Barry Forshaw
ON THE BEACH
Stanley Kramer, director/BFI
While writing a booklet essay for this impeccable BFI Release for Stanley Kramer’s groundbreaking Armageddon epic, the first thing that struck me was the cyclical nature of such genre entries. In 1959, the prospect of the end of the world brought about by the bomb and international conflict was fresh in people’s minds, a situation that receded with the end of the Cold War. But with a slew of newly aggressive nations across the planet, Kramer’s warning about the possible destruction of the human race seems ever more timely. And the film has worn well, with its heavyweight star cast including Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire (in a remarkable non-musical performance) and Anthony Perkins guaranteeing comprehensive audience involvement. Based on Nevil Shute’s novel, On the Beach r posits that almost all human life has been doomed by the radioactive fallout of a nuclear war, with only those in Australia temporarily spared. At the time of its release in 1959, the film’s realistic mien contrasted strikingly with other visions of Armageddon (those, for instance, brought about by alien invasion), and it’s sobering to see how Kramer’s fatalistic vision still has notable resonance. Of course, one of the reasons that the film still works so well today is the immediacy created by this pristine transfer, well up to the customary BFI standard. The BFI release sports copious extras including two audio commentaries and rare 8mm footage showing the making of the film. An Illustrated booklet sports new essays by Dr Christina Brennan and this writer, along with a biography of Stanley Kramer by Jennifer Frost. and writing by the BFI’s Vic Pratt, notes on the special features and film credits.
COLD PREY TRILOGY, Roar Uthaug, director/Second Sight
I wear my reputation as a specialist in Scandinavian film with a dash of pride, although a lot of homework is required to keep that reputation in place. While I’m more used to the arthouse aspects of Nordic cinema (mostly in the shadow of the definitive Scandinavian filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman), it’s always a pleasure to see just how good genre cinema from the colder regions can be. That’s very much the case with the Cold Prey trilogy from talented director Roar Uthaug, Now presented in a truly collectible limited edition Blu-ray box set, this is certainly the equal of cinematic bloodletting from America. Although we’ve seen the practically unbeatable Serial Killer theme ad infinitum, there are some intriguing new wrinkles added to the formula here, not least frigid setting which is strikingly evoked. The collector’s set sports spectacular special features including new interviews and commentaries with cast and filmmakers, plus a 120-page book full of new essays.
LA TRAVESTIE
Yves Boisset, etc., director/INDICATOR
This is a world premieres Blu-Ray from Indicator showcase a highly unusual film from Director Yves Boisset which addresses issues of gender and sexuality in a serious fashion while also paying tribute to earlier ventures into this territory, notably Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (The final scene here involving personality takeover is, it has to be said, more than a homage to Hitchcock’s film; it’s more like a re-creation). As for whether or not the film has any ideological axe to grind, that would be hard to say — and that is precisely one of its particular virtues: the fact that it would be hard to discern anything tendentious in what Yves Boisset is trying to convey. We are left to make our own minds up. A departure from his other films, Boisset’s La Travestie examines Lawyer Nicole (Zabou Breitman) is dealing with multiple crises in her life by reinvent herself as a man. The. 4K restoration from the original negative also includes Girls and Boys Come Out to Play (2026): a fascinating video essay by key film critic and historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas exploring the film’s themes of gender and power.
THE SEARCHERS 4K, John Ford, director/Warner
Blu-ray collectors will remember when this John Ford Classic first appeared on silver disc — and was an absolute revelation. The crisp and defined image and eye-popping colours made the film appear that it was made in the modern era rather than the 1950s, and it would have been difficult to imagine it looking any better. But that particular miracle has been achieved with this 4K issue which even manages to improve on that splendid Blu-ray Iteration. As for the film itself – well, anyone with an iota of knowledge of classic cinema will know that it is one of the greatest westerns ever made, with its complex picture of the driven, near-psychotic character played by John Wayne (in a career defining performance) in pursuit of his kidnapped relative (played by a youthful Natalie Wood. The film’s modern attitude to racism may be slightly undercut by the treatment of the Indian woman who fixes onto the Jeffrey Hunter character, but it’s the slightest of caveats in a film that really belongs on every collector’s shelves.
OH! WHAT A LOVELY WAR, Richard Attenborough, director/Eureka
The great era of the musical was over by the time that the actor Richard Attenborough made his directing debut with this remarkable record of Joan Littlewood’s Anti-war theatrical project; however, like Cabaret, the film was not seen as a standard musical and had a much wider reach than most films in the genre. With a cornucopia of British stars, this is a film that looks even better with the years, and is particularly enhanced in Eureka’s new transfer.
INTO THE FOREST: FOLKTALES AT DEFA, various directors/Eureka
Largely unknown to modern non-German audiences, these charming live action films are an illuminating vision of the kind of inventiveness that was standard at the celebrated German DEFA studios, and make for fascinating viewing. The one film familiar to non-German audiences, The Singing Ringing Tree, looks particularly lustrous in this new transfer.
HUSH, Mike Flanagan, director/Arrow
Real cineastes always take note of promising directors and follow their careers assiduously. Accordingly, many of us have paid keen attention to the work of Mike Flanagan previously responsible for TV’s The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep, and who now delivers a genuinely flesh-creeping cinema experience. Co-written with and starring Kate Siegel, this home invasion drama is a pulse-raising exercis in suspense. The two-disc release includes the Shush Cut of Hush – a black and white version with an alternative audio mix – as well as a feature length Q&A with Flanagan, a new visual essay, and interviews with cast and crew.
PAINTED FACES, Alex Law, director/88 films
Apart from the nicely observed playing here (particularly from Sammo Hung as the director of a group of children training for theatrical experience), one of the pleasures of the film is the rather beautiful cinematography which presents a world which will be unfamiliar to most viewers. For those seeking something off the beaten track, Painted Faces can be confidently recommended — although it should be pointed out that those expecting the usual acrobatic violence from the rotund Sammo Hung should perhaps look elsewhere – this is another side of his personality. The kung fu legend takes a rare dramatic role as the tough master Yu, a teacher training young kids for a life on the stage. Based on the real-life childhoods of Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and, yes, Sammo himself (he’s playing his own, real-life master), Painted Faces is a nostalgic tribute to a man who turned children into superstars
Barry Forshaw
ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, Luchino Visconti, director/BFI 4K UHD
The aristocratic Luchino Visconti had been given a book that greatly impressed him, a French translation of James M Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice. From this he would make one of the great Italian films of sexuality and violence, Obsession (Ossessione, 1942), and the inglorious recent past of the Italian cinema quickly receded. An explosion of filmmaking was in the offing, with all genres up for grabs. But the overriding preoccupation for most directors of the period, whether they were from working or middle-class backgrounds (or from a more patrician upbringing, such as Visconti), was the life of the common man. And some of the greatest films produced in Italy would result from this preoccupation, before audiences and directors tired of realism and yearned for colour, and spectacle. And the industry was crammed with filmmakers perfectly prepared to give audiences just what they wanted – even if it upset the all-powerful Catholic Church. Many would argue that Visconti‘s Rocco and his Brothers remains his signature film, combining the gritty blue-collar world of neo-realism with nigh-operatic drama (Visconti, in fact, was one of the great directors of opera). The epic-length film deals with a closely-knit family that leaves Italy’s rural areas for a challenging life in metropolitan Milan. The BFI issue of Rocco on 4K UHD for the first time in the UK is a reminder that Visconti’s 1960 film is one of the great classics of the cinema, and this restoration had a release in UK cinemas by the BFI in 2025. The iconic cast includes Alain Delon (dubbed very persuasively into Italian), Claudia Cardinale, and in a heartbreaking performance as an ill-fated prostitute, Annie Girardot.
Barry Forshaw
WAKE IN FRIGHT Ted Kotcheff, director/Arrow
Rescued from destruction, Ted Kotcheff’s lost film is a considerable find. A middle-class schoolteacher, stuck in a government-enforced teaching post in an arid backwater, stops off in the mining town of Bundanyabba on his way home for the Christmas holidays. Discovering a local gambling craze that may grant him the financial independence to move back to Sydney for good, the opportunity proves irresistible. But the bad decisions are just beginning and a reliance on local standards of hospitality in “the Yabba” may take him on a path darker than ever expected. One of director Ted Kotcheff’s most impressive achievements, Wake in Fright simmers with a phantasmagoric nightmare quality and is immeasurably enriched by impeccable performances from Donald Pleasance as an intellectual doctor living in squalor (one of the best of his later films), Gary Bond, Sylvia Kay, and Chips Rafferty in his final role. An uncompromising picture of brutal, sexist Australian masculinity. But the director’s defence (in the extras) that he was not attempting to paint a totally negative picture seems perhaps disingenuous.
SLITHER, James Gunn, director/Visions
It’s always interesting to look back on a filmmaker’s career and see the earlier signs of accomplishments that were to flourish later. James Gunn is now best known as one of the heavy-hitters in charge of DC Studio’s new cinema strategy, with recast versions of Superman and Supergirl leading the charge. But one of the reasons Gunn was given this heavyweight responsibility was the success of his Guardians of the Galaxy films for Marvel and the enjoyably excessive TV series Peacemaker. Apart from spectacle, Gunn is always reliable when it comes to delivering action and character, both of which are in evidence in Slither, in which a small town is taken over by an alien plague. The film was praised sporadically on its first appearance, but is now given a silver disc showcase which shows it to its very best advantage. Watching the film in its new iteration proves something which should not be surprising: how accomplished and well-crafted it is. Clearly, right from the start of his career, James Gunn had what it takes to be an audience-pleasing filmmaker.
MADHOUSE, Jim Clark, director/Eureka Entertainment
One of the principal attractions of this spruced-up new transfer of Jim Clark’s Madhouse is the chance it affords the viewer of seeing various generations of horror film royalty. Vincent Price, of course, had ruled the roost in America in the horror genre since House of Wax in the 1950s, through Roger Corman’s stylish adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe and beyond. Peter Cushing to some degree was his British equivalent (Although he shared that honour with his frequent co-star Christopher Lee – the duo launched their horror careers with the groundbreaking Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula). Madhouse, however, also features a third star who had made a considerable impact with his first two films as a leading man, Robert Quarry: Count Yorga and The Return of Count Yorga. Despite being charismatic and commanding, his star was to be somewhat eclipsed after these films although he continued to work steadily. Interestingly, the behind-the-scenes conflicts in the film between Price and Quarry may have helped with the incendiary atmosphere that the film trades in.
TWO MUSICAL TREATS: BLUE MOON, Richard Linklater, director & MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG Maria Friedman, director/Sony
Admirers of the very best classic musicals have cause to celebrate with these very different films. Blue Moon is an unsparing biography of Richard Rodgers’ original lyric writing partner before his association with Oscar Hammerstein, the tragic Lorenz Hart. As the diminutive, self-hating musician, Ethan Hawke delivers a career-best performance as Hart, sitting in a bar on the opening night of Oklahoma!, the musical that was to signal his final break from Rodgers. The finest of all modern musical composers ,Stephen Sondheim was, in fact, a protégé of Hammerstein, and the new recording of his musical Merrily we Roll Along is a demonstration of why he attained the same kind of celebrity as his mentor.
HOUSE OF HAMMER Volume 1 and Coming From Hammer: The Count Uncensored
As the revitalised Hammer Films move from strength to strength, the latest issue is the first volume in a very welcome Series, House of Hammer, which is a freshly curated compendium celebrating the achievements of the Hammer Studio. The documentaries included here are fascinating, along with a packed booklet that will be catnip to lovers of the studio (and aficionados of Britain’s most enterprising studio are growing exponentially).
The company has told us that more delights are on the way. A landmark new 4K restoration of Dracula is coming, featuring long-lost footage unseen for over 60 years. Painstakingly restored in 4K from the best original archival materials sourced from around the world, Dracula (1958) returns to cinemas nationwide and on home entertainment this October, in its most complete form ever presented – just in time for Halloween.
EMPIRE OF THE ANTS, Bert I/Gordon, director/Eureka
His films may have been a battle between inventiveness and poverty of resources, but there’s no denying that the Director Bert I. Gordon left his mark on the cinema of the fantastic. Early hits included The Amazing Colossal Man and its sequel War of the Colossal Beast, but later in his career Mr B.I.G. (as he became known because of his initials) created a series of films based (very loosely) on the work of the most distinguished of British science fiction authors, HG Wells. That writer’s short story distantly supplied the plot here, with the illegal dumping of radioactive waste in the sea leading to grotesque (and lethal) mutations to menace Joan Collins, no less. The limited edition booklet features new writing on Empire of the Ants and ecological horror by genre film expert Liam Hathaway. Also included: The B.I.G. Picture – an interview with film historian Kim Newman focused on the life and career of the cult filmmaker.
THE OUTFIT, John Flynn, director/Arrow
