Barry Forshaw writes:
THE SABATA TRILOGY, Gianfranco Parolini, director/Eureka The spotty availability of these highly diverting Italian westerns has meant that only the most dedicated aficionados will have seen all three; now (thanks to Eureka) we can relish Gianfranco Parolini’s quirky takes on a classic genre. And with the first film (still the best of the trilogy), we can applaud the contribution of American actor Lee Van Cleef (fresh from his success in Sergio Leone’s ‘Dollars’ films which launched the phenomenally popular trend). As the deadly marksman of the title, Van Cleef is given relatively little in the way of characterisation (perhaps the most important thing about him are his gimmick guns); Parolini was clearly aware that the charisma of his American star would paper over the cracks. As Kim Newman and I note in the commentary, few American directors had given Cleef the opportunity to shine, as he was so effective in smaller parts – it’s a particular pleasure to see him stretch out here.
INGMAR BERGMAN VOLUME 2, Ingmar Bergman, director/BFI Blu-ray Bergman admirers were greatly pleased by the first compendious BFI set, but it is with the second volume that we begin to sample the Swedish master’s most consummate cinema masterpieces, not least one of his key films, The Seventh Seal. This limited Edition (5,000 copies only) 5-disc Blu-ray box set contains eight films, classic titles from 1951 to 1958. These include the Palme d’Or-nominated comedy Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), the matchless Wild Strawberries (1957) and (as mentioned above) The Seventh Seal (1957). The collection includes a selection of special features and is packaged with a 100-page perfect bound book. Unmissable fare for lovers of great cinema.
TALES FROM THE URBAN JUNGLE: BRUTE FORCE & THE NAKED CITY, Jules Dassin, director/Arrow More classics of film noir, this time from a director whose reputation for tough and uncompromising crime drama is assured. And neither of these films have looked as impressive as they do in these exemplary transfers. The Naked City (1946) broke new ground as the first important Hollywood production to be shot on the streets of New York, utilising a slew of authentic locations, and its visual style was inspired by New York photographer Weegee, who published a book of photographs of New York life entitled Naked City (1945). Weegee was, in fact, hired as a visual consultant on the film. Both screenwriter Albert Maltz and Dassin were victims of the notorious House Un-American Activities, and Dassin was obliged to emigrate. The Naked City, however, remains a key Dassin film – as does Brute Force. After the success of The Killers (1946), producer Mark Hellinger re-enlisted his newest Hollywood star Burt Lancaster to star in this tough prison film, with a screenplay by novelist/writer/director Richard Brooks (director of the later Blackboard Jungle, 1955)..
THE EUROCRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER LEE, various directors/Severin Another set for which Kim Newman and I provided an audio commentary, this 8 Blu-ray collection features five classic European films, a tv anthology, disc of rare interviews & book, plus a soundtrack cd, showcasing Britain’s premier post-Karloff horror film actor. THE EUROCRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER LEE collects five of Lee classics: the 1964 gothic entry CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE; the same year’s cult hit CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD co-starring an unknown Donald Sutherland; 1962’s SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DEADLY NECKLACE; 1967’s outrageous THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM and the rarely-seen 1963 oddity CHALLENGE THE DEVIL – with the 24 surviving episodes of the 1971 Film Polski anthology series THEATRE MACABRE hosted by Lee, all remastered from original negative materials.
MAIGRET: THE COMPLETE SERIES, Various directors/Network This first televisual incarnation of Simenon’s immortal detective was so definitive that it remained ensconced as the defining image of the character for generations of viewers. While the character actor Rupert Davies created a subtle and well-rounded version of the implacable French copper, the vehicles in which he appeared had less apparent French colour than modern viewers might now expect – but the choice of locations was always spot-on (exteriors were frequently shot in Paris), and even though the language spoken was English, viewers quickly accepted the notion that we were watching something indelibly French and listening to the correct language being spoken. In the same way that Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes effectively trounced a legion of highly successful incarnations of the character, the dour but humorous Davies was impeccable casting.
LADY IN A CAGE, Walter Grauman, director/Via Vision Kim Newman and I once again provided an audio commentary for this memorable thriller, at one time banned in Britain by the BBFC. Olivia De Havilland excels in an Indian summer role as a wealthy woman trapped in her residence over a sweltering holiday weekend, when her home elevator breaks down during a power failure. Director Walter Grauman’s evocation of the way in which a woman’s world is shattered is unsparingly done, and the film also features future Oscar nominee James Caan in his first major film role.
JOHNNY GUITAR, Nicholas Ray, director/Eureka There are few directors in the history of Hollywood with as imperishable a cult reputation as Nicholas Ray, and this bizarre and astonishing Joan Crawford Western (with its barely concealed lesbian undertones) is one of his most fondly regarded films – not least by the critics who became the key directors of the French Nouvelle Vague, who revered Ray. Courtesy of Eureka, this is the best iteration it has ever had: a 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a 4K restoration of the original film elements, framed in the film’s originally intended aspect ratio of 1.66:1, with a new audio commentary by film scholar Adrian Martin and an introduction by critic Geoff Andrew, author of The Films of Nicholas Ray: The Poet of Nightfall.
THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN, Mike Nichols, director/Indicator The director Mike Nichols was famous for his witty and stylish dramas and comedies which customarily featured superbly written screenplays. And if the moving and exhilarating The Day of the Dolphin is not typical fare from the director, it is nevertheless a highly unusual piece of work with its science-fiction oriented plot in which scientist George C. Scott effects an almost-human communication with dolphins, even teaching one a rudimentary form of human speech. The film changes pace of halfway through to become a kind of thriller when corrupt authority figures become involved, but few will complain given that both the earlier sections and a more straightforward thriller finale are handled with such aplomb. Scott, of course, was one of the great actors the American cinema and turns in a powerful performance here.
FALBALAS, Jacques Becker, director/StudioCanal Blu-ray If you’re familiar with the cinematic work of cult director Jacques Becker, this little-known entry will be of particular interest. And while it might not match an achievement his better known films (such as Touchez Pas Au Grisbi, Le Trou and Casque D’Or), it is still remarkably accomplished. Starring Raymond Rouleau, Micheline Presle, Jean Chevrier and Gabrielle Dorziat, this new restoration of the shocking 1945 drama, is set in the world of Paris fashion. It arrives with compendious extras as part of the Vintage World Cinema collection which showcases iconic world cinema, all fully restored and featuring brand new extra content.
THE APE WOMAN, Marco Ferreri, director/Cult Films Blu-Ray The remarkable performance of Annie Girardot as the hirsute title character here is genuinely heartbreaking – particularly as the film anticipates David Lynch’s The Elephant Man in its unsparing picture of the exploitation as a ‘freak’ of a person suffering catastrophic physical change. And the direction by Marco Ferreri, known for his in-your-face confrontational later pieces (such as the satire La Grande Bouffe) is perfectly at the service of the material. The Ape Woman is based on the true story of 19th-century carnival performer Julia Pastrana. In Ferreri’s film, an extraordinary Annie Girardot delivers an elegant and devastating performance as Maria ‘the ape woman’, a convent scullery maid whose body is covered in hair, from head to toe. The film won a Palme d’Or nomination. Cult Films presents Ferreri’s own original edit now shown complete and uncut, finally doing justice to the director’s condemned vision as well as the longer, alternative ending made for Cannes.
THE GREAT SILENCE/IL GRANDE SILENZIO, Sergio Corbucci, director/Eureka Blu-Ray One by one they come, the much lauded (but often little seen) classics of Italian genre cinema – and this deeply unorthodox Western is one of the most sought after, particularly as Sergio Corbucci is now regarded as the most talented of Italian directors of Westerns after Sergio Leone. Here he is aided by impressive performances by two non-Italians who most definitely qualifies as cult actors: from France, Jean-Louis Trintignant and the eccentric German Klaus Kinski. Dubbing of the former into Italian was not a problem as he is totally silent, but the voice chosen for Kinski works well with the character. Eureka Entertainment’s transfer on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK is from a 2K restoration.
SUBURBIA, Penelope Spheeris, director/101 Films I provided a booklet essay for Penelope Spheeris’s blistering movie. In the cinema, the appeal of the teenage criminal – gang member or juvenile delinquent – is not hard to fathom. Much as the adult lawbreaker has always been a fascinating figure for audiences (from the volatile James Cagney and Edward G Robinson in the 1930s onwards), the younger transgressor is able to act out the fantasies of violence and freedom from the restrictions of society that most law-abiding types would never dream of indulging in – except vicariously on film. Penelope Spheeris’s Suburbia (1983) is a key movie in this particular tradition, but there is long and lively lineage stretching out decades before her film.
THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, Dario Argento, director/Arrow This new 4K restoration from the original negative in 4K (2160p) looks quite stunningly pristine. Argento’s feature film debut, the poetically titled The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (L’Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo, 1970), augured well for his career – a commercial success in 1970, it looks a fascinating dry run for many ideas to be more fully developed in later films. Tony Musante plays an American writer in Italy who witnesses a murderous assault through glass (prefiguring David Hemmings in the later Deep Red (Profondo Rosso, 1976); he is trapped between sliding glass doors while attempting to aid the bleeding victim (Eva Renzi) – and this sequence seems to be the one people remember over the years. There are of course visual delights galore – a marvellously Hitchcockian chase of a yellow-jacketed figure that ends with a joke worthy of North by Northwest.
FREE HAND FOR A TOUGH COP, Umberto Lenzi, director/Fractured Visions Here’s yet another occasion on which Kim Newman and I examined (in the commentary) Italian genre cinema in a particularly lively example of the poliziotteschi form. The Italian crime films of the 1970s, the violent and kinetic ‘poliziotteschi’ began as a series of rough-and-ready simulacra of American models (as so often in the trend-following culture of Italian popular cinema). Italian actors such as Franco Nero were employed, but past-their-best American stars were also hired.. Finally making its UK debut, Fractured Visions offers up Free Hand For A Tough Cop, the film that introduced Tomas Milian’s legendarily scruffy anti-hero ‘Monnezza’ (A.K.A Garbage Can) to audiences around the world. Inspector Sarti (Claudio Cassinelli of Suspicious Death Of A Minor) enters an uneasy, violent partnership with him.