Videophiled: True Blu-ray Americana – ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ and ‘The...
By all rights, the 1946 homecoming drama The Best Years of Our Lives (Warner, Blu-ray) should have been another well intentioned film left to the dated dustbins of history, but World War II vet William...
View ArticleVideophiled Classic: ‘Fedora’– Billy Wilder’s memorial for old Hollywood
Fedora (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD) opens with a moment right out of Anna Karenina: a woman throws herself in front of an oncoming train, a steam engine puffing out white clouds against the night sky. A...
View ArticleBlu-ray: Jack Hill’s ‘Spider Baby’ and ‘Pit Stop’
Spider Baby (Arrow, Blu-ray+DVD) is one of the greatest blasts of creative B-movie inspiration to hit American drive-ins and grindhouses. It was the solo directorial debut of Jack Hill (whose Coffy and...
View ArticleBlu-ray: ‘Night and the City,’‘He Ran All the Way,’ and more film noir debuts
Just days after the final night in the Turner Classic Movies “Summer of Darkness” series—eight successive Fridays dedicated to film noir—comes the debut of four examples of the distinctly American film...
View ArticleMore Blu-rays from the Warner Archive – ’42nd Street,’ ‘Ladyhawke,’ and more
Last year I surveyed a number of Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive, which is predominantly a line of manufacture-on-demand DVD-Rs offering films that otherwise wouldn’t support a traditional DVD...
View ArticleBlu-ray: ‘Fantomas’– Cinema’s original supervillain, remastered
Fantômas (Kino Classics, Blu-ray) – There may be no more creatively energetic, playfully inventive, and entertaining surreal filmmaking in the years 1913 and 1914 than the five wicked short features of...
View ArticleBlu-ray/DVD: On a lonely disc – ‘In a Lonely Place’ on Criterion
Criterion In a Lonely Place (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD) hasn’t much to do with the Dorothy B. Hughes novel on which it was ostensibly based, beyond the title (one of the most evocative in noir history),...
View ArticleBlu-ray: ‘99 River Street,’ ‘Shield for Murder’ and ‘Hidden Fear’
99 River Street (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray), released in 1953, is one of most underappreciated film noirs of the 1950s and arguably the greatest film by Phil Karlson, the toughest film noir director, and...
View ArticleBlu-ray: ‘Try and Get Me’ and the 1946 ‘The Chase’ restored
A couple of months back I reviewed two Film Noir Foundation restorations of orphaned films—that is, films that were produced independently, outside of the studio system, by entities that no longer...
View ArticleBlu-ray: ‘Batman v Superman’ – Dawn of the DCU
The smartest thing about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Ultimate Edition (Warner, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, Ultra HD Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, VOD) is its revisionist take on the destruction that...
View ArticleBlu-ray: Orson Welles’ ‘Chimes at Midnight’ and ‘The Immortal Story’ debut on...
Chimes at Midnight (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD) has been difficult to see under any circumstances for at least the last three decades. It suffered from distribution issues during its original release (a...
View ArticleVideophiled Classic: ‘Fedora’– Billy Wilder’s memorial for old Hollywood
Fedora (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD) opens with a moment right out of Anna Karenina: a woman throws herself in front of an oncoming train, a steam engine puffing out white clouds against the night sky. A...
View ArticleBlu-ray: Jack Hill’s ‘Spider Baby’ and ‘Pit Stop’
Spider Baby (Arrow, Blu-ray+DVD) is one of the greatest blasts of creative B-movie inspiration to hit American drive-ins and grindhouses. It was the solo directorial debut of Jack Hill (whose Coffy and...
View ArticleBlu-ray: ‘Night and the City,’‘He Ran All the Way,’ and more film noir debuts
Just days after the final night in the Turner Classic Movies “Summer of Darkness” series—eight successive Fridays dedicated to film noir—comes the debut of four examples of the distinctly American film...
View ArticleMore Blu-rays from the Warner Archive – ’42nd Street,’ ‘Ladyhawke,’ and more
Last year I surveyed a number of Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive, which is predominantly a line of manufacture-on-demand DVD-Rs offering films that otherwise wouldn’t support a traditional DVD...
View ArticleBlu-ray: ‘Fantomas’– Cinema’s original supervillain, remastered
Fantômas (Kino Classics, Blu-ray) – There may be no more creatively energetic, playfully inventive, and entertaining surreal filmmaking in the years 1913 and 1914 than the five wicked short features of...
View ArticleBlu-ray/DVD: On a lonely disc – ‘In a Lonely Place’ on Criterion
Criterion In a Lonely Place (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD) hasn’t much to do with the Dorothy B. Hughes novel on which it was ostensibly based, beyond the title (one of the most evocative in noir history),...
View ArticleBlu-ray: ‘99 River Street,’ ‘Shield for Murder’ and ‘Hidden Fear’
99 River Street (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray), released in 1953, is one of most underappreciated film noirs of the 1950s and arguably the greatest film by Phil Karlson, the toughest film noir director, and...
View ArticleBlu-ray: ‘Try and Get Me’ and the 1946 ‘The Chase’ restored
A couple of months back I reviewed two Film Noir Foundation restorations of orphaned films—that is, films that were produced independently, outside of the studio system, by entities that no longer...
View ArticleVideophiled: Pioneers of African-American Cinema
Pioneers of African-American Cinema (Kino, Blu-ray, DVD) – The legacy of African-American filmmaking—specifically films made by and for African-American audiences before Hollywood integrated its casts...
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