THE BEST OF BOGART COLLECTION (The Maltese Falcon/ Casablanca/ The Treasure of the Sierra Madre/ The African Queen) -- Blu-ray review by porfle

 Originally posted on 3/28/14

 

When I made a list of my top 100 favorite actors a few years ago, the first three positions were pretty much a lock.  Number one, of course, was John Wayne.  Two--well, I'm a Bruce Willis fan from all the way back to "Moonlighting", and I even liked "Armageddon." 

But as for number three, there's only one actor who could knock either of them out of their slots at my slightest whim, and that's Bogart.  He invented cool, refined it, and perfected it to such a degree that nobody else could ever be quite that cool again. 

Now, Warner Home Video has brought four of Bogart's greatest and most varied performances together on Blu-ray with THE BEST OF BOGART COLLECTION, a four-disc set which contains "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), "Casablanca" (1942), "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948), and "The African Queen" (1951). 

Humphrey DeForest Bogart looked like he'd been around the block a few times and could take care of himself in a tough scrape, unlike a lot of the pretty-boy leading men who populated movie marquees then and now.  Which is ironic, since he started out as a male ingenue in film roles that were pure fluff. 

This prompted him to keep returning to his native New York and the stage, where he eventually landed the role of escaped killer Duke Mantee in the play "The Petrified Forest."  When this was slated to become a film, star Leslie Howard insisted that Bogart be cast as Mantee, and his chilling, tough-as-nails performance made him a movie star in the Warner Brothers gangster vein.

Bogart's screen persona wavered between no-nonsense good guy and fearsome bad guy, with sometimes a little of both.  If need be, he could also portray either a frightening psycho or a pathetic failure.  As an actor with a much broader range than one might first suspect, he could make any of these personas both convincing and compelling, with a nuance and intensity that few actors can ever achieve.  And there was something about that unforgettable face which seemed to express everything his character was thinking and feeling. 

One of the finest actors in the history of the medium, Humphrey Bogart's filmography contains several of the greatest movies ever made.  The best of these comprise quite a selection of Hollywood filmmaking at its peak as both an art form and a means of pure escapist entertainment.  


THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)

The first great "film noir" set the standard both storywise and in its impeccably exquisite visuals.  First-time director John Huston does a masterful job orchestrating his actors and crew to create a visual experience which is consistently involving and often dazzling. 

The film, shot mostly on interior sets, was brought in on budget and ahead of schedule despite Huston requesting an extra day of rehearsal for the film's climactic sequence, which takes place entirely within a single hotel room with almost all members of the main cast.  The complex character interactions and the way the tangled plot is meticulously resolved during this scene makes for some of the most breathlessly riveting cinema ever filmed.

Huston uses clever direction and camera movements to keep things from getting claustrophobic, and never once lets the pace drag.  His screenplay follows Dashiell Hammett's novel almost to the letter (the two earlier, inferior adaptations, 1931's "Dangerous Female" and the comedic "Satan Met a Lady" in 1936, didn't), and crackles with scintillating dialogue, intriguing plot twists, and relentlessly building suspense. 

Hammett's celebrated anti-hero Sam Spade is the perfect noir detective--brash, resourceful, self-assured, keenly intelligent, streetwise, tough but not infallible, and opportunistic.  He does have a moral code, one not easily compromised, and a motto that is rigidly enforced: "Never play the sap for anyone." 

The first person to try and use him is quintessential femme fatale Brigid O'Shaughnessy (exquisitely  played by Mary Astor), who hires San Francisco private detective Spade and his partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) to locate her missing sister along with a mystery man named Floyd Thursby.  When both Archer and Thursby turn up dead, it appears there's more to Brigid's story than she's letting on. 

Before long Spade discovers that she's after a priceless treasure known as the Maltese Falcon, for which she's in fierce competition against  "the Fat Man" Kaspar Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) and the wily, effeminate Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre).  Spade must spar with these conniving characters while fending off police detectives Dundy and Polhaus (Barton MacLane, Ward Bond), who suspect him in the murders although the more genial Polhaus tends to side with Sam.  All in all, these actors comprise one of the finest casts ever assembled for a film.  (Look for John Huston's father Walter in a quick cameo as a fatally wounded ship's captain.)

Huston delights in working with these masterful performers as any artist deftly employs his chosen medium.  The dialogue scenes between Bogart and Greenstreet are a verbal delight (Gutman constantly admits his glowing admiration for the crafty Spade), while the utter dishonesty underlying Spade's love affair with Brigid gives it an air of perversion. 

Lorre's Joel Cairo, both dangerously scheming and amusingly fussy, is always fun to watch.  I love the scene in which Spade disarms and manhandles Cairo, whose main concern is expressed with the heated accusation "Look what you did to my shirt!"

Even young character actor Elisha Cook, Jr. gets to shine in the plum role of Gutman's "gunsel" Wilmer Cook, a callow trench-coated hood hiding his cowardice behind guns and tough talk.  (Dwight Frye played the part in the 1931 version.)  The ever-sharper Spade delights in yanking Wilmer's chain, and in one incredible closeup we see fat, glistening tears suspended in each of the young killer's eyes as he's overcome with burning frustration and impotent rage (another bravura touch by Huston).

But it's Bogart's show, and his performance is a pure delight.  We know Spade's a stand-up guy, yet the moment his partner's murdered he has the signs around the office changed from "Spade and Archer" to "Samuel Spade."  He's even having an affair with Archer's wife, Iva (Gladys George), but loses interest once he meets Miss O'Shaughnessy.  Yet we know he's an okay guy as long as his faithful gal Friday, Effie (Lee Patrick), still secretly loves him. 

In one delightful moment, after storming out of a tense encounter with Gutman and Wilmer in the Fat Man's swanky hotel room, Spade smiles when he realizes that his hand is shaking and his palms sweating.  Spade may be brave, but he still gets scared, a fact which both amuses and excites him.

This vintage detective yarn sizzles with suspense and excitement for viewers who are able to plug themselves into its high-voltage current.  For me, it took several viewings before I finally began to appreciate just what a finely-rendered thing of beauty it truly is.  Others (as some IMDb comments would indicate) seem to take a strange kind of pride in remaining immune to its charms, believing that such classics are revered by many simply because they're "old." 

But if it doesn't hit you right away, just keep watching and remain open to it.  Sooner or later, hopefully, THE MALTESE FALCON will weave its magic spell over you.  Like the rare and unique artifact of the title, it's "the stuff dreams are made of.

1080p High Definition 1.33:1, DTS-HD Master Audio: English 1.0, Dolby Digital: Espanol 1.0
Subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.

Special Features:

·         Commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax
·         Featurette The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird
·         Breakdowns of 1941: Studio Blooper Reel
·         Makeup Tests
·         Becoming Attractions: The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart
·         Warner Night at the Movies
·         1941 Short Subjects Gallery
·         Audio-Only Bonus: 3 Radio Show Adaptions
·         Vintage art card


CASABLANCA (1942)

This is one of those films which we can now look back on as an undisputed classic in which everything seems to come together perfectly.  At the time, however, it was regarded by the studio as just another production, whose script, based on the unproduced play "Everyone Comes to Rick's", was being written on the fly and didn't even have a proper ending worked out until shortly before it was shot.

The story takes place in 1942 in the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca, which overflows with refugees desperately struggling to gain passage to America and elsewhere in the free world to escape Nazi encroachment in Europe .  Exiled American (and ex-freedom fighter) Rick Blaine, played to perfection by Bogart , runs a nightclub called "Rick's Café Américain" in which many of these people meet to buy and sell the hope for freedom. 

Also on hand is Rick's friend, Captain Louis Renault (THE INVISIBLE MAN's Claude Rains in one of his best performances), the head of the local police and an opportunist of the first order whose greatest pleasure is accepting bribes both monetary and sexual.  Renault openly admires Rick's similarly self-serving qualities and even displays a platonic crush on him ("If I were a woman, and I were not around, I should be in love with Rick," he admits). 

We wonder how Renault would react if Rick started reverting back to his old, noble self, especially in the presence of the vile German officer Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI,  THE MAN WHO LAUGHS), newly-arrived and on the trail of famed Czech resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henried). 

While Rick starts out as an anti-hero, he gradually and without really meaning to becomes more heroic as the story progresses.  Early on, Peter Lorre's oily Ugarte--who recently killed some German soldiers to attain two letters of transit to sell in Casablanca--begs Rick for help before he's captured ("Hide me, Rick!  Hide me!").  Rick's terse response: "I stick my neck out for nobody." 

And indeed, Rick seems grudgingly content to sit out the current world war as manager of his bustling nightclub until one night, when an old flame named Ilsa (the utterly radiant Ingrid Bergman) comes through the front door with her husband, none other than Victor Laszlo.  Rick, once an idealistic crusader himself but now cynical and disillusioned, has never forgiven Ilsa for inexplicably running out on him during the fall of Paris, at the height of their love affair--not knowing that Laszlo, whom they both thought dead, had turned up alive.

When Rick obtains the two letters of transit from Ugarte, he has the means of whisking Ilsa back to America with him and resuming their love affair while leaving Laszlo behind to carry on alone and devastated.  But will he do something so selfish and immoral?  Or regain his soul and commit the supreme act of sacrifice for the sake not only of Ilsa and her husband but of the free world itself?

This is the dilemma which gives CASABLANCA much of its power to effect us emotionally while simmering with a growing suspense.  As a film, everything clicks-- Michael Curtiz' sharp direction, the gorgeous black-and-white photography, great performances by a stellar cast, a powerful musical score by Max Steiner, and a story that's always totally engaging. 

Action and romance are perfectly balanced and compliment each other, while comedic touches abound, especially from the delightfully corruptible Renault,  the antics of Rick's eccentric staff (including S.Z. Sakall), and a fez-topped Sydney Greenstreet (again) as a competing club owner who wants to acquire Rick's place along with his loyal piano-playing band leader Sam (Dooley Wilson, who croons the classic "As Time Goes By"). 

But when Laszlo exhorts Sam and his band to strike up a stirring rendition of "La Marseillaise" in response to Strasser and his fellow German officers belting out "Die Wacht am Rhein", the move (which Rick okays with a subtle nod of his head) not only stirs the patriotic fervor of everyone else in the club but may bring the viewer to tears as well.  (Steiner uses this same anthem as a fanfare for his own musical credit during the main titles.)

The climax of the film takes place at the airport, a focal point for dreams of freedom throughout the story.  Rick now literally holds the ticket to a new life with Ilsa, who will join him if he asks her to.  Yet his newly reawakened sense of duty to humanity now fights for precedence.  Meanwhile Renault, his own duty to Strasser  putting him at odds with his friend, awaits Rick's decision. 

When the plane fires up its engines, Steiner's music swells, and there comes a stunning, perfectly-edited series of  closeups of Bogart,  Bergman, and Henried which generate a dramatic tension few films could ever attain.  It's pure, undiluted Hollywood magic at its most sublime, and the resolution which follows couldn't be more perfect.  CASABLANCA is an intricate jigsaw puzzle of seemingly disparate pieces which fit together to form a beautiful picture.

1080p High Definition 1.33:1, Dolby Digital: English 1.0, Francais 1.0 & Espanol 1.0
Subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.

Special Features:

·         Commentary by Roger Ebert
·         Commentary by Historian Rudy Behlmer
·         Introduction by Lauren Bacall
·         Additional Scenes & Outtakes
·         Scoring Session Outtakes
·         Bacall on Bogart
·         You Must Remember This: A Tribute to Casablanca
·         Featurette As Time Goes By: The Children Remember
·         Production Research Gallery
·         Homage Cartoon Carrotblanca
·         Who Hold Tomorrow? : Premiere Episode From 1955 Warner Bros. Presents TV Series Adaptation of Casablanca
·         Audio-Only Bonus: Radio Production with the Movie’s 3 Key Stars
·         Theatrical Trailers
·         Vintage art card


THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)

With this epic outdoor action-drama, based on a novel by enigmatic writer B. Traven,  Bogart once again joined with director John Huston and his father Walter for a grueling tale of the devastating effects of greed on average men.  During the film's arduous shoot in the wilds of Mexico, any hint of Hollywood glamour would soon become a distant memory. 

As Fred C. Dobbs, Bogart loses himself in one of his grittiest and least sympathetic roles.  Dobbs is an American stuck in a small Mexican town with no job or money, wandering the streets and begging for pesos.  (The younger Huston has a funny cameo as a well-to-do man Dobbs keeps hitting up for change.)  Dobbs will fling water in the face of a small boy (Robert Blake) pestering him to buy a lottery ticket, yet we sense a modicum of decency somewhere beneath his gruff exterior. 

This early sequence of him trudging his way through life, getting bad haircuts, chasing after prostitutes, etc. lets us sit back and watch Bogart at work creating one of his finest characters.  Dobbs hooks up with a fellow American named Curtin (Tim Holt) for a job in which they're cheated out of their pay by a crooked foreman (Barton MacLane of THE MALTESE FALCON) whom they beat senseless after he attacks them in a bar.  (This well-choreographed fight scene is brutally effective.)  Then, after meeting grizzled old prospector Howard (Walter Huston) in a flophouse, they take his advice and set out to find gold in the mountains of the Mexican desert. 

Walter Huston enjoyed recounting the story of how he told his son John that if he ever became a filmmaker to "write me a good part."   The old gold-hunter Howard is that part, a role the elder Huston,  sans dentures, inhabits so fully that he almost manages to steal the picture right out from under Bogart.  (He would go on to win an Oscar for it.)  Howard is a goodnatured, level-headed old man, and we believe him when he warns of the evil effects gold can have on weak-willed men.  

Dobbs blusters against such talk, thinking himself above any negative influences.  Yet without missing a beat, he will fulfill each of Howard's admonitions one by one as the lure of gold transforms him into a paranoid,  resentful,  and ultimately dangerous man.  By the time he's gone over the deep end, he's a frightening character, convinced in his mindless desperation that everyone's out to get him and that he's justified in whatever heinous act he may commit to protect himself and his newfound fortune.

When Dobbs and Curtin finally find themselves locked in a life-or-death battle of wills in the middle of the desert, the film almost takes on the eerie inevitability of a horror movie.  The only thing that undercuts it, along with much of the rest of the film, is one of Max Steiner's worst musical themes--a loping, folksy motif that  I find jarringly out of place.

In addition to being a fascinating character study,  TREASURE is a terrific action-adventure.  Alfonso Bedoya is unforgettable as the ruthless Mexican bandit Gold Hat,  whose gang attacks our heroes' train during their trip into the mountains and then later stumbles upon their mining camp, leading to a blazing gunfight.  Gold Hat may be a monster, but Bedoya manages to make him funny, especially with his immortal response to Dobbs' question "If you're federales, where are your badges?"

"Badges? We ain’t got no badges...we don’t need no badges...I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!"

Tim Holt is solid in the less flashy role  of sturdy, dependable Curtin, who shares Howard's dismay at Dobbs' growing instability.  Walter Huston is a delight in a truly wonderful performance--he even gets to break the fourth wall and give us a sly look during one sequence in which he's being given the royal treatment by a tribe of Indians after doing them a good turn.  We don't even hold it against Howard when he votes along with the others to execute another man, Cody (Bruce Bennett), who tries to horn in on their find. 

But it's Bogart, as a man susceptible to bouts of pure, wild-eyed insanity, who makes the film as truly memorable as it is.  No matter how low he sinks and what horrible things he does, we always remember the relatively decent guy he was before gold changed him, and feel some remorse for what he's become.  And just like Dobbs, I'd like to think gold wouldn't make me act that way--but who knows?

1080p High Definition 1.33:1, DTS-HD Master Audio: English 1.0, Dolby Digital: Francais 1.0 & Espanol 1.0 (Both Castilian and Latin)
Subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.

Special Features:

·         Commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax
·         Discovering Treasure: The Story of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
·         Documentary Profile John Huston
·         Warner Night at the Movies
·         1948 Short Subjects Gallery: Leonard Maltin Introduction, Newsreel, 2 Classic Cartoons, Comedy Short, Theatrical Trailers.
·         Audio-Only Bonus: Radio Show with the Movie’s Original Stars
·         Vintage art card


THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951)

Here's the story of two people you'll want to get  to know very much--Humphrey Bogart as Charlie Allnut, a goodnaturedly uncouth little man who runs a tiny supply boat up and down the river in German East Africa in 1914,  and Katharine Hepburn as Miss Rose Sayer, a Christian missionary who, along with her brother Reverend Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley), brings God's word to the natives until German soldiers burn down the church and village, kill her brother,and leave her all alone in the jungle.

Director John Huston deftly blends comedy with tragedy in the opening scenes.  Shortly before their horrific encounter with the German military, the Sayers invite Charlie to tea during a supply stop.  He hasn't eaten in awhile, so his stomach starts making the most impolite growling noises to which Rose and her brother react with growing dismay until finally Charlie explains brightly, "Ain't a thing I can do about it!" 

Charlie returns later to bury the brother and take Rose away in his boat, the "African Queen".  But her first thought is to somehow aid in her country's war effort by whatever means available.  Hearing of a German gunboat, the "Louisa", which is terrorizing the countryside from a large lake somewhere downriver, she hatches a scheme in which Charlie will devise a couple of torpedos out of compressed gas bottles and they will then ram the Louisa with the torpedos sticking out of the African Queen's bow. 

Humoring her for the time being--and not realizing that he has begun something he won't be able to back out of--he later mocks Miss Sayer's request in a grumbling approximation of her prim accent: "Can you make a torpedo?  Then do so, Mr. Allnut." 

This belly-laugh moment, courtesy of Bogart's irresistibly natural, likable performance as the ragtag river rat, is just the beginning of what will be a rip-roaring adventure, a tender romance, and a gut-busting comedy.  The independent production, filmed mostly on location in Africa in lush Technicolor, is one of John Huston's warmest and most heartfelt films.  This is due in large part to the chemistry between the two stars and Huston's ability as a master director to showcase them at their best.

Miss Rose Sayer is naturally brave and resourceful, which helps make up for her naivete' and inexperience with life in general.  She adapts quickly and becomes instantly addicted to the thrill of adventure as a substitute for sexual intimacy (her first excursion down the rapids leaves her as though she'd just had her first sexual release).  Learning to handle Allnut's boat is symbolic of her growing familiarity with the man himself  while he, in turn, finds himself suddenly yearning to bring out the inner woman behind the straight-laced exterior. 

Allnut is one of Bogart's funniest and most uninhibited characters--his emotional honesty and expressiveness are at their peak here.  Often a single look on his face will convey more thought and emotion than many actors can manage with an entire speech.  Hepburn is ideally cast as the initially very proper, timid spinster who gradually lets her hair down (literally) and begins to appreciate the more sensual and even carnal aspects of life as her love for Charlie Allnut blossoms toward fruition.

Their journey down the river is a series of funny and romantic vignettes interspersed with moments of harrowing danger which are excitingly staged.  The rapids are a major obstacle, as are mosquitoes, leeches, and, in one suspenseful sequence, German bullets.  Through it all, Rose's indefatigable attitude brings out the best in Charlie, and together they give each other something to live for even when things are at their worst.

Huston's technical skills are dazzling throughout the film.  The location photography is not only stunning but often amazing as well, as when we see a number of large alligators diving off the bank into the water right after Bogart has moved out of the frame--all in a single shot.   The process shots are as well integrated into the action as possible for the time and, for me at least, proved little distraction.  Allan Gray's musical score is another of the film's many pleasures. 

The story reaches its triumphant conclusion aboard the German gunboat, where our unlikely hero and heroine reach the end of their journey in fine style.  Like SHANE, which is tied with KING KONG (1933) as my favorite movie of all time, there are scenes throughout THE AFRICAN QUEEN which bring me to the verge of tears.   Not because these scenes are particularly sad, or particularly happy, but simply because they're quite disarmingly beautiful. 

1080p High Definition, Dolby Digital: English 1.0, Francais 1.0 & Espanol 1.0.
Subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.

Special Features:

·         Embracing Chaos: Making The African Queen
·         Vintage art card


Own it on Blu-ray:

Official WB Shop Link
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Official You Tube Videos

Images shown are not stills from the actual Blu-ray discs
Street Date: March 25, 2014

THE BEST OF BOGART COLLECTION (The Maltese Falcon/ Casablanca/ The Treasure of the Sierra Madre/ The African Queen) -- Blu-ray review by porfle

LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 3/14/09

 

Up till now, I'd only seen Wes Craven's 1972 horror-movie debut LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT once, when I rented the VHS tape back in the 80s, and for the life of me I couldn't remember a damn thing about it. Which I found somewhat strange considering its reputation as a ghastly, hardcore horror ordeal that so many found hard to watch and even harder to forget. Now that I've seen it again, I can understand why I originally found it unmemorable, but I'm still at a loss to explain its profound effect on others. To me, it's just a fairly decent cheapo murder flick, despite whatever perceived historical significance it may have. Have I really become that desensitized, or what?

Sweet young Mari Collingwood (Sandra Cassel), who just turned 17, is on her way to a rock concert with her more worldly friend Phyllis (Lucy Grantham), when they're kidnapped by sadistic escaped convicts Krug (David Hess) and Weasel (Fred Lincoln), their wretched moll Sadie (Jeramie Rain), and Krug's junkie son Junior (Marc Sheffler), who'll do whatever his pop tells him to in order to get his next fix. The bad guys dump their captives into the trunk and head for the hills, but their car soon breaks down on a secluded road. They take Mari and Phyllis into the woods, where the girls are humiliated, raped, tortured, and murdered.

Posing as stranded travelers on a business trip, they're taken in by a friendly couple who offer them food and accomodations for the night. As it turns out, however, John (Richard Towers) and Estelle (Cynthia Carr) are Mari's parents, the Collingwoods. And when they discover that their houseguests have just murdered their daughter, the mild-mannered mom and dad find their own killer instincts fiercely kicking in. Naturally, more bloody violence and mayhem ensue.

Visually, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT is pretty artless, bringing to mind the likes of BLOOD FEAST and early John Waters films such as PINK FLAMINGOS. Wes Craven attributes this to a deliberate attempt at a documentary, cinema-verite' style, and claims that this makes the film's events seem more realistic. Marc Sheffler's assessment, as stated in one of the DVD's bonus featurettes, is that "in its professional ignorance, its stylistic ignorance, it has created its own style." I think it's just crummy camerawork. Plus, it's hard to be fooled into thinking "Hey, this is real!" when the characters are so borderline farcical and the acting, for the most part, is on a porn-movie level. (The script, in fact, started as a sick hardcore porn project, which is how adult actor Fred Lincoln became involved, before most of those dubious elements were wisely jettisoned.)

Hess, who would later appear in Wes Craven's SWAMP THING, comes off fairly well in a brutish way, while Lincoln isn't very convincing as a psycho killer. Sheffler's "Junior" is more of a comic doofus than the pathetic heroin slave he's intended to be. Jeramie Rain (who later became Mrs. Richard Dreyfuss and is surprisingly beautiful in her recent interview footage) comes off pretty well as the feral Sadie. As Mari's parents, Richard Towers and Cynthia Carr are superficial at best, although Carr comes to life in the final scenes. I like the two girls, Sandra Cassel and Lucy Grantham, who are unpolished yet appealing and who manage to express genuine terror during key moments, although in Cassel's case there's more to this than acting skills (more on that later). Her sad death scene provides one of the film's genuinely affecting moments.

As far as the violence and gore are concerned, there's nothing more extreme than George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD from four years earlier, or even 1963's BLOOD FEAST. And I can never take these characters seriously enough for their acts to be truly shocking or difficult to endure. The only thing I find hard to watch--the rape scene--comes not from what's happening in the story but from what went on during the filming of it. As David Hess relates during the commentary, he had the already nervous Sandra Cassel so distraught and fearful of him that much of her humiliation and distress during the scene are real. Marc Sheffler also tells of actually grabbing her and threatening to push her over a precipice if she didn't stop fouling up take after take of their main scene together. For me, these two accounts are the creepiest thing about the movie.

Meanwhile, awkward attempts at comedy relief keep inexplicably popping up at the darndest times. These come mainly in the form of a fat, bumbling sheriff (Marshall Anker) and his moronic deputy (Martin Kove, the most recognizable actor in the film), who run out of gas on their way to the Collingwood home and try to hitch a ride on a chicken truck. In an early scene, the world-weary sheriff laments, "Sometimes I wish I was something else" and his deputy asks, "You mean, like a duck?"

This, we're told, was meant to counterpoint the (already humor-laced) serious scenes just as David Hess' irreverent soundtrack songs serve as a jarring contrast to onscreen events. But as Fred Lincoln, who still refers to the film as "a piece of sh**", states in the commentary, "to cut back to them was to cut back to a different movie." It's like switching channels between a slasher flick and "The Dukes of Hazzard." The cartoonish Ozzie and Harriet-ness of Mari's parents is similarly overstated in their early scenes.

The blood-splattered finale, which takes place in and around the titular house, has its moments but is pretty much a mess. Reacting to the death of their daughter not with crippling grief but with a strangely industrious fervor, Mrs. Collingwood becomes a deadly seductress while Mr. Collingwood turns into a vengeful cross between Tim Allen and MacGyver. I won't give away too much of what happens, but aside from a few cool images, it's not all that shocking or suspenseful. A curiously tame chainsaw showdown does result in the destruction of some nice furniture, though. And one character's swimming pool demise is quite satisfying.

 

Fans of the film will no doubt enjoy the yakky, argumentative, and funny commentary track featuring Hess, Lincoln, and Sheffler (but not Craven or Cunningham, who did a commentary for the 2002 DVD release), as well as the behind-the-scenes featurette "Still Standing: The Legacy of The Last House on the Left" and the 40-minute documentary "Celluloid Crime of the Century", both of which contain much interview material with Craven, producer Sean S. Cunningham, and members of the cast. Along with some interesting inside info, the personable Craven also dishes up a little after-the-fact hooey about the script (based on Ingmar Bergman's THE VIRGIN SPRING) that he banged out with no deep intentions besides making a simple horror flick, "but I think what was going on subconsciously was a pretty complex matrix of the fundamentalists being alive in America at that time, and...uh, the Viet Nam war..." He also opines that some scenes evoked a perverse sympathy for the villains which resulted in a "trememdous turmoil of emotions in the audiences that created a lot of anger." I guess you had to be there--at no time while watching the film do I feel any sympathy for them whatsoever.

In "Scoring Last House", David Hess tells of how he wrote the music for the film and performs snippets from some of the songs. "Tales That Will Tear Your Heart Out" is about eleven minutes of silent Wes Craven-directed footage from an unfinished 1976 film. There are also some silent never-before-seen LAST HOUSE outtakes, a minute of deleted dialogue from Mari's death scene, and some trailers for other films. This unrated "collector's edition" DVD, released on 2/24/09, is in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital mono sound and subtitles in English, Spanish, and French. Picture and sound quality are about as good as can be expected considering the age and low budget of the film.

According to Roger Ebert, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT "never lets us out from under almost unbearable dramatic tension." I was really hoping it would have the same effect on me, and was genuinely surprised when it didn't even come close. For the most part, I found it lively and reasonably fun to watch, though much of the fun was of the "so bad it's good" variety with very little of it being just plain good. And it was nowhere near the grueling cinematic ordeal that I've come to expect over the years. I wonder if I've become desensitized, or if the film just isn't as sensitizing as it's cracked up to be.

LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) -- DVD Review by Porfle

I GOT THE FEELIN: JAMES BROWN IN THE 60s -- DVD review by porfle

Originally posted on 8/7/08

 

While I've always liked James Brown, I was never what you'd call a big fan. Now, after viewing Shout! Factory's 3-disc set I GOT THE FEELIN': JAMES BROWN IN THE '60s, I have a much deeper appreciation for both his talent as a musician and the important role he played in the civil rights movement. The biggest surprise for me, in fact, was the discovery of an incident in Boston following Martin Luther King's assassination, which makes this DVD set not only an irresistible record of Brown's musical prowess at the time but also the compelling account of a fascinating moment in American history.

I wanted to save the Boston stuff for later and indulge in some pure entertainment right away, so the first disc I watched was "James Brown Live at the Apollo '68." Originally broadcast as a television special entitled "James Brown: Man to Man", the image and sound quality are pretty rough at times--the early color video is especially bad at first, although it improves as it goes along. It helps to think of this as a priceless recording that we're lucky to have, warts and all, rather than dwelling on its imperfections. For me, they were soon forgotten as I became engrossed in James Brown's electrifying performance before a fiercely appreciative audience in the legendary Harlem theater.

Sweat pouring from his face, Brown earns his nickname as "the hardest working man in show business" as he gives his all during each number, belting out one classic after another with his heart and soul. The songs include "I Got the Feelin'", "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World", "I Feel Good", "Please, Please, Please" and twelve more, usually with one segueing right into the next. The backup band is hot, and with each song Brown gets into a groove and works it for all it's worth with his customary showmanship, including those patented dance steps, mike stand acrobatics, and that delightfully dramatic robe routine as a finale. The direction is really terrible during the show and the psychedelic '60s camera effects are a major distraction, but that's the way stuff like this was usually televised back then and the whole thing serves as a time capsule of its era.

A brief documentary portion shows Brown walking the streets of Watts and Harlem, commenting on what should be done to improve conditions in such communities ("My fight now is for the Black America to become American.") With a running time of almost fifty minutes, the Apollo show is augmented by James Brown's 1964 performance of "Out of Sight" on THE T.A.M.I. SHOW, plus two more songs from a 1967 show at L'Olympia in Paris.

The next disc I watched was "James Brown Live at the Boston Garden", taped during his historic April 5, 1968 show only 24 hours after Martin Luther King's assassination. With cities burning across America and angry riots raging in the streets, Brown's scheduled appearance there was turned into a televised memorial concert and an opportunity to relieve tensions in a peaceful way. The mood is initially tense as Boston's sole black councilman Thomas Atkins and the city's mayor Kevin White introduce Brown while urging everyone to honor Dr. King's legacy of non-violence. Then James Brown takes the stage and performs full-throttle for over an hour.

The public television station WGBH in Boston was unaccustomed to covering such a concert, especially at such short notice, but they do a magnificent job here. The direction and camerawork are outstanding, with uncommonly rich black-and-white videography that looks almost cinematic at times, and dramatic lighting which is particularly effective in the backlit shots from behind the stage. A few awkward moments occur, and at one point the video is missing for a minute or so, but these are negligible in light of how well this impromptu telecast turned out. On the whole, this is an amazing document of what is perhaps the most important performance of James Brown's career.

What almost turned it into a disaster comes in the latter minutes of the concert. With people crowding forward and starting to climb onstage, Brown's security men brusquely shove them back one by one and are soon joined by Boston police in flinging people off the stage. Brown calls a halt to this with the assurance that he can handle his people, but in no time is surrounded by a swarm of rowdy fans who refuse to back off. Brown strongly expresses disappointment and exhorts them to show him some respect ("We're Black--don't make us all look bad!") and let him finish the show, which he is finally allowed to do. Everything ends well, although for a few moments there it's a tense situation that could've gone bad in a heartbeat. All in all, pretty fascinating stuff. As an extra, the audio of Brown's eight-minute speech to the crowd before the show is played against an old-fashioned Indian chief test pattern.

Having watched the concert itself, I was really ready for the third disc, director David Leaf's excellent 2008 documentary THE NIGHT JAMES BROWN SAVED BOSTON. The backstory of King's murder, the resulting nationwide chaos that came after it, and the tension-filled situation in Boston are presented in well-chosen archival footage along with narration by Dennis Haysbert ("24", THE COLOR OF FREEDOM) and interviews with Mayor White and Councilman Atkins, Brown's manager Charles Bobbit, Boston deejay James Byrd, Rev. Al Sharpton, Dr. Cornel West, various bandmembers and concert attendees, and several others. (Bonus footage of these interviews is included on the disc along with a panel discussion which followed the film's premiere.)

Atkins' idea of using the James Brown concert to quell impending violence had to be sold to a dubious mayor, but an even more dubious Brown, it turns out, was fit to be tied when he discovered that his concert was to be televised for free--several times, in fact--and people were already cashing in their tickets. The drama that occurred during the closing segment of the concert is recounted by witnesses including David Gates of Newsweek, who was there that night and attests to the air of anxiety that hung over the situation ("It could've gone up like a torch," he recalls.) But perhaps the most compelling part of this documentary is James Brown's subsequent role as one of the most influential leaders of the civil rights movement, a racial ambassador helping to bring people together, and a crucial proponent of Black pride in America.

The three discs are boxed in slimline cases with achingly cool retro design and a 23-page booklet by Rickey Vincent, with an introduction by David Leaf. As a whole, I GOT THE FEELIN': JAMES BROWN IN THE '60s is a treasure trove of invaluable concert footage and real-life historical drama that's ultimately both enlightening and inspiring. If you're a James Brown fan already, this is a must-see. If not, watch it and you just might get the feelin'.

I GOT THE FEELIN: JAMES BROWN IN THE 60s -- DVD review by porfle

SPACE PRECINCT: THE COMPLETE SERIES -- DVD review by porfle

 Originally posted on 12/10/10

 

Looking like a kiddie show but playing like a futuristic primetime cop series, Gerry Anderson's SPACE PRECINCT: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1994-95) may take an episode or two for members of its target audience to realize what they're watching.  I didn't really like it myself at first, but boy, did it ever grow on me.

Despite its Saturday-morning look, SPACE PRECINCT is a sci-fi variation of the traditional hardboiled cop show complete with sexuality, violence, and other adult themes.  Familiar cliches abound, but with a subtle satirical edge that never veers into farce or self-mockery.  The characters and situations are always realistic enough to be taken seriously even though the show itself is one big, elaborate elbow in the ribs.

Ted Shackelford plays Lt. Patrick Brogan, a former NYPD cop who's now part of the 88th Precinct, which happens to be in orbit around the distant planet Altor.  Brogan's a devoted family man and a good, honest cop, but he's not above bending the rules a little when the situation calls for it.  His main beat is gritty metropolis Demeter City, a bustling hotbed of crime and corruption that looks like something out of a bargain-basement version of BLADE RUNNER, complete with flying cars (known here as "hoppers"). 

Since this UK show is produced by the same guy who brought us "Thunderbirds", "UFO", and "Space: 1999", everything's done with obvious models and the hoppers zip around on wires, but that's part of the fun.  Once you get used to it, it looks pretty cool--in fact, the SPFX guys manage to pull off some awesome "car" chases and stage an endless number of entertaining crashes and explosions.  This model work often has an updated "Flash Gordon" vibe which tends to give my inner geek a real buzz.  (Some CGI does crop up occasionally, mainly in the outer space shots.)


 

Down on ground level, the life-sized inner city sets are appropriately grimy and foreboding as lowlifes lurk in the shadows and crime runs rampant.  Here we find the main draw of SPACE PRECINCT--a variety of wonderfully designed aliens sporting some of the most lifelike, expressive animatronic masks I've ever seen.  The movements of the eyes and facial muscles in conjunction with the actors' performances creates a stunning effect which really makes these characters come alive despite a certain "cartoony" quality. 

In addition to its human population, Demeter City's two main alien races are the Creons and the Tarns.  Creons resemble gnarly versions of E.T. with big wide-spaced eyes and prunelike skin, and comprise most of the city's blue-collar element.  Tarns are somewhat more streamlined in appearance and sport a third eye which gives them limited telekinetic and mindreading abilities.  With Demeter City serving as a melting pot for the surrounding star system we also get to see a wide variety of other alien species with similarly ingenious design.

Back at the precinct, Brogan's cocky but capable young partner Jack Haldane (Rob Youngblood) is forever trying to break through the romantic defenses of beautiful Officer Jane Castle (Simone Bendix, who looks just plain awesome in uniform).  Her partner, Aurelia Took (Mary Woodvine), is a sensitive, soulful Tarn who uses her third-eye powers as an interrogation aid.
 

 

Buddy cops Orrin and Romek are a couple of likable Creon sad sacks who provide much of the comedy relief, while another Creon, Captain Rexton Podly (Jerome Willis), is the stereotypical gruff, hardnosed boss with a heart of gold.  ("Sometimes," Podly philosophizes in one episode, "reality takes a hammer to your dreams and smashes the hell out of them.")  Rounding out the group is a diminutive robot named Slomo who actually manages to not be overly cutesy.  On the homefront, Brogan's strongwilled wife Sally (Nancy Paul) and tweener kids Matt and Liz provide moral support and also feature prominently in several storylines.

While Shackelford, Youngblood, and Bendix are talented enough to give their thinly-drawn characters sufficient depth and charm (Shackelford in particular is so good here that I've been forced to forgive him for being in "Knot's Landing"), it's those alien characters that I find so mesmerizing.  Brimming with personality, each is capable of expressing subtle emotions in closeup (Officer Took in particular), with surprisingly convincing results.  Although you never forget that they're actors wearing articulated big-head masks, the effect is never less than impressive.

Stories alternate between cop-show staples, "X-Files" strangeness, and pure sci-fi, sometimes in various combinations.  The wide-ranging array of plotlines include black-market organ harvesting ("Deadline"), a Terminator-like cyborg with its sights set on Brogan and everyone around him ("Time to Kill"), interspecies racism ("Hate Street"), and a new, highly-addictive drug that causes its users to spontaneously combust ("Flash").  Things get tense in "Body and Soul" when Brogan and his son Matt find themselves trapped in a derelict spaceship that's on a countdown to self-destruct.


 

"The Fire Within", a two-parter from late in the season, starts out on the dull side as Brogan and the gang investigate a shady fire-worshipping religious cult.  But part one ends with a bang and part two builds to a spectacular finale with movie-level thrills and suspense. "Deathwatch", another two-parter which brings the series to a close, features a deadly alien spore that threatens to wipe out all life on Altor.

"James Bond" alumnus John Glen directs several episodes of this flashy, fast-moving series, with a rousing musical score by composer Crispin Merrell.  British viewers will probably recognize more of the guest stars than I do--"Divided We Stand", for example, features Suzanne Bertish of the Royal Shakespeare Company.  Ray Winstone's name shows up in the end credits for the prison-asteroid hostage drama "Two Against the Rock" although he must've been playing an alien because I couldn't spot him.  Also appearing in various episodes are Burt Kwouk (THE PINK PANTHER series), Maryam D'Abo, ALIEN 3's Danny Webb, and Christopher Fairbank (BATMAN, THE FIFTH ELEMENT).

The five-disc DVD set from Image Entertainment is in 1.33:1 full-screen with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.  There are no subtitles or extras.  Total running time for the 24 full-length episodes is 17 hours, 43 minutes.  Again, Simone Bendix looks awesome in uniform.

It's a shame this series didn't last longer, because it just gets better and better during its single season.  Kids may find the stories too grown-up, while many adults will initially be put off by its seemingly juvenile veneer.  But for the discerning geek who thinks a cross between "Jason of Star Command" and "Hawaii Five-O" sounds like a cool idea, watching SPACE PRECINCT: THE COMPLETE SERIES is like going to Disneyland and riding all the rides.


Buy it at Amazon.com

SPACE PRECINCT: THE COMPLETE SERIES -- DVD review by porfle

FELICITY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 3/24/16

 

Having already been introduced to the ins and outs of sex "dan unda" by his documentaries THE ABC OF LOVE AND SEX: AUSTRALIA STYLE and AUSTRALIA AFTER DARK (in addition to his lurid slasher-horror NIGHTMARES), I was interested to see Ozploitation director John D. Lamond's entry in the "Emmanuelle" school of softcore sex dramas, 1978's FELICITY. 

This story of a young schoolgirl's growing sexual awareness is a deft mix of crass and class that plays like a humid back-pocket novel.  Within minutes it's already offering up plentiful amounts of nudity as young Felicity and her fellow convent school mates splash in the shower (Felicity marvels at the tingling in her "special place") and go skinny dipping at a nearby pond as neighboring boys look on from the bushes, which excites her.

Felicity isn't just curious about sex--she's obsessed, thinking about it every waking minute and talking about it at length in the diary-like narration.  Her school day consists of gazing at the other girls, contemplating her own body's budding wonders, and making those awkward first lesbian advances toward her best friend Jenny while fantasizing about losing her virginity to an actual boy. 

The film continues in this hazy pastoral vein until Felicity gets an invitation from her sister Christine (Marilyn Rodgers, PATRICK, "Prisoner: Cell Block H") to vacation at her home in Hong Kong, which we predict will be like setting wild dogs loose in a butcher shop. 

Not surprisingly, Felicity witnesses a couple having sex on the plane and pleasures herself in lieu of finishing her dog-eared copy of "Emmanuelle."  Arriving amidst the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, she soon ends up peeping at Christine and her cutie-pie hubby Stephen doing the nasty as well, and chomping at the bit to try it herself.

At this point it's pretty much just a matter of waiting to see what kind of sexual exploits will come Felicity's way next, and with whom.  Our first sight of a dashing older guy with a porn 'stache is a dead giveaway, as is Felicity's meeting with Christine's pretty friend Me Ling (Penthouse Pet Joni Flynn). 

These two adventurous babes go out on the town for the day, allowing Lamond to indulge in plenty of nicely exotic travelogue stuff until it's time to retire to a bath house for some steamy (literally) interplay with a couple of lady sex workers.

Our sensuous heroine wanders in and out of a few more brief encounters until she finally finds love with the proper stranger (Christopher Milne, THIRST), whereupon she discovers that there's more to life than simple hedonism. 

I won't give away the final outcome, since this story has precious few surprises to offer as it is before the rather abrupt ending.  Suffice it to say I was pleased that it didn't take the sort of darker turn that I was anticipating. 

Not exactly the most plot-heavy movie you'll ever see, FELICITY saunters along at a lazy pace and is quite enjoyable if one gears down enough to sit still for it.

The sex scenes are artistically rendered--hazy lighting, soft focus, subtlety--with enough simulated hoo-hah to count as softcore porn without ever coming close to raunch.

Director Lamond has enough finesse to make a visually pleasing film with a low budget and get adequate-to-good performances from his cast.  Glory Annen (SUPERGIRL, THE LONELY LADY), who was actually about 26 at the time, is fresh-faced and girlish enough to be convincing as the young Felicity without creeping us out.  The Hong Kong backdrop adds immeasurably to the film's appeal.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films is widescreen HD with Dolby 2.0 sound.  No subtitles.  Incredibly, the bonus menu includes both of the aforementioned full-length sex documentaries from John D. Lamond, THE ABC OF LOVE AND SEX: AUSTRALIA STYLE and AUSTRALIA AFTER DARK, in their entirety, including the original commentary tracks.

We also get lengthy interviews with Lamond and an older "Felicity" herself, Glory Annen, as well as a commentary track for FELICITY featuring the two.  Trailers for Lamond's films round out the selection. 

I'm past the point of finding this kind of stuff all that titillating these days, but back in 1978 this was pretty hot stuff for those not yet jaded by Cinemax After Dark or The Playboy Channel.  Now, FELICITY has a pleasant kind of novelty value and, with a little honest-to-goodness romance thrown in, it makes for a very nice couples flick.

Buy it at Amazon.com:
Blu-ray
DVD

Release date: March 29, 2016
Stills shown are not taken from the Blu-ray

FELICITY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

 

The Film Detective does it again with a nicely-restored special edition of the 1957 fan favorite THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS, which looks way better now than most of us have ever had a chance to see it.

Of course, the scratchy old prints on my local station's afternoon movie show sufficed for me as a kid back in the 60s. While very low-budget and admittedly hokey at times, the film gave me chills back then and still delivers on sheer entertainment value for those of us who grew up on these lurid sci-fi/monster thrillers.

BRAIN boasts a solid cast, with genre stalwart John Agar as scientist Steve March, who stumbles upon strange radioactive signals coming from deep within a desert mountain. Robert Fuller plays Steve's assistant Dan, years before he would become a TV icon in such shows as "Laramie", "Wagon Train", and "Emergency." 

 

Joyce Meadows vividly plays Steve bride-to-be Sally, who grows concerned when Steve returns from the cave without Dan and displaying strange, frightening new personality traits (including a wildly increased libido). This is because he's been taken over by Gor, an evil alien entity bent on conquering the world.

While Gor's appearance has evoked laughter from many viewers over the years--he's basically a giant floating brain with eyes--I've always had a fondness for both him and his counterpart, a benign floating brain named Vol whose mission is to capture the criminal fugitive.

Whenever Steve's body is ruled by Gor, it gives John Agar a chance to display maniacal, homicidal villainy as never before, which he seems to enjoy despite the pain caused by a pair of silver-painted contact lenses designed to make his eyes glow.

It was this indelible vision, and not the floating brains, that gave me such shivers as a kid as Steve/Gor gleefully blew up passenger planes and fried hapless victims with that sinister glare.

The film is skillfully and econically directed by Nathan Juran (aka Nathan Hertz), whose eclectic career also included such diverse titles as THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD and ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT WOMAN. Camerawork and lighting are particulary good, as is a rousing musical score by Walter Greene.

The disc from The Film Detective offers some nice featurettes (listed below) including a recently-shot tour of the film's outdoor locations with star Joyce Meadows, who also appears along with other guests in the commentary track by leading film historian Tom Weaver. Weaver also penned the illustrated booklet on the career of producer Jacques Marquette. Viewers of the film can choose between full-screen and matted widescreen.

Good production values, amusing dialogue, and a few actual chills are some of the reasons why THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS should appeal to fans of low-budget 1950s sci-fi thrillers. For a film which, on first glance, looks like just another of those "so bad it's good" flicks, it's actually not bad at all.



THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS

Retail Price: $29.95
Release Date: 6-21-2022
Runtime: 71 min.
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Language: English
Closed Captions: English, Spanish
Color/BW: BW

SPECIAL FEATURES -

    Full Color Booklet with original essay by Author/ Historian Tom Weaver
    Full commentary track by historians Tom Weaver, David Schecter, Larry Blamire, and PLANET AROUS star, Joyce Meadows
    The Man Before the Brain: Director Nathan Juran - an original Ballyhoo Motion Pictures production
    The Man Behind the Brain: The World of Nathan Juran - an original Ballyhoo Motion Pictures production
    The film will also be included in a full frame format, 1.33:1
    Now including a special, all new, introduction by Actor Joyce Meadows!

Pre-order: https://www.thefilmdetective.com/arous

THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

AMERICAN ROMANCE -- Movie Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 10/20/16

 

It isn't every day that I can describe a bloody, violent serial-killer movie as a "feelgood flick", but I just got through watching AMERICAN ROMANCE (2016) and darned if that isn't just what it is. 

Okay, it isn't THE SOUND OF MUSIC, but it isn't THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE or HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER either.  It isn't even NATURAL BORN KILLERS (despite the clear similarities) because it lacks both that film's sardonic pessimism and indulgence in cinematic artifice. 

After one of those cool SE7EN-style main titles sequences that gives the movie a lot to live up to, we meet troubled ex-sheriff Ricky Stern (Barlow Jacobs, GREAT WORLD OF SOUND, THE MASTER, THAT EVENING SUN), who's sort of a shut-in due to something bad that happened to him during a case which was known as "The Diorama Killings" since the victims were always arranged in such a way as to preach a message against sin (another similarity to SE7EN). 

When a writer (Elana Krausz) comes by to interview him about it, his tortured recollections set off a series of flashbacks that carry us back to the story of young newlyweds Jeff Madison (Nolan Gerard Funk, DEADGIRL, BEREAVEMENT) and his wife Krissy (Daveigh Chase, SPIRITED AWAY, THE RING, DONNIE DARKO), who have just had a flat tire in the middle of rural nowhere.

They walk to the nearest house, where a weird, jittery old man named Emery (John Savage, THE DEER HUNTER, DOOR INTO SILENCE) is in the process of putting a gun in his mouth.  He grudgingly calls a tow truck, but during their wait (in which Emery's behavior becomes increasingly odd), Krissy happens to look through the bathroom window and sees a naked dead body in the bathtub, splattered with blood. 

Have they stumbled into the very lair of "The Diorama Killer"?  Or is there more here than meets the eye?  What seems at first to be a fairly straightforward story will just get more and more deliriously strange as the viewer is kept off-balance the whole time.

Trouble is, this is one of those movies where the more I tell you about it, the less you'll be able to experience it the way I did.  Even the trailer reveals just a little too much even though it does try not to spill ALL the beans. 

Anyway, the less said about things like Emery's paraplegic wife Brenda (Diane Farr, ABOUT CHERRY) who is bound and gagged in her wheelchair, or horny tow-truck driver Hank (Mark Boone Junior, SE7EN, MEMENTO, BATMAN BEGINS), or anything else that happens when all the stabbing and shooting and screaming starts, the better.

I can say that the performances are top-notch, with John Savage being his usual weird, creepy self--he's always been an expert at seeming not quite right in the head.  Daveigh Chase (who was the voice of "Chihiro" in the Disney dub of Miyazaki's SPIRITED AWAY) is a sexy backwoods delight as she does her best Juliette Lewis, while Funk reminds me of a young Nick Chinlund.  Both invest their roles with just the right touch of humor. 

Mei Melançon (X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, LOADED) appears as an investigator helping Sheriff Stern, while familiar face James Duval (INDEPENDENCE DAY, VENICE UNDERGROUND, THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND) shows up in a mostly non-speaking role as the body in the bathtub.

Director Zackary Adler (THE RISE OF THE KRAYS, CASUAL ENCOUNTERS) has crafted a bloody thriller that's a pleasure to look at, with a story good enough to avoid having to rely on mere shock value and violence for its own sake. 

And maybe I'm just weird, but, like I said, AMERICAN ROMANCE left me feeling lighthearted and uplifted when it was over.  It's the bloodiest feelgood flick of the year! 


Amazon Video
iTunes
Trailer

AMERICAN ROMANCE -- Movie Review by Porfle

GIRL HAPPY (1965) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 3/29/21

 

Currently rewatching: GIRL HAPPY (1965). One of my two favorite "bad Elvis" movies along with the immortal "Tickle Me." 

 

I used to think "Tickle Me" was the worst, but upon reappraisal I find it positively charming compared to this oozing mass of unmitigated stupid. 

 

"Girl Happy" contains a whole album's worth of Elvis' worst songs. No wonder he'd lost interest in making movies with a script this dumb and songs such as "The Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce" and "Do The Clam" for him to warble with absolutely no enthusiasm whatsoever. 

 

 

 

His character, "Rusty Wells", heads an awful rock and roll combo consisting of guys like Gary Crosby and Joby Baker, who entertain the easily-pleased patrons of a club owned by mob-connected Harold J. Stone.

 

When the boss' daughter, played by Shelley Fabares, decides to run off to Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break, Daddy sends Elvis and his boys down there to keep an eye on her with the warning that failure will result in serious consequences for them.

 

Needless to say, daughter Valerie hooks up with a fast Italian lothario who wants to do more than hold hands, and while trying to keep her pure Elvis falls in love with her himself which seriously cramps his style with erstwhile romantic interest Mary Ann Mobley.

 

The script, surprisingly co-written by Harvey Bullock of "The Andy Griffith Show" fame and directed by Boris "The Omega Man" Sagal, can hardly muster up a single decent joke or sight gag, which leaves the cast working overtime to come off as more than just a bunch of stiffs. 

 

 

 

Watching them struggle to be funny is, in fact, way more entertaining than the script itself. They're joined in this futile endeavor by such stalwarts as Jackie Coogan, John Fiedler, Olan Soule, and the ever-delightful Nita Talbot as a brassy stripper.

 

Even a grown-up Jimmy Hawkins, who played Gail Davis' little brother Tagg in the 50s western series "Annie Oakley", is on hand to join the rest of the cast in having the life sucked out of them by this stupefying cinematic experience. 

 

As bad as it is, however, Elvis at his worst is pure entertainment for bad movie fanatics such as myself, which is why "Girl Happy" is one of my favorite "bad Elvis" movies and why I just bought the DVD when I could've spent the same money on something infinitely better. 

 

After all, it wouldn't have featured anyone performing "Do The Clam", would it?

 

 

GIRL HAPPY (1965) -- Movie Review by Porfle

ELVIS: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW--THE CLASSIC PERFORMANCES -- DVD review by porfle

Originally posted on 8/6/09

 

Of all the various stages that Elvis Presley went through during his staggering career as a worldwide cultural phenomenon, the one I still prefer most is the fresh-faced supernova that we see in ELVIS: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW--THE CLASSIC PERFORMANCES. Intense idolatry and fame are still new to this young, vibrant, almost naive Elvis, and we can see him having fun with the experience before it sours and begins to isolate him from the rest of humanity.

"The Ed Sullivan Show", for those who have never seen it, was a live hour-long variety show that ran seemingly forever and was hosted by a stiff, dour-looking guy known mainly as a renowned entertainment journalist. Ed brought to his vast television audience a wide array of acts that ranged from ballet to Broadway, from Shakespeare to Shecky Greene, and finally, unwillingly, began to encompass the burgeoning world of rock and roll. Ed was hesitant to feature this strange new hip-waggling rocker on his show, but when an appearance by Elvis on Steve Allen's show garnered astronomical ratings, Ed figured it was time to get some of those millions of rabid teen fans tuning in to his own show before the fad had faded. 

 

This DVD is a record of Elvis' three major appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The September 9, 1956 episode is minus Ed Sullivan himself, who had been injured in a head-on collision and would rely on a series of guest hosts until his return several weeks later. After being introduced to the screaming audience by a not-ready-for-primetime Charles Laughton, Elvis makes his way onto the stage and humbly thanks everyone for what he calls "probably the greatest honor I've ever had in my life" before launching into "Don't Be Cruel." The other songs he performs on this show are "Love Me Tender", "Ready Teddy", and "Hound Dog." After that last number Charles Laughton asks the audience in classic old-fogey style, "Well, what did somebody say, uh...music hath charms to soothe the savage breast?" 

 

The young Elvis proves to be a fun-loving cutup who rarely takes himself seriously. He loves to make faces during songs to provoke laughter and screams from the audience. Referring to "Love Me Tender" as his "latest RCA Victor escape...uh, release", Elvis doesn't even spare this solemn, sappy tune his constant clowning. Later, he holds up a finger and says with mock seriousness, "Friends, as a great philosopher once said..." before launching into "Hound Dog" with as much awareness as anyone else that it's a supremely silly song. 

 

On the October 28, 1956 show, a vibrant Elvis greets the returning Ed Sullivan by laughing his way through "Don't Be Cruel" and then having to slog through "Love Me Tender" again like a kid being forced to eat his spinach. He still manages to have fun with it, though--the playfulness of his mood that night just couldn't be contained. Surrounded by his ever-present backup vocalists the Jordanaires, he then croons the turgid ballad "Love Me" while relishing its doo-wop mawkishness for all it's worth. 

 

Strapping on his guitar, Elvis offers an elaborately solemn introduction to his final song of the night:

"Ladies and gentlemen, uh, could I have your attention, please. I'd like to tell you that we're gonna do a...sad song for you. This song is one of the saddest songs we've ever heard. It really tells a story, friends. Beautiful lyrics. It goes something like this..." 

 

The song, of course, is "Hound Dog", and Elvis finally cuts loose and becomes the hip-shaking rock and roller that we all envision him to be. Rarely does an entertainer seem to be having this much fun (much of it at his own expense) as he shares in the joyful mood of the audience. 

 

Not only that, but old-fashioned Ed himself, once reticent to book Elvis on his show, clearly loves the guy. At one point he even drops his usual stern countenance and jokes, "I can't figure this thing out, you know he just does this [shakes his hips] and everybody yells!" Elvis humbly ends his appearance by telling the audience, "Until we meet ya again, may God bless ya as He's blessed me. Thank ya very much." 

 

 

The January 6, 1957 show begins with a medley of "Hound Dog", "Love Me Tender", and "Heartbreak Hotel", but something seems a little odd. That's because this is the famous show in which, due to complaints from more conservative viewers about The Pelvis' lewd bodily motions, Elvis is never seen from the waist down. 

 

The segue from "Hound Dog" into "Love Me Tender" couldn't be more extreme, and Elvis' goofy facial expression conveys his weariness of singing it. He breaks loose again with lively versions of "Don't Be Cruel", "Too Much", and "When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again" before ending with a heartfelt spiritual, "Peace in the Valley." Ed Sullivan, who has obviously had a ball during his experience with Elvis, doesn't let him get away without offering this endorsement of the controversial rocker: "I wanted to say to Elvis and the country, that this is a real decent, fine boy." 

 

The 1.33:1 full-screen image and Dolby Digital sound (5.1 surround and original 2.0 mono) are as good as the original kinescope elements permit. A wealth of interesting bonus material includes: 

 

--Why Ed Didn't Host Elvis' First Appearance

--Elvis and Ed: Intros and Promos

--Special Elvis Moments

--Caught on Celluloid: The First Moving Pictures of Elvis

--Jerry Schilling's Home Movies

--Remembering Ed and Elvis (interviews) 

 

Totally belying his image as an inarticulate yokel, the engaging performer that we see here is a shimmering entity brimming with intriguing paradoxes. Retaining a respectful humility that ingratiated him to the older crowd, he was also effortlessly cool, cocky, and irreverent just by being himself. He could be heart-on-his-sleeve sincere even as he mischievously poked fun at the superficial nature of his image, as playfully self-mocking and self-aware as anyone with such immense, intense popularity could be. Most of all, as ELVIS: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW--THE CLASSIC PERFORMANCES reminds us, he was a beautiful, almost mystical creature who burned brightly long before he began to burn out. Buy it at Amazon.com:

 

Elvis Presley: The Ed Sullivan Shows: The Performances 

 

ELVIS: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW--THE CLASSIC PERFORMANCES -- DVD review by porfle