with the locations, in particular, looking spectacular. It’s remarkable how much George Lucas and Steven Spielberg lifted from Secret of the Incas for Raiders. Right down to the use of a beam of sunlight hitting an object the right way to reveal a location.

Imprint’s Blu-ray hasn’t had much of polish when it comes to the transfer, but it’s acceptable since no 4K transfer exists as yet. Extra features are not extravagant, but what there are is interesting. An archival recording of a radio adaptation of the story featuring both Heston and Maurey is well worth a listen.