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.

Barry Forshaw

There was a time when the DVD revolution seemed to be the last word in home cinema physical media – then along came Blu-ray and had viewers wondering why we once thought so highly of its predecessor. The latest technological development, 4K, is not quite (on the surface) as revolutionary – as the picture quality of Blu-ray was already so analytical – but sometimes a disc comes along which can set new standards of technical excellence – as is the case with this eye-popping new version of Charles Russell’s pulse-raising thriller. Arnold Schwarzenegger fans will know what to expect (particularly if– as is likely – they will have caught the film in one of its earlier iterations), and the Austrian Oak delivers a monolithic but effective performance. Apart from Russell’s skill with action sequences (of which the film boasts a cornucopia), there is the added presence of two major Hollywood stars who may be somewhat past their best but still are utterly reliable: James Caan and James Coburn, both of whom supply a sharp level of characterisation. This 30^th Anniversary edition includes new bonus content featuring the director, along with star Vanessa Williams reflecting on the making of the film 30 years later.

Barry Forshaw

Horror Films of the 2010s by John Kenneth Muir, McFarland

The horror film genre – up to the beginning of the 2000s — has been thoroughly investigated and analysed by many writers (not least this one!), but as yet there has been no exhaustive coverage of the horror films of the 2010s . That situation has changed at a stroke with this extremely useful (and compendious) guide to the decade by John Kenneth Muir, published by McFarland.When a new breed of horror film was signalled by the phenomenal success of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, a period of stasis for the Gothic genre followed. However,by the 2000s, a major revival of interest in the field (in both Britain and the United States) took place, a revival which proceeded with fresh vigour as the tropes of Gothic literature found new and inventive forms of expression. It is the latter trend which makes a study such as this ever more à propos, John Kenneth Muir’s pithy and informed analysis, beginning with And Soon the Darkness and ending with Us, is an invaluable resource, and its approach — often generous towards films which have been controversially received — is always welcome.

Barry Forshaw

INVADERS FROM MARS, William Cameron Menzies, director/BFI

I have to confess to having a personal interest in this 4K restoration of one of the best loved films of the science fiction boom of the 1950s. For Invaders from Mars, I provided a booklet essay and also contributed a commentary with my friend and colleague Kim Newman. If you are an aficionado of the alien invasion movies of the 1950s – and what true science fiction fan isn’t? – you may enjoy such films for their jaw-dropping spectacles of destruction, or – in the term popularised by the writer Damon Knight – for their creation in the viewer of ‘the sense of wonder’ that fictitious encounters with beings from other worlds inspire. Invaders From Mars has inspired many directors and is now restored in 4K, and arrives in both UHD and Blu-ray formats, sporting numerous special features, including that newly recorded Forshaw/Newman audio commentary and Not Just a Dream: Designing Hope in Invaders From Mars, with filmmaker Nic Wassell looking at the work of legendary production designer and director William Cameron Menzies.

RED BEARD, Akira Kurosawa, director/BFI

There is no denying the fact that the British film Institute has done a splendid job when it comes to Akira Kurosawa’s remarkable cinematic legacy. This excellent transfer of the director’s last black and white film is the equal of earlier issues. Red Beard was nominated for a Golden Globe Award after its original release; and its star Toshiro Mifune bagged the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. This new issue is bristling with special features, including an audio commentary by filmmaker Kenta McGrath. Kurosawa’s focussed, intense study centres on a socially ambitious young doctor (Yuzo Kayama) arriving at a rural clinic in 19th-century Japan to work with the formidable Dr Kyojio Niide, known as Red Beard (Mifune). Mifune’s performance is towering. Special features? The film is  restored in 2K and presented in High Definition; It also includes interviews with Kurosawa, actors Yoshio Tsuchiya and Kyoko Kagawa, art director Yoshiro Muraki and others.

28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE, Nia DaCosta, director/Sony

Was it possible that Danny Boyle and Alex Garland were aware that their end-of-the-world zombie franchise would prove so durable? This latest iteration rings some satisfying changes on the formula and contains a remarkable central performance by Ralph Fiennes. Nia DaCosta’s direction takes the horror-defining franchise to unsettling new heights.

DANGER: DIABOLIK, Mario Bava, director/Arrow

Now that the film industry has decided that films based on comic strips absolutely rule the roost, it’s instructive to watch again one of the film’s that started it all. Less influential, perhaps, than Richard Donner’s Superman, Mario Bava’s eye-popping Danger: Diabolik was the first film to seriously recreate the colour and excitement of the comics; Bava based his visually stunning film on the Italian fumetti in his native country, and his Batman -like protagonist in skintight leather is actually an anti hero, star of a long run of digest-sized comics. The actor John Phillip Law is perfect for the part.

The hypnotic black and white cult classic Black Sunday (La Maschera del Demonio, 1960) remains, perhaps, the calling card movie for the director, but this colourful entry is in the upper echelons.

GOD OF GAMBLERS, Wong Jing, director/88 Films

It’s safe to say that this eccentric and lively comic thriller with the elegant Andy Lau is quite unlike anything the viewer might have seen and steadfastly refuses to be fitted into any one category. Director and actors throw themselves into the proceedings with abandon, and the result is always entertaining.

HI, MOM! Brian de Palma, director /Radiance

It’s always fascinating see the early work of the director went on to have an illustrious mature career – particularly if there are prefiguring is what was to come later in the director’s vision (although neither Francis Ford Coppola door Michael winner were particularly proud of the Cairo films in the erotic vein. Ironically, an adult filmmaker is the role in which a young Brian Robert De Niro appears in this highly unusual early work by Brian De Palma who was later to prove himself the most talented of directors inspired by the great Alfred Hitchcock. De Niro as a Vietnam VAT that investigating the counterculture of New York, here ruthlessly satirised. De Niro, too, shows what he was already capable of. Students of de Palma need not hesitate.

HAMMER VOLUME 7: SHIPS & GIGGLES, various directors/Indicator

Anyone interested in the output of the Hammer Films studios owes it to themselves to investigate something other than the company’s horror product. Hammer’s crime films are making welcome reappearances on Blu-ray, and here is an intriguing set form Indicator that collects several of the company’s comedies, including the much sought after comic version of Jekyll & Hyde, The Ugly Duckling, with Bernard Bresslaw as the identity-changing central character. Those who are of the opinion that Village of the Damned is one of the best British science fiction films ever made will be intrigued to see that film’s director Wolf Rilla handling very different material in Watch It, Sailor!

ADVENTURE CALLS, various directors/Eureka

This welcome 7-film set is a valuable demonstration of how useful the Blu-ray revolution has proved in rehabilitating neglected work. The writer Karl May is hardly known in the UK these days but was massively successful in Germany – much in the way that the novels of the crime writer Edgar Wallace enjoyed much more success in that country in the 1950s and later than in his own territory of the British Isles. Westerns based on Karl May’s lively novels were terrific commercial successes, often featuring the expat actor Lex Barker as the durable gunslinging hero. The directors in this set, are particularly intriguing, including cult craftsmen Robert Siodmak and Hugo Fregonese. Transfers here are impeccable, with colour values that positively leap from the screen.

JACKIE CHAN: BREAKOUT FILMS, various directors/Arrow Films

While Bruce Lee represented the violent apex of martial arts movies, his colleague and rival Jackie Chan has had a far longer career, channelling knockabout humour in his tongue-in-cheek action movies. The selection here of several of the star’s best loved movies demonstrate the reasons for his massive international success; all are prime examples of Chan’s remarkable acrobatic skills – along with many examples of the well-known stunts which left Chan and his unlucky stuntmen in hospital. The films, of course, are of varying quality, but all are exceptionally well make and showcase his vulnerable charm along with his acrobatic expertise – and the word ‘vulnerable’ perhaps sums up his particular appeal and most marked difference from the more savage Bruce Lee. The latter generally appeared to be as invulnerable as superhero and only occasionally did he show pain or discomfort, whereas it’s a critical part of Jackie Chan’s apparatus. The various directors do a splendid job in marshalling the narrative aspects of the films in between the action sequences.

TAXIDERMIA, György Pálfi, director/Chasm

Chasm proves that it can unearth the most intriguing and provocative material with this 2006 comedy-drama drenched in off-kilter body horror. It’s undoubtedly not a film for the faint of heart, but presents a sardonic vision of Hungary’s troubled history from the Second World War up to the present. György Pálfi’s film was an international co-production of Hungary, Austria and France and is a bracing reminder how the limits of the acceptable in cinema should be stretched every now and then.

THE GENERAL, Buster Keaton, director/Eureka

Any recommendation for The General, one of the greatest comedies ever committed to film, is redundant. Keaton’s comic genius shines through in every frame – as does his courage in some of the stunts he performed (although some might interpret that as foolhardiness – in this respect, Keaton looks forward to the similar risk to life and limb taken by Jackie Chan). The quality of this transfer from Eureka is particularly impressive, and the film looks like it was made yesterday, and Carl Davis’s score is absolutely appropriate.

THE MUMMY & FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, Terence Fisher, dir./Second Sight

The Mummy is one of the unassailable Hammer film classics directed by the studio’s Numero Uno filmmaker Terence Fisher, and has never looked as impressive as it does in this splendid new Blu-ray from Second Sight (it’s accompanied by a new disc of  another Terence Fisher outing, one which has grown considerably in esteem over the years, Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell). If you need a reminder of just why Hammer films are held in such high esteem, here are two perfect examples: Cushing, Lee, Fisher in The Mummy? An unbeatable trio.

Barry Forshaw

PHASE IV

Saul Bass, director/ 88 Films 4K

Discerning lovers of cinema will be familiar with the astonishing credit sequences designed by great Saul Bass, such as that for  Walk on the Wild Side with its prowling cat and wonderfully seductive jazz-inflected score by Elmer Bernstein. This was a classic case of Bass’s work being superior to the film that it introduced, but the designer was also associated with some ironclad classics, such as Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus and his work with Alfred Hitchcock, notably Psycho and North by Northwest. Saul Bass’s first feature film as a director, the science fiction thriller Phase IV, is a tense tale in which scientists at an Arizona desert station combat a terrifying attack by hyper- intelligent ants (normal-sized rather than gigantic as in such films as Gordon Douglas’s Them!). It goes without saying that the film looks amazing (how can something directed by Bass not be visually stunning?), but Phase IV also generates suspense along with its intelligently realised narrative.

BEN HUR, 4K 3-DISC SPECIAL EDITION

William Wyler, director/Warner

If ever a disc justified the expenditure of a 4K player, it’s this eye-popping transfer from one of the most famous of all epics, looking better than it has done since its original 1959 release. Of course, William Wyler’s Ben Hur was always a film designed to take the breath away with its 70 MM colour photography, surround sound, memorable performances (notably Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd), and a score by the master of dramatic orchestral music, Miklos Rosza. The fact that dialogue was by the British playwright Christopher Fry was another plus. Oh – and perhaps one should mention the chariot race? That remains one of the most heart-pounding sequences in the history of the cinema. Interestingly, William Wyler was one of the many assistant directors on the earlier 1925 version of the story, and the race here (in the capable hands of second unit director Yakima Canutt) pays homage to several of the key moments from the original film, sometimes shot for shot. Of course, the besetting sin of many epics of this era is the ever-present religiosity, but Wyler handles that aspect sensitively – although modern audiences may prefer the sceptical view of religion taken in Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus. But – back to that 4K iteration – the only problem might be that your television set is not big enough to do justice to the sprawling Ancient Roman canvas. The solution? Simple: along with your new 4K player, buy yourself a massive widescreen TV or – better yet – a projector and 7-foot screen. It will be like sitting through a showing of the film would have been decades ago. Ben Hur won a record 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director (Wyler), and Best Actor in a Leading Role (Heston). The film’s cast also includes Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O’Donnell, and Sam Jaffe. The new 4k box contains a cornucopia of extras.

Barry Forshaw

Barry Forshaw

THE MAN INSIDE

John Gilling, director/Powerhouse Indicator

Let’s begin with a film for which (along with the indefatigable Kim Newman) I provided an audio commentary. The Man Inside is an unusually cast international thriller with the polyglot cast of the imposing Jack Palance and the zaftig Anita Ekberg. Also on board: ace British character actor Nigel Patrick, not to mention a quirky comic role for a young Anthony Newley. Based on a novel by Elleston Trevor (perhaps better known as Adam Hall, author of the Quiller spy thrillers) and directed with customary verve by John Gilling. Palance is cast against type as a globetrotting humorous hero (rather than the menacing heavy that is his customary métier) on the trail of an exclusive jewel thief played with a surprising degree of complexity by Nigel Patrick. Ekberg relies on her more pneumatic accoutrements than her histrionic ones, but if that was good enough for Fellini it’s good enough for Gilling. An interesting curio.

IDLE ON PARADE

John Gilling, director/Powerhouse Indicator

As a companion piece to the above (with another Forshaw/Newman commentary), here’s an intriguing curiosity from Warwick, the film company who two years after this were part of the genesis of the James Bond franchise. It’s a service comedy starring Anthony Newley as a British Elvis Presley figure drafted into the army (if you’re thinking of the musical Bye Bye Birdie, you won’t be far wrong). Newley proves to be an engaging personality, making virtually no secret of the fact that he can’t play the guitar he is constantly holding, and American import William Bendix plays the bulldog-like Sergeant Major who makes his life a misery. The female lead is the surely soon to-be-rediscovered Anne Aubrey, and this is a fascinating snapshot of a particular era both in British popular cinema and popular music.

NEGATIVES

Peter Medak, director/ BFI Flipside

The BFI flipside label has long been one of the most attractive destinations for cinéastes of eclectic tastes, and this issue of the much-neglected Negatives – the first film from director Peter Medak – is a welcome addition to the company’s already extensive repertoire. With a cast that includes Glenda Jackson (in her first film), Diane Cilento and Peter McEnery, this obviously guarantees performances of considerable skill, as indeed proves to be the case with the actors creating a strange psychosexual trio. This is the first time Negatives has been available on any format in the UK, and extras include an audio commentary and audio interviews with the director. The film is newly remastered from the original camera negative.

CRY OF THE BANSHEE                                                         

Gordon Hessler, director/Hammer

Here’s an interesting tributary connected with the new version of the company, Hammer; Hammer Presents, showcasing films from other companies. I spoke about Cry the Banshee with my late friend, the writer Chris Wicking, for my book British Gothic Cinema. As Chris said: ‘Scream and Scream Again was the second film that Gordon Hessler and I worked on.’ With its radical approach to a variety of genres – the film is a fusion of science fiction and horror elements – it remains one of the more extraordinary films produced in this country.). We subsequently worked on Cry of the Banshee (1970), and by this time, the high esteem in which we were held by AIP has become something different, and Gordon and I had to learn to guard our tongues. We had a notion of drawing modern political parallels with the Banshee script, but we realised we would have to keep that quiet.’ Compromises aside, fans of the writer and director – not to mention Vincent Price enthusiasts – will relish this sparkling new addition, looking better than the film ever has before.

BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY’S TOMB

Seth Holt, Michael Carreras, directors/Studio Canal

And still with Chris Wicking, he continued: ‘A director I greatly admired, Seth Holt, worked on Blood from The Mummy’s Tomb (1971; he was hired, in fact, at my suggestion – although his personal problems (notably his alcoholism) meant that the film was already in trouble, even before Holt’s death during the making — the producer Michael Carreras finished it.’ This splendid new Blu-ray gives viewers a chance to investigate a new film which is the very definition of a film maudit, and viewers are far more likely to be generous today.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

Larry Cohen, director/Radiance

There are cult directors and their occult directors. Some, like David Lynch, achieve a wide degree of celebrity despite the esoteric nature of the work. Others, like the director Larry Cohen, make their mark working in a variety of popular genres such as the horror field. Special Effects achieved some attention on its first appearance, notably for showing Cohen’s assured usage of thriller and horror tropes. This sprucing up of that film – which most viewers will only have seen on a fuzzy VHS version – looks more eye-catching.

THE DAY OF THE LOCUST

John Schlesinger/director/Arrow

The body of work by the American writer Nathanael West may be small but in its day made an indelible mark – and nothing he wrote is more highly thought of than his excoriating hellish vision of Hollywood, which ends with nothing less than a kind of Armageddon. The British director John Schlesinger made a considerable mark with his first take on America, a version of James Leo Herlihy’s unsparing Midnight Cowboy, and here repeats that caustic outsider’s view of another country, coaching remarkable performances from Karen Black as an unselfconsciously destructive Lorelei and Donald Sutherland as a particularly vulnerable victim of hers. The arrow Blu-ray looks quite splendid.

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT

Charles E Sellier, director/101 Films

Collectors of the slasher movie genre are nothing if not completists, and here in a spruced-up Blu-ray edition is one of the films they may have seen only on a fuzzy VHS tape in its heyday. Needless to say, the cut and thrust here looks better in this transfer and this remains one of the more quirky items in the genre.

SHANGO

Edoardo Mulargia, director/88

One might have thought that with the omnivorous appetite of the Blu-ray industry for new product that every corner of Italian genre cinema had been exhausted – but as this tempting entry proves, that is not the case. Edoardo Mulargia’s distinctive spaghetti western has the kind of energy that distinguishes the most memorable entries in the genre. The script was cowritten by the director and film star Anthony Steffen, with the latter as a Texas Ranger up against a ruthless Confederate officer and his band of savage marauders. Everything is cranked up to the nth degree, and this is a particularly striking entry in the genre from the always enterprising 88 company.

HELTER SKELTER

Mike Ninagawa, director/88 Asia

The bijou label 88 Films belies its modest size issue with a program it is truly impressive. Apart from a spread of genre movies from the American and Italian Cinema, the company’s Asia imprint is a reliable source of unusual Asian cinema products such as Helter Skelter, a colourful and impressive entry from director Mike Ninagawa

SALEM’S LOT

Tobe Hooper, director/Arrow

Few horror entries imprint themselves so indelibly on the memories of enthusiasts as Tobe Hooper’s very impressive version of Stephen King’s iconic novel, which is still remembered with a pleasurable chill by those who saw it on television on its first appearance. It’s particularly good to be able to say that not only does it still work a treat, it has never looked better than in this latest Arrow Films iteration which gives a choice of the original television series and a condensed feature film version. One aspect that wears particularly well is James Mason’s suave murderously aide of the version of Dracula that King presents. This time round, it’s perfectly clear that King was simply rewriting stoker’s Dracula, in terms of the shape of the narrative, but he did it with great style, matched here by Tobe Hooper’s contributions.

INNERSPACE

Joe Dante director/Arrow

The response to Joe Dante’s fun semi-remake of Richard Fleischer’s Fantastic Voyage on its first appearance was underwhelming, but many people will be rewriting their opinion with this welcome reissue showing how well Dante’s film has worn. And Jerry Goldsmith’s memorable score comes up a treat in this new transfer.

THE DEVIL’S HAND

Maurice Tourneur, director/Eureka

This remarkable issue is almost a single-handed justification of the whole Blu-ray industry, bringing to light again one of the most expressive of French fantasy cinema entries in a quite splendid iteration. Those impressed by the work of the director Jacques Tourneur who have been intrigued as to what the achievement of his famous director father looked like need seek no further; it’s perfectly clear (as the cliché says) that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The Devil’s Hand stars Pierre Fresnay as an enigmatic figure who arrives at a mountain inn cut off by an avalanche. He is a bizarre figure with a prosthetic hand, and the remarkable story he tells the guests is the body of the film. Yet again, Eureka has found something notably off the beaten track.

VAMPYROS LESBOS & SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY

Jess Franco, director/Severin Films

Dedicated collectors may have acquired earlier versions of these erotic Jess Franco favourites, but no previous transfers have looked as impressive as these spruced-up new editions do from Severin Films, arriving in eye-popping UHD premiers (4K UHD/Blu-ray) with each film available in two-disc editions along with a cornucopia of special features.

Barry Forshaw

THE UGLY STEPSISTER, Emilie Blichfeldt, director/Second Sight

A striking debut (both as writer and director) for Norwegian filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt, The Ugly Stepsister examines, casts aside and remakes the conventions of the horror film, addressing (in currently apropos mode) what actually makes a woman. But intellectual underpinnings aside, the practical effects (often gruesome) are particularly memorable, and Emilie Blichfeldt sports a highly unusual visual style, perfectly suited here to her material. The film arrives in a Limited Edition Dual 4K UHD/Blu-ray makeover.

SPACEWAYS, Terence Fisher, director/Hammer

The Hammer studio dipped its toe into the science fiction genre before its horror heyday, but it was not to be a major preoccupation over the years. Nevertheless, the studio produced several SF movies – such as this (though it is — essentially – a whodunnit). But what makes Spaceways interesting for Hammer collectors (a very dedicated bunch) is the presence of director Terence Fisher, a man who frequently remarked on his relative lack of sympathy with the SF genre – but despite this produced several intriguing films in the genre such as Night of the Big Heat. This new 4K restored Limited Collector’s Edition showcases the film’s blend of Cold War double-dealing and efficient cinematography. The film stars Howard Duff, celebrated as the iconic private eye Sam Spade on radio, but here playing a space engineer caught in a lethal maelstrom. The supporting cast includes Eva Bartok (perhaps best known for her appearance in Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace) and a character actor who reminds us pleasurably that this is a British film, the always watchable Alan Wheatley. Like all the current Hammer issues, collectible, and a rarity.

THE STRAIGHT STORY, David Lynch, director/StudioCanal

David Lynch’s charming and uncharacteristically understated and reflective take on the classic road movie appears from StudioCanal, and is very welcome on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray. Based on a true story, Lynch’s visually striking vision of a stubborn-minded septuagenarian’s journey across America’s on a ride-on lawnmower reminded viewer what a subtle actor Richard Farnsworth is in this an Oscar-nominated study that follows of Alvin Straight as he attempts to reunite with his estranged brother. With a perfectly judged score by Angelo Badalamenti and moving support from a mature Sissy Spacek. In fact, Richard Farnsworth was terminally ill when took on the role because of his admiration for Alvin Straight.

V/H/S/HALLOWEEN various directors/Acorn Media

Aficionados of the portmanteau horror film will relish this eighth lively collection of the V/H/S horror anthology film series. Hit or-miss as some episodes are, this latest outing has a high batting average, and features five new segments and is among the most satisfyingly gruesome in the series.

PEKING OPERA BLUES, Tsui Hark, director/Arrow

With balletic action a hallmark of Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain, cult director Tsui Hark dialled the visual and comedic aspects up to 11 with 1986’s Peking Opera Blues. Ace work from performers Brigitte Lin, Sally Yeh and Cherie Chung is shown to great advantage in this 4K restoration, sporting a host of extras. The setting is Beijing, 1913. With local tyrants duking it out, three women interact spectacularly in the local Peking Opera house, coming up with a revolutionary plan that stymies president Yuan Shikai.

RE-ANIMATOR, Stuart Gordon, director/Second Sight

Fans of inventive and quirky horror movies couldn’t believe their luck when this remarkable effort by Stuart Gordon appeared. Expectations were high for this riff on the writings of horror maven H.P. Lovecraft, and some adjustments had to be made when it became apparent that this was not typical Lovecraft fare with its duelling mad scientists and extreme body horror. Apart from the enjoyably ludicrous gruesomeness, the film is elevated by the wonderfully over-the-top performance by Jeffrey Combs, coming across like a modern-day iteration of Vincent Price. The Second Sight disc is truly stunning.

KNIGHTS OF THE TEUTONIC ORDER, Aleksander Ford, director/Second Run

Unless you are a dyed-in-the-wool cinéaste – and a specialist in Polish cinema at that – you’re unlikely to have seen this remarkable Polish epic which has been difficult to see in decent form for many years. That omission is now resoundingly put to rest with Second Run’s splendid new Blu-ray of Knights of the Teutonic Order, directed by the much-respected Aleksander Ford. As Martin Scorsese has noted, this is the first Polish historical blockbuster and the most viewed Polish movie of all time, featuring ‘battles galore, political manoeuvring and doomed love’. It’s refreshing to note that the film still works remarkably well in the 21st century, although the colourful costumes hardly appear to get dirty, however grimy the battles. But this is a small caveat, and the new Blu-ray will be welcomed by many, not least for Michael Brooke’s video essay which moves firmly out of the category of ‘extras’ to ‘essentials’. Hard to think of anyone else apart from Brooke creating such an elegant synthesis of analysis and hardcore info.

TURNER & CONSTABLE, David Bickerstaff, director/Exhibition on Screen

If you live in London and are even mildly interested in fine art, a visit to Tate Britain Turner & Constable exhibition is de rigueur. But if that’s not feasible, there is a highly attractive alternative. David Bickerstaff’s reveals the ways these artists redefined landscape painting and paved the way for Impressionism. TURNER & CONSTABLE offers intimate views of sketchbooks, personal items and beloved homes plus insights from leading experts. This is an unmissable opportunity to see these great artists side-by-side, as they so often were in life, on the screen for the first time.

EXCALIBUR, John Boorman director/Arrow

For many film lovers, the wait for a definitive Blu-ray iteration of John Boorman’s celebrated Arthurian epic Excalibur (mostly scored using music by Wagner and Carl Orff) here receives the kind of top-level sprucing up that admirers of the film have long sought. Those same admirers are often critical of one aspect of the film – Nichol Williamson’s bizarre and antic Merlin – but their views are likely to be softened by experiencing the film in what will clearly be its definitive version.

New from Indicator

After the recent selling out of a number of Indicator Limited Editions, eight Standard Editions will be released on 23 March: DEATH OF A GUNFIGHTER, DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE, DEATH CARRIES A CANE (Blu-ray), and THE PERFUME OF A LADY IN BLACK (Blu-ray), and all four films from our JOHN FORD AT COLUMBIA, 1935-1958 box set: THE WHOLE TOWN’S TALKING, THE LONG GRAY LINE, GIDEON’S DAY, and THE LAST HURRAH