Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

ESSENTIAL FILM NOIR COLLECTION 2 (1951 – 1954)

The second of Australian label Imprint’s noir releases contains a quartet of gems that are often overlooked when discussing the genre.

The earliest of the films included in the set is arguably one of the best, too. Hollywood Story (1951) is superbly directed by the legendary William Castle, showing that there was more to the man than gimmicks and ballyhoo. The story follows a film producer looking to make a movie out of an unsolved murder case that took place years earlier. It also features Julie Adams (aka Julia Adams), who was the beauty who won the Creature from the Black Lagoon’s heart. It’s a rollicking fun whodunit that gives the audience a look behind the scenes of moviemaking, albeit the sinister side.

City That Never Sleeps (1953) has the viewer trailing a disillusioned police officer on what he intends to be his last night on the force. With corruption and violence not far from the story, it’s an eventful night that even has a supernatural twist in its tail.

Plunder in the Sun (1953) transports the action away from the bleakness of the city to the exotic climes of Cuba as Glenn Ford attempts to smuggle a valuable package for a collector. Shady deals, death, and Indiana Jones-type adventure await him, though.

Private Hell 36 (1954) also deals with police corruption as an underpaid, underappreciated cop helps himself to some illicit money, much to his partner’s disgust. Ida Lupino is superb as always as a washed-up singer panhandling in bars to make a living. She also co-wrote the script, but although she was a dab hand as a director, the honours here go to the brilliant Don Siegel (Dirty Harry).

The packaging for this limited edition box set is great; each film is presented in their respective boxes (and assigned individual Imprint numbers for those collecting them all) and the box itself is a hard case with a pull-off lid. Each film has an admirable amount of special features, too. They all contain commentaries (all brand new except for Plunder in the Sun) and critical insight and archive featurettes that add more perspective on the movies.

While the films included in the set may not be what you think of when film noir is mentioned, they do display how varied the genre could be and are fun adventure pictures with their own merits.

THE GAMBLER (1974)

An exhilarating and disturbing portrayal of an addict, The Gambler is possibly one of James Caan’s finest performances.

Caan plays Axel Freed, teaching literature during the day and likes a flutter at night. Well, more than a flutter, as he’s racked up $44.000 in debt in one night on the tables. The heavies he owes the money to are not the type to accept a few quid a week, either. Axel has big problems, and, surprisingly, getting the money to pay them back isn’t the biggest. Even after borrowing the full amount from his mother, he’s compelled to head to Vegas and squander it again.

Directed by Karel Reisz (Night Must Fall, 1964), The Gambler isn’t just a portrait of a man crippled by his compulsion to squander money, as Axel is addicted to losing and the danger that provides probably more than winning. It’s not even about the money for him, as we see him bet $20 against 50 cents in a game of one-on-one basketball with some street kids. The film works in a similar way to Uncut Gems, as it has us rooting for Axel, but while we were with Adam Sandler’s character all the way in the brilliant 2019 film, in The Gambler, our patience with Axel wears thin. Every time he has the money to avoid serious harm, another bet comes along, allowing him to grasp defeat from the jaws of success. The frustration we might feel doesn’t lessen how great the film is, however. Even knowing the stakes, the tension during some of the scenes is palpable. Axel knows his fate isn’t a good one but still pushes for one more roll of the dice.

A superb host of character actors backs up Caan. Lauren Hutten plays his long-suffering girlfriend, and Paul Sorvino is wonderfully typecast as the heavy to whom he owes money and Burt Young as his go-between. There’s also blink-and-you’ll-miss-them appearances from M. Emmet Walsh, James Woods, and Antonio Fargas (another typecast, but equally brilliant).

Imprint’s Blu-ray is as stacked as we’ve come to expect from the Australian boutique label. Each feature adds valuable context to the film and the work of director Karel Reisz. The film itself was remade in 2014 with Mark Wahlberg, but nothing comes close to Caan in the original.

THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK (1941)

Peter Lorre is often thought of as the lesser of the horror masters of the Golden Age. The fact he only made a handful of films in the genre during the ‘30s and ‘40s probably has a lot to do with that, but his screen presence was a formidable as any of his contemporaries. The Face Behind the Mask has elements of many genres and is prime for rediscovery.

Janos (Lorre) is new to America and as he leaves the boat in New York, he’s befriended by an Irish cop O’Hara (Don Beddoe) who takes pity on the naïve young dreamer who’s looking to make a living in a new country. O’Hara points him in the direction of an affordable hotel, but when a fire rages through the building, Janos is badly burned. With a deformed face and no prospects of work, he falls in with a kindly crook Dinky (George E. Stone). He soon uses his skills to become the head of the underground organisation. His ill-gotten gains give him enough money to buy a new face albeit in mask form. Still dreadfully unhappy, Janos bumps into (literally) a blind woman (Evelyn Keyes) and the pair being a relationship built on the good person Janos really is.

With the tough elements of the gangster film and visually disturbing parts of the horror genre, The Face Behind the Mask is a satisfying melding of styles. Lorre is superb as Janos, loveably innocent in the early scenes and then eaten up with hatred following the fire. His descent into crime isn’t one done by choice but rather necessity and bitterness at a world that shuns him because of his appearance. The romance element is handled beautifully, which makes the climax all the more heartbreaking. There is only one brief moment where we see Janos’ charred face, but it packs a massive punch, and we can imagine it would have been truly shocking when the film was first released. Director Robert Florey was ousted from making Dracula (he was given Murders in the Rue Morgue instead) but he had an impressive CV of films and would later go on to direct episodes of all the major anthology shows of the sixties. However, this is arguably his masterpiece for genre fans.

Running little over an hour, you could be forgiven for dismissing this as a B-movie programmer, but there’s much more to it and will stay with you longer than others in its ilk. Admirably, Australian label Imprint has given the film a suitably impressive complement of extras. They all add something to the appreciation of the movie and make it a worthwhile purchase for fans of classic cinema.

SCAVENGER

Scavenger is that rarity – a post-apocalyptic wannabe-grindhouse exploitation movie filmed in Argentina. It’s a subgenre that sadly isn’t rare enough; Scavenger is a horrible, nasty, vile, grubby little film that runs for just over seventy minutes but every painful, badly-directed and written minute – no, make that second - feels like a lifetime spent in absolute, unbearable purgatory in the company of ghastly, repellent, misogynistic foul-mouthed lowlife scumbags.

Let’s get this over with. In some tediously low-rent Mad Max post-apoc wilderness we meet Tisha (Nayla Churruarin), a wild and dangerous loner who tracks down other loners, slaughters them and sells their corpses as meat to feed the survivors in a starving, arid world. She’s a tortured soul, tormented by some terrible family trauma from her youth. She meets up with – and is abused by – a stripper named Luna (Sofia Lanaro) and she finds herself a prisoner in what can only be described as a rape club where she is repeatedly violently violated by hideous, stinking, fetid excuses for mankind. These over-extended sequences are ugly and hideous to watch; there’s no morality here, just unnecessarily graphic and painful physical violence just for the sake of it and for pure shock value.

Directors Eric Fleitas and Luciana Garraza have created a bog-standard (in every conceivable sense of the expression) revenge thriller and filled it with filth, foul characters and poorly executed violence. Scavenger is scuppered not only by its own inexcusable sleaziness, but it’s also not helped by the terrible production design and a budget that won’t even stretch to making its unpalatable world convincing. The whole thing looks as if it was flung together with bits and pieces salvaged from a rubbish tip (where we can only assume the script was also exhumed) with desperate-for-a-credit actors dragged in from amateur porn videos. It’s hard to imagine that even aficionados of torture porn and grindhouse cinema will find anything to redeem this stomach-churning monstrosity. Fleitas and Garraza might be minded to defend their ‘work’ as a study in the depths humanity can sink to in desperate, stricken times but we’re calling shenanigans on that one.

We admire anyone who can marshall the resources and energy to actually get a film made but there are times when the effort just isn’t worth it and the end result is so shockingly unappealing and bereft of creative merit that it deserves nothing but contempt and dismissal and absolutely nothing in the way of recommendation. We’re tempted to give this one a zero rating but it earns itself one star purely by virtue of the fact that it could have gone on a lot longer and ruined even more of our day. Please… avoid at all costs and don’t even let your curiosity get the better of you. Scavenger is truly appalling.

Scavenger is available on Blu-ray (with the soundtrack CD) and VOD in the US.

DOCTOR WHO – JON PERTWEE UNCUT

With his velvet-lined capes, frilly shirts and increasingly-exuberant shock of white hair, Jon Pertwee is right up there with the very best of the ‘classic series’ Doctors in Doctor Who. Certainly his five-year run in the role is more consistent and more assured than many of those who followed him and even if many fans found his initial ‘Earth exile’ format stifling there’s no arguing that his James Bond-lite action hero portrayal, combined with improved production values and a greater storytelling confidence, rescued Doctor Who from the dumper that had beckoned it at the end of its monochrome 1960s era.

The latest in BBV Productions’ ‘Uncut’ DVD releases presents – as with last month’s John Nathan-Turner disc – raw and unedited footage of Pertwee in his twilight years (presumably not long before his tragic passing in May 1996) discussing his career and, more specifically, his time on Doctor Who with BBV’s Bill Baggs. It’s wonderful to have this material now widely available, particularly when it features Who legends who have long since left us, as it offers us a permanent and poignant reminder of their legacy in their own words and offers us the opportunity to enjoy their memories, their insights and their company and even the odd ‘not for public consumption’ moment when the ‘performance’ is turned off.

Pertwee was, of course, a terrific raconteur, a product of the music hall/musical theatre generation and, even here in his later years, he lights up the screen and dominates proceeedings, his mind is as sharp as his wit and he steers the discussion and digs deep into long-forgotten memories and is quite frank about his general disinterest in science fiction and the fact that much of the detail and specifics of his time on Doctor Who is lost in the mists of time. Resplendent in his trademark frilly shirt, his hair blazing white and his face craggy with decades of professional experience, Pertwee doesn’t disappoint. He trots out anecdotes that will be as familiar as old friends to long-time fans – the eye-patch incident, the Yeti on the loo in Tooting Bec, the Mother Hen, his love of half-mask monsters. They’re safe ground for Pertwee, stories wheeled out at hundreds of conventions and we never tire of hearing them, especially as there’s usually some embellishment that makes each telling slightly different from the one before.

Pertwee has no dirt to dish; his era was a warm and wonderful time for him, surrounded by his friends and leading the company in a show enjoying a new wave of popularity in the age of colour TV. Occasionally, Baggs will ask a slightly more detailed question but Pertwee has no interest in or memory of the minutiae although his frustration at the continuing typecasting he suffered post-Doctor Who is quite evident and the admission that he probably should have left the role earlier than he did is quite surprising considering that he has never hidden the fact that he would have done a sixth season if the money was right. More interesting again is his reaction to mention of Tom Baker, notorious amongst former Doctors in keeping a clear distance between himself and his fellow Time Lord actors and there’s a wealth of unspoken antipathy in Pertee’s initial response to reference to his illustrious successor.

They don’t make ‘em like Jon Pertwee any more. Jon Pertwee Uncut is a wonderful time capsule in and of itself and a warm and cherishable souvenir of the life and times of one of Doctor Who’s most majestic and iconic stars.

Jon Pertwee Uncut is available from bbvproductions.co.uk

PARALLEL

Getting together to scramble through an impossible deadline, four friends discover a doorway to parallel universes in the attic. Initially using it to buy some extra time to get their app made, the pals quickly find other uses for the portal. Some use it for fame and fortune – ripping off famous art in a universe where the art sucks and Mona Lisa has short hair – while others opt for revenge and reconnecting with lost, dead family members. But as the gang get more and more confident in bouncing willy-nilly between universes, some develop consciences while others become more brazen in their crimes.

High concept, low budget, Isaac Ezban’s sci-fi thriller is a cross between a Twilight Zone episode and Christopher Nolan movie. It may not have the big bucks behind it like the latest Nolan blockbuster, but it’s crisp and clean; well-shot and directed, with solid performances from its cast. While at least half of their stories play out as you might expect (industrial espionage, an accidental murder and one girl doing the plot of Yesterday, except with art), there is some value to be had in Devin’s (Aml Ameen) search for a reality in which his dad still lives.

Like the art of parallel universe scamster Leena (Georgia King), Parallel is not terribly original, following in the footsteps of many a sci-fi thriller (slash Rick and Morty episode) before it. Tonally, it’s muddled, struggling to manage its comedy beats and darker impulses. Still, the performances and Scott Blaszak’s to-the-point script make the film easy to like, in spite of its flaws. Were we all living in a universe where this was the only film of its kind, Parallel would probably be the best film of its kind.

THE PRESIDENT’S ANALYST (1967)

The President’s Analyst is a criminally underseen that gem spans comedy, espionage, adventure, and a dollop of what would have been sci-fi at the time of release but is now remarkably prescient.

James Coburn, fresh from In Like Flint, stars as Dr Sidney Schaefer, a regular psychotherapist who is plucked from his routine surgery to exclusively be at the beck and call of the President of the United States. The pressure soon becomes too much to bear, and he absconds. But, with so much delicate information in his head, the rival arms of the government can’t let him get away. One wants him to return, the other wants him dead, and the rest of the world wants the president’s secrets.

Written and directed by Theodore ‘Ted’ J. Flicker (the font in the opening credits doesn’t do his name any favours), The President’s Analyst is a gloriously quirky satire that boasts a jazzy score from the legendary Lalo Schifrin, which heightens the ‘sixties spy’ feel of the movie. Coburn appears to be having a blast as the therapist, particularly in the scenes where he joins up with the psychedelic rock band Clear Light (a real, also forgotten group). As the film progresses, the situations get increasingly and delightfully absurd, and the climax is fantastic, but we won’t spoil that here.

The depiction of the relationships between the various countries’ agents is wonderfully played, with the USA’s Don Masters (Godfrey Cambridge) and Russia’s Kropotkin (Severn Darden) showing the humanity under the cloak and daggers. Much of the politics of the film is as relevant today as it was on release, with both left and right-wing extremists coming under the spotlight.

Imprint’s Blu-ray release showcases the film in the best possible way. Even though the extra features are limited to a commentary (by Tim Lucas) and an on-camera appreciation from Kim Newman, the wealth of information delivered is entertaining and worthwhile. As Newman says in his spot, The President’s Analyst is a film that deserves to have the cult status that has eluded it so far. Hopefully, its time will come soon.

BASIC INSTINCT

He satirised corporate culture in Robocop. Next he lost Schwarzenegger’s mind in Total Recall. To follow director Paul Verhoven got sexy with erotic thriller Basic Instinct. With a screenplay by Joe Eszterhas, Basic Instinct tells the torrid tale of San Francisco homicide detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas). Curran, whose former vices include smoking, drinking, coke sniffing, and accidentally shooting tourists, becomes obsessed with Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone). To complicate matters, she’s the prime suspect in the brutal murder of a former rock star.

Trammell, when she isn’t in the throes of carnal pleasure, writes crime fiction seemingly just to pass the time. And being a top-of-her-class psychology graduate she’s an expert at manipulation and playing mind games. When Curran is drawn into Trammell’s sphere of influence his vices return, except for accidentally shooting tourists.

When Basic Instinct was revealed to cinematic audiences in 1992, it was equally infamous for the LGBQT+ community protests, who were angry at how a gay character was portrayed as being a psychotic killer, and the Sharon Stone sans underwear interrogation scene. Much has been discussed about these two points. One thing is certain, Trammell is a forthright woman of strength and charisma. A woman who is without doubt in complete control of any situation she’s in. She doesn’t pretend to be anything else and openly states that she enjoys sex and playing mind games. She warns Curran that he’s out of his depth and shouldn’t play what he can’t win. If anything, the truly reprehensible characters are the men, particularly Curran. He tries to salve his wounded ego, and bury his conflicted feelings for Trammell by raping his former lover.

Basic Instinct is a hugely preposterous homage to Hitchcock. Jerry Goldsmith’s excellent score deliberately invokes regular Hitchcock collaborator Bernhard Herrmann. Sharon Stone looks near identical to Kim Novak’s Vertigo character during the interrogation scene. But then Verhoven does state that Vertigo is one of his all-time favourite films. Despite the preposterousness, it’s hard not to get swept along by the convoluted shenanigans. Douglas and Stone are such engaging leads that their chemistry and sexual tension seem to flood from the screen like a palpable wave of pheromones. Verhoven’s direction is confident and assured, one might even say European. He manages to make the explicit sex scenes oddly tasteful. And Jan de Bont’s cinematography is a thing of beauty. Thanks to the 4K transfer, each frame is to an exquisite work of art. Colour is vibrant, the night is a velvet black, the sex scenes are bathed in a soft gold.

There are a slew of extras as you’d expect with a Studiocanal release.

New documentary Basic Instinct: Sex, Death and Stone reunites the cast and crew twenty-nine years after the release. There are revealing anecdotes aplenty and the only ones who don’t seem the have succumbed to the effects of entropy are Verhoven and Sharon Stone. An Unending Story – Scoring Basic Instinct is an excellent little documentary highlighting Jerry Goldsmith’s stunning soundtrack. In archival footage, Goldsmith himself states that it was the hardest score he produced in his long career.

Blonde Poison is a made for TV ‘Making of…’ featurette from 1992 and is typical of the period. The cast and crew interviews featurette is also a throwback to 1992 and is more an edited highlights of Blonde Poison.

There’s also storyboard comparisons and screen tests, and two audio commentaries by Paul Verhoeven and Jan de Bont, with the other by Camille Paglia. It’s impossible not to be carried away by Verhoven’s exuberance and excitement, which makes it all the more enjoyable giving in to our basic instincts.

Release Date: June 14th

THE STYLIST

Having wowed with her 2016 The Stylist short, Jill Gevargizian makes her full-feature directorial debut here by expanding that short and delving deeper into the world of psychologically troubled hair stylist Claire (Najarra Townsend).

In this feature, The Stylist picks things up with Claire and her penchant for scalping those whose lives she’s envious of. Flipping from shy innocence to clinical and calculated murder at the drop of a dime, Townsend is fantastic as Claire – particularly as our titular stylist finds herself becoming more and more obsessed over her soon-to-be wed client Olivia (Brea Grant).

It’s this relationship that is at the heart of The Stylist, with the friendless Claire experiencing mixed emotions by the warmth and welcoming nature shown by Olivia. But the closer Claire gets to Olivia, the more she starts to veer towards a dangerous fixation.

Adding to the oft-trippy inner-workings of Claire, the colour palette and shooting style of The Stylist brings a whole other layer to Claire’s descent into madness. Jill Gevargizian had brought that same ambience to the 2016 short, and many wondered how Gevargizian would fare in utilising that same approach in a feature film. On that front, the filmmaker absolutely knocks it out of the park, bringing in colours, changing up the lighting, or slowing down the action at exactly the right moments.

Sticking with that topic, The Stylist is never anything but utterly beautiful to look at. Gevargizian and cinematographer Robert Patrick Stern have a gift when it comes to serving up delightful visuals, and likewise the musical beats of Nicholas Elert draped over the antics of Claire round out a stunning presentation.

Performance-wise, Najarra Townsend is phenomenal as the headline act here, with Townsend showcasing a genuine innocence and awkwardness to Claire while also bringing a level of emotional weight to the heinous acts that the character carries out. Simply put, this is a powerhouse performance. Then there’s Brea Grant, whose Olivia is never put too far in the rear-view mirror of The Stylist. While this movie is very much Claire’s story, Olivia is a pivotal, grounded piece of the puzzle in how that story plays out – and Grant is great in how she brings so much to Olivia as she finds herself thrown through her own mixed emotions. There also needs to be praise to Gevargizian, Eric Havens, and Eric Stolze for the screenplay they’ve put together here. The dialogue – or lack thereof, at times – always feels natural, and it’s this dialogue that often results in you having some semblance of sympathy towards the clearly unhinged Claire.

For a directorial debut, The Stylist is a brilliant movie. Directorial debut or not, though, and The Stylist is a brilliant movie, period, with so much for horror hounds to devour once the film gets a full release. When we spoke to Jill earlier this year, she jokingly teased how she already had plans for The Stylist 10 (Claire in space with Jason Voorhees, in case you were wondering), and if this movie is anything to go by, the twisted antics of Claire and the concept of The Stylist have so much potential to run with over the next however many years.

Release Date: Out Now (Arrow VOD and Blu-ray). You can read our interview with director Jill Gevargizian here.

INDIANA JONES 4-MOVIE COLLECTION 4K UHD

Few movie franchises are as universally adored as the Harrison Ford-fronted Indiana Jones. And with a fifth Indy picture on the way, on our desk here we’ve got a nicely timed 4K UHD release of the four films that have been served up in the series so far.

The globe-hopping adventures and antics of Ford’s Dr. Jones have long brought a smile to the face of many a generation, and to delve into the plot of each of these films is largely redundant at this time. If you enjoyed the narratives, the characters and the execution of those offerings, you’ll still enjoy them here in 2021.

Of course, chances are near-enough every one of you reading this review will have seen at least the first three Indiana Jones pictures. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull clearly split opinion upon its release and beyond, The Last Crusade is a fun offering that maybe doesn’t quite hit the heights of its two predecessors, but Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom are two phenomenal movies that were great back then and are just as fantastic all these years later.

Given just how popular the Indiana Jones franchise is, the main appeal of this new release is clearly what else is being brought to the table. On that front, it’s the glorious 4K UHD remaster and Dolby Atmos upgrade that take these four films and elevate them to previously unseen levels.

Is viewing Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 4K going to magically make you fall in love with that movie? Likely not. But this crisp remastering work make all four pictures pop so wonderfully. For the more vibrant moments, this new release is utterly jaw-dropping, while the oft-grim and grimy locales that Indy finds himself in have a whole new sense of richness to them.

As expected, the Indiana Jones franchise has never looked or sounded better, and revisiting these movies in this format makes you fall in love with the world of Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr. all over again.

In this collection, there are a total of nine discs that deliver each film in both 4K and standard Blu-ray, with the package rounded out by a bonus disc full of seven hours of additional Indy content. The animated menus of the movies look absolutely stunning, with them acting as the sort of warm hug you get upon being reunited with an old friend. And let’s face it, that’s something we could all do with these days.

One element of the release that we’re unable to comment on, is the bonus disc. While that wasn’t available to us at the time of this review, we do know that the seven hours of extras are said to have been included in previous releases of these movies.

INDIANA JONES 4-MOVIE COLLECTION is available on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray™ and on Digital to Download & Keep from the 7th June.