BLOODY MOON -- Blu-ray review by porfle

 Originally posted on 7/3/14

 

If nothing else, Jess Franco was a prolific director who dabbled mainly in the genres of horror and porn. Despite his popularity, the films I've seen from him so far (THE HOT NIGHTS OF LINDA, THE SINISTER EYES OF DR. ORLOFF, and especially the awful PAULA PAULA) have yet to convince me that his work is worth seeking out unless you're just looking for some "so bad it's okay" action.

My most recent Franco film, 1981's BLOODY MOON, while being a somewhat lively horror flick with lots of bad gore effects, also falls short of converting me into a Franco-phile. I do, however, admire his ability to take a low budget and limited resources and churn out theatrical product that also manages to endear itself to his numerous fans.

Maybe it's his crudely-executed enthusiasm for the filmmaking process that they find so fascinating. There isn't much else to recommend in this particular outing, which takes place in a Spanish boarding school for young women that's menaced by an unknown killer.

The film opens with the facially-disfigured Miguel (Alexander Waechter) raping and stabbing one of the students during a masquerade party while wearing a Mickey Mouse mask. Five years later, his sister Manuela (Nadja Gerganoff) succeeds in getting him released from the booby hatch in her custody, whereupon they return to the school which is owned by their tyrannical aunt, the Countess (María Rubio), who suspects them of wanting her out of the way so they can inherit her fortune.

We're shown a few cursory scenes of the female students during a language class but the place is actually more of a resort hotel with luxurious cabins and a swimming pool. So when they aren't reciting moron-level Spanish lessons, they're either disco dancing in the local club, swimming, or bumping uglies. Or getting murdered.

It all comes off like a poor man's Argento flick but with unlikable characters yakking some really bad (and badly dubbed) dialogue. There's a mentally-challenged mute handyman (Otto Retzer) who may be the killer, a handsome young chick-magnet gardener named Antonio (Peter Exacoustos) who may be the killer, a suave, sex-crazed school dean who may be the killer (Christoph Moosbrugger), and a final girl named Angela (Olivia Pascal) who may get killed and can't convince anyone that she just saw her best friend murdered by a pair of scissors through the chest in her own bedroom. Top this off with a bunch of unfunny comedy-relief dumb blondes running around, not to mention the incestuous Miguel and Manuela (who may be the killers), and you've got a sure recipe for apathy.

Franco, it must be said, didn't care much for the script but wasn't allowed to make changes. He was also promised a Pink Floyd score but got an ear-bending musical cacophony by some unknown Dutch guy instead. The film brims with bad acting and crude production values which we can almost sense Franco struggling to overcome with his own limited abilities. And while he manages a certain amount of suspense here and there, it mostly falls flat and is never actually "scary."

The main effect he achieves here is to work up sort of a jittery, frantic anxiety. Angela's nerve-wracking screams assault us as she flails around in bug-eyed terror when the mysterious killer goes after her. And it isn't just Angela--I don't think I've ever heard more unrestrained wall-to-wall screaming from the cast of a movie. The gore effects, simple as they are, contribute to what little unease the film is able to elicit, especially the centerpiece buzzsaw-beheading of what looks like a storefront mannequin. Animal lovers, on the other hand, will find the actual beheading of a live snake to be the most disturbing shot in the film.

The blu-ray disc from Severin Films is in 1080p full HD resolution widescreen with Dolby English mono sound. No subtitles. Extras consist of a trailer and an interesting interview with Franco about the making of the film.

While BLOODY MOON falls short of what I'd qualify as a "good" movie, there's enough entertainment value to save it from being a total bore, including lots of violence and a hefty amount of nudity. But scares, not so much.

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This title will be released on July 8, 2014.

BLOODY MOON -- Blu-ray review by porfle

CONQUEST OF SPACE (1955) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 4/30/21

 

Currently watching: George Pal's CONQUEST OF SPACE (1955).

The man who brought us WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE TIME MACHINE, and WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE certainly knew how to produce a terrific-looking science fiction epic with excellent state-of-the-art special effects.

But those films had good screenplays that were based on classic novels, which is something that can't be said, by any stretch of the imagination, for Pal's monumental misfire CONQUEST OF SPACE.

I say "monumental" because this lavishly made space spectacle boasts special effects that are beautiful to look at, especially shots of a huge rotating-wheel space station orbiting a colorful Earth with sparkling stars set against the velvet blackness of space. 

 

 
The film is filled with such visual splendor as well as other fine production values, a large cast, and a general sense of wonder that only science fiction can provide. This is augmented by matte paintings by none other than the master of astronomical art himself, Chesley Bonestall, and direction by Byron Haskin (WAR OF THE WORLDS, TV's "The Outer Limits").

Unfortunately, the story and dialogue are every bit as ham-handed and dumb as the worst of the cheapo space exploration films that I find so perversely entertaining in a "so-bad-it's-good" sort of way--turkeys such as THE ANGRY RED PLANET, 12 TO THE MOON, FIRE MAIDENS FROM OUTER SPACE, JOURNEY TO THE 7TH PLANET, and even the venerable ROCKETSHIP XM.

Pal's space force consists of the usual military stereotypes from every run-of-the-mill WWII flick, with stiff-backed officers, soldiers who are either boyishly gung-ho or wracked with personal doubts and hang-ups, and of course the usual comedy relief bozo, this time in the form of Phil Foster. 

 

 
With a Brooklyn accent that could hammer nails, Foster mugs it up so heavily it makes even his later role as Laverne's father on "Laverne & Shirley" seem subtle by comparison. Equally overbearing is Mickey Shaughnessy as loudmouthed Sgt. Mahoney, who might've served as the model for the bulldog in "Tom & Jerry" cartoons.

The space-happy soldiers whoop it up while watching a Rosemary Clooney musical (thanks to some archive footage) and clown around with their space-age food tablets ("Hey, this one's coffee! Pass me some cream and sugar tablets!"). The obligatory rogue meteor lends a bit of disaster-movie excitement when it hits the space station early on.

All of this leads up to the big Mars expedition, which is sprung on them so suddenly by top brass that volunteers must be hurriedly rounded up even though they have no training for or even basic understanding of the mission. The ones who are eventually chosen greet the prospect with such reluctance that one wonders why they're working in outer space in the first place.

 

 
To make things worse, the commanding officer, General Merritt (Walter Brooke, BLOODLUST!), has suddenly developed the notion that God doesn't want their mission to succeed and that humans going to Mars is an abominable offense to the Almighty. Needless to say, this tends to become a detriment to the mission's success before it's over.

Brooke, who would later gain immortality by telling Dustin Hoffman a single word ("Plastics!") in THE GRADUATE, plays the role first as the standard no-nonsense officer before gradually lapsing into the stereotypical "religious nut" with the screenplay offering him no apparent reason for doing so save that it adds an extra element of peril to what would normally be a simple flight to Mars.

Eric Fleming, who would also go on to achieve icon status as trail boss Gil Favor on the long-running western TV series "Rawhide", gives a sturdy performance as Gen. Merritt's son Barney, who is mission captain even though he hates working in space and longs to return home to his wife. 

 

 
The rest of the cast includes some young actors who will become very familiar faces, including Ross Martin, William Redfield, Vito Scotti, and Benson Fong. Also on hand are William Hopper ("Perry Mason") and Joan Shawlee ("The Dick Van Dyke Show").

Despite all its positive elements, the main appeal of this colorful potboiler is its curious naivete regarding the actual future of space exploration, as well as the previously mentioned "bad movie" goodness that overwhelms its first-rate production values. CONQUEST OF SPACE can't be taken seriously, no matter how hard you try, but it can still be fun to watch.

CONQUEST OF SPACE (1955) -- Movie Review by Porfle

RIO GRANDE -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 12/5/20

 

Legendary director John Ford had been trying for the longest time to get Republic Pictures head Herbert J. Yates to finance his dream project, THE QUIET MAN. 

Finally, Yates made a deal with Ford--direct a new cavalry western with John Wayne, which would be a surefire moneymaker for Republic, and he'd back Ford's nostalgic ode to his Irish heritage. And that's how RIO GRANDE (Olive Signature, 1950) came to be.

Future members of THE QUIET MAN's cast and crew were involved, including Wayne, his beautiful leading lady Maureen O'Hara (the chemistry was already strong in their first onscreen pairing), brawny Victor McLaglen, actor/singer Ken Curtis, Wayne's son Patrick, filmographer Archie Stout (who had worked with Duke since the early 30s), and film composer Victor Young. 

 

Unlike that film's dreamlike Technicolor visuals, RIO GRANDE is in Ford's own impeccable trademark black and white style, starkly enhancing the visual splendor of the film's desert locations with their vast plateaus almost as impressively as Ford's beloved Monument Valley. (Moab, Utah stands in for Arizona with the Colorado River playing the title role.)

Wayne stars as Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke, the tough but fair commander of a U.S. cavalry regiment encamped in an isolated spot that puts them in constant conflict with warlike Apache tribes nearby. This is yet another fully-realized performance by Wayne which thoroughly disproves the notion that he couldn't act, or that he was a one-note actor who only ever played himself.

One day Yorke's own son Jeff (Claude Jarman Jr. of THE YEARLING in a likable performance), whom he hasn't seen in fifteen years, appears as a new recruit. It seems that, having failed the mathematics requirements at Westpoint, he immediately enlisted in the cavalry after lying about his age. 

 

As if this didn't create enough tension, Yorke's estranged wife Kathleen (O'Hara)--with a little thing called the Civil War having come between them for all those years--shows up to have the boy discharged and take him home. But the dedicated young Jeff, to his father's obvious approval, will have none of it, as they both share the same sense of duty and honor.

Thus begins the film's main dramatic thrust as the long-separated couple rekindle their ever-smoldering romantic obsessions while wrestling over the fate of their son, even as the war between the cavalry and the Apaches reaches a boiling point.

Action fans can look forward to three major battle setpieces: one, the launching of a blistering nocturnal raid by the Apaches upon the encampment; two, when a wagon train of women and children being escorted away from the camp is suddenly set upon by Apache warriors, with only a small group of soldiers to defend them; and three, a climactic clash in which Yorke and his troops descend upon the Apaches' stronghold in order to rescue the civilians.

 

Those expecting constant thrills and a breakneck pace, however, may be disappointed. Quentin Tarantino once referred to Howard Hawks' RIO BRAVO as a "hangout film", since one of its main joys is in simply hanging out with its characters. Here, in addition to those irresistible stars, numerous scenes allow us to just pass the time with the supporting players or listen in as they serenade us with a selection of western songs.

These include the likes of Ben Johnson and Harry Carey, Jr. as a couple of very laidback but capable hillbilly recruits, Chill Wills as the easygoing regimental doctor, J. Carroll Naish as a world-weary general, and the choral group Sons of the Pioneers featuring silver-throated Ken Curtis (who would later achieve television immortality as Festus on "Gunsmoke"). The film's musical and comedy vignettes could almost be itemized on a bill of fare as an evening's program of entertainment.

 

The new Blu-ray release from Olive Signature is a high-definition digital restoration that brings out the pristine beauty of Ford's visuals. The disc's bonus menu offers interviews with Ben Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr., Claude Jarman, Jr., and Patrick Wayne, several featurettes, a trailer, a commentary track, and essays by film historians.

There are those who consider RIO GRANDE the lesser of Ford's three cavalry films, but for me it's just as rich and satisfying a viewing experience. Perhaps it's because the relatively slower pace and simpler story give it more room to breathe. You don't just rush through this movie; instead, you settle in and spend some quality time with it.



YEAR: 1950
GENRE: DRAMA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 105 min
RATING: N/A
VIDEO: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W
AUDIO: MONO

OLIVE SIGNATURE FEATURES

    New High-Definition digital restoration
    Audio commentary by Nancy Schoenberger
    “Telling Real Histories” – Raoul Trujillo on representations of Indigenous Americans in film
    “Songs of the Rio Grande” – Marc Wanamaker on the Sons of the Pioneers
    “Strength and Courage” – Patrick Wayne on his father
    “Bigger Than Life” – with Claude Jarman, Jr.
    Visual essay by Tag Gallagher
    “The Making of Rio Grande” – with Leonard Maltin
    Essay by Paul Andrew Hutton
    Theatrical trailer

US+CANADA
STREET: 11/17/20
CAT: OS022
UPC: 887090602204
SRP: $39.95

RIO GRANDE -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THE QUIET MAN -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 10/28/16

 

A dream, a theme park, a veritable phantasmagoria of idealized Irishness--John Ford's 1952 classic THE QUIET MAN (Olive Signature, Blu-ray and DVD) has quite likely turned more people temporarily Irish than any other film ever made.  It's the sweetly stereotypical Ireland that people like Ford himself imagined in his fondest fantasies whenever he yearned to return to the emerald isle of his parents' birth.

Here, of course, is the beautiful Irish countryside in all its verdant glory, made even more lush through the Technicolor process--none of Republic Pictures' trademark "Trucolor" for Ford--along with the usual cast of character types one might expect. 

There's the diminutive town tippler who's also its matchmaker, Michaleen Oge Flynn (Barry Fitzgerald); big, strapping farmer Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen) and his spinster sister, the impetuous redhead Mary Kate (Maureen O'Hara); imperious, wealthy widow Sarah Tillane (Mildred Natwick), on whom Danaher has his sights set; and the town's Catholic and Protestant spiritual leaders, Father Peter Lonergan (Ward Bond) and Reverend Cyril Playfair (Arthur Shields).

Ford renders his fantasy vision of rural Irish life with an artist's eye and a poet's heart, providing a backdrop of purity and contentment that the outside world can scarcely touch.  Custom is observed at all times--a scenic seaside horse race in which the riders vie for their ladies' bonnets, primly proper courtships whose etiquette seems unduly unyielding, and, at every opportunity, a pint or two in the local pub.

Into this seemingly timeless world comes childhood resident Sean Thornton (John Wayne), long Americanized but yearning to return to his pastoral roots to escape the haunting memory of killing a man in the boxing ring.  This gives him a reticence to fight that appears as cowardice when Danaher challenges him over Thornton's brazen courting of his sister Mary Kate.  Only later, after much tortured, hopeless struggle against Irish tradition, will Thornton relent.

Meanwhile, THE QUIET MAN seethes with fiery romance between Sean and Mary Kate, he brashly forward and unequivocal, she primly conservative on the outside while barely containing her inner passion.  A chaste, chaperoned outing with matchmaker Michaleen turns into a stolen tryst in a secluded hilltop cemetery as the lovers, buffeted by wind and rain, succumb to a desire as uncontrollable as the elements.

It's Ford at his most achingly romantic, his actors playing their roles with heartrending conviction.  This is also true of the couple's tempestuous marital relations--for marry they finally do, although a stubborn Danaher, tricked into allowing the marriage, refuses to give Mary Kate her dowry. 

Robbed of what is rightfully hers, she rejects Sean when he fails to understand its symbolic importance to her (independence, validation, self-worth) rendering their marriage a shambles from the start. 

Ford and co-writers Frank S. Nugent and Maurice Walsh fashioned the screenplay for THE QUIET MAN as though concocting a full-course meal.  No sooner do we think we're being served a lighthearted comedy of quaint customs and sexual mores than the course changes to deeply emotional yet sexually-charged romance.

With the ill-fated wedding scene, one thinks the film has crossed over into more complex social satire, and yet here it abruptly veers into the achingly tragic when Sean's agonizing guilt returns in full force. 

How the film not only rebounds from this low point but becomes more emotionally resonant and ultimately more joyous than ever is what makes it such an engaging and thoroughly satisfying experience. 

All the while, THE QUIET MAN is filled with little moments of grace and sweetness which lighten whatever darkness sometimes threatens to overcome it.  Barry Fitzgerald is a joy as Michaleen, the impish cupid who's also the town's bookmaker and most ardent drunkard.  The mutually-supportive relationship between Catholic (Bond) and Protestant (Shields) men of God is disarmingly sweet-spirited.  Danaher, for all his bluster, is a lovable ogre whose weaknesses are pride and a hopeless love for the widow Tillane which he lacks the charm to express.

 

But it's John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, both incredibly effective and appealing actors at their best here, who give THE QUIET MAN its true heart and soul.  Seldom has there been a screen couple with such combustive chemistry.  Theirs is a wonderfully adult romance even in its most childlike and playful moments--we feel that once their unbridled passions are released, it will indeed be, as Michaleen surmises, "Homeric." 

The DVD from Olive Films' "Olive Signature" label is in 1.37:1 with mono sound and English subtitles.  Mastered from a 4K scan of the original camera negative.  There's a commentary by John Ford biographer Joseph McBride that's wall-to-wall and loaded with information.  Other extras include: a tribute to Maureen O'Hara featuring Juliet Mills, Hayley Mills, and Ally Sheedy; a visual essay by historian and Ford expert Tag Gallagher; a biography of Republic Pictures president Herbert J. Yates; a fond remembrance by Ford friend and biographer Peter Bogdanovich; and Leonard Maltin's 1992 featurette "The Making of 'The Quiet Man'."  The keepcase contains an illustrated 8-page booklet.

THE QUIET MAN reaches its climax with a near-breakup of a marriage and the manly settling of a heated dispute through Queensberry-ruled fisticuffs (which becomes a joyful cause célèbre for the entire village and its surroundings), and ends with a curtain call that not only allows the actors to take a bow but their characters to break the fourth wall and warmly acknowledge our presence. (This part is just so cheerful and uplifting that it always chokes me up.)

And, at Ford's behest, Maureen O'Hara playfully whispers something into John Wayne's ear that elicits a genuinely shocked reaction before their characters skip happily into the privacy of their idyllic cottage like a couple of naughty kids.  We'll never know what she says to him, and that's okay. 

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THE QUIET MAN -- DVD Review by Porfle

HOWARD LOVECRAFT AND THE FROZEN KINGDOM -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 9/6/16

 

I've read just enough of legendary horror-fantasy author H.P. Lovecraft's work and seen enough film adaptations of it--which vary wildly in tone, faithfulness, overall quality, and just about everything else--to find the prospect of a CGI-animated adventure starring Lovecraft as a small boy in a dark, monstrous world of his own future imagining to be rather irresistible.

As it turns out, HOWARD LOVECRAFT AND THE FROZEN KINGDOM (2016), based on Arcana's graphic novel of the same name, may not be the greatest CGI cartoon you'll ever see, but it does yield more than sufficient rewards for fans of Gothic horror, particularly if they're either very young or, as in my case, young at heart.   (Not to mention just a tad twisted.)

The richly Gothic atmosphere is thick as molasses from frame one as we visit Lovecraft's boyhood home, which would suit the Addams Family just fine, and then accompany young Howard and his mother to visit his father Winfield Lovecraft at the Arkham-like asylum where he's under the care of a sinister-looking Dr. West (Christopher Plummer, BARRYMORE). 

It's here that the crazed Winfield first tells Howard of dark kingdoms and mystical runes and evil creatures, among other scary things, which the boy will later experience firsthand after his mother gives him Winfield's journal to read before bed. 

As this book happens to be volume one of the Necronomicon itself, Howard inadvertently opens up a portal to another dimension in which he finds himself wandering through a vast frozen land, beset by all manner of surreal and sometimes hostile creatures as he tries to find his way back home. 

This quest resembles a cross between "The Wizard of Oz" and a Tim Burton rarebit dream as Howard first encounters a huge and initially hostile tentacled beast with wings who calls himself Thu Thu Hmong (Howard simplifies this to "Spot") with whom he becomes fast friends, and then spends a charming evening in the home of four winsome squid-kid orphans who share a nice cold meal that tastes best when it's squirming.

 

He and Spot then make their way to the castle of Her Highness Algid Bunk (original "Saturday Night Live" castmember Jane Curtin) and her spectral companion Nyarlathotep (Doug Bradley, HELLRAISER, SCREAM PARK) to ask for help. 

The boy is instructed to first journey to a remote mountain cave to recover another volume of the Necronomicon from the dreaded Shoggoth (Ron Perlman, HELLBOY, MUTANT CHRONICLES), one of author Lovecraft's more fearsome creations, so that the icy curse upon her kingdom can be lifted. 

This leads to the film's big finale, a thrilling free-for-all battle between good and evil with Howard and his friends beset by night-gaunts, govlins, and other Lovecraft creatures--including an appearance by none other than Cthulu himself--which is excitingly staged within Algid's lofty palace by writer-director Sean Patrick O'Reilly (PIXIES), who has ardently worked as much fan-pleasing Lovecraftian arcana into the script as possible.

The character renderings and animation are very well done (like a Viewmaster reel come to life) and the settings intensely atmospheric.  The script, for the most part, manages to maintain just the right balance between kid-friendly spook stuff and elements that are pretty much as dark and morbid as one might expect this material to get. 

The 2-disc set from Shout! Factory (which features a lovely reversible cover insert) includes both the Blu-ray and DVD discs along with a code for downloading a digital copy. The feature is in 1.78:1 widescreen with 5.1 audio and stereo, and English subtitles.  Extras include a substantial behind-the-scenes featurette, a trailer, and a chatty, informative director's commentary that I found quite enjoyable.

I'm not sure how well the average dyed-in-the-wool Lovecraft purist will receive HOWARD LOVECRAFT AND THE FROZEN KINGDOM but I can't imagine anyone with an inner "Monster Kid" not getting a kick out of it.  One thing's for sure--any day you watch it will feel like Halloween.


Note: those who directly order HOWARD LOVECRAFT AND THE FROZEN KINGDOM from ShoutFactory.com will receive an exclusive poster. Available while supplies last! Pre-order now at ShoutFactory.com

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HOWARD LOVECRAFT AND THE FROZEN KINGDOM -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

LOVING -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 2/5/17

 

Subtlety is hardly the hallmark of your usual racially-charged potboiler about injustice in the late 1950s-early 1960s American South.  Which is why LOVING (2016), the fact-based account of a black woman and a white man arrested in the state of Virginia in 1958 for the crime of being married, is such a rare experience. 

As the title proclaims, it's a love story, although the love between Richard and Mildred Loving is one they have to fight for.

The trouble is, these simple country people aren't warriors.  Richard is a bricklayer, quiet and unassuming.  Mildred, homemaker and soon-to-be mother, shares these qualities.  They just want to live their lives together and raise a family in the place where they themselves were born. 

After a Virginia court forces them out of the state lest they go to prison on felony charges, the two take up residence in Washington, D.C., but their hearts yearn for home and family.  This gets them into trouble when they return in order for Richard's mother, a professional midwife, to deliver Mildred's first child. 

In a film with no broad, melodramatic strokes, there's a day-to-day realism that gently draws us in and lead performances which are quietly effective.  Joel Edgerton (REVENGE OF THE SITH, THE GIFT, OPEN WINDOW) plays Richard as utterly well-meaning, taciturn almost to a fault, and dedicated to nothing more than providing for his family.

Physically, Edgerton, with his blonde buzzcut and guileless face, reminds me of a cross between Dennis Quaid and the kid who played "Phil" in the "Mr. Bungle" educational film that Pee Wee Herman used to show.  He's often similarly childlike and naive, and doesn't understand why the state of Virginia can't just leave him and his wife in peace.

 

As Mildred, Ruth Negga ("Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", WORLD WAR Z) shares this reserved disposition until the burgeoning civil rights struggle of the early 60s compels her character to replace passivity with a growing resolve.  It begins with a letter to Bobby Kennedy, who passes it along to a zealous young ACLU lawyer named Bernie Cohen (Nick Kroll) with an eye toward taking the case to the Supreme Court and, just maybe, changing the Constitution.

But LOVING isn't a courtroom drama, and most of the legal matters occur in the periphery as Richard and Mildred continue trying to make the best of things, secretly taking up residence close to their birthplace in Virginia where they dream of finally settling down.

Constantly, the specter of intolerance hangs over them as in the person of a cold, unyielding sheriff (Marton Csokas, LORD OF THE RINGS, ROMULUS MY FATHER, JACK BROWN GENIUS) and various other potentially threatening townspeople. 

Despite the film's stately pace and lack of sensationalism, we're kept on edge with the knowledge that the idyllic existence the Lovings so desperately desire is susceptible to violent attack at any moment. 

Still, we're spared most of the dreadful, lurid excesses of so many other films of this nature, allowing writer/director Jeff Nichols (MIDNIGHT SPECIAL) to indulge himself and us in a sweetly and deeply emotional exploration of the symbiotic relationship between the two main characters--Mildred, quietly supportive but increasingly assertive in the face of adversity, and Richard, who defers to her as long as he can simply continue to lead his life as a good husband and father. 

Much of the backdrop for this story consists of actual locations and the period atmosphere is impeccably rendered.  (Classic car lovers will have a field day.)  The film is pictorially rich, and Nichols directs with a skill and restraint that always best serve the story without calling attention to his craft. 

The 2-disc set from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment contains Blu-ray and DVD versions of the film as well as instructions for downloading a digital HD copy.  Soundtracks and subtitles are available in English, Spanish, and French.  Bonus features include a thoughtful director's commentary as well as the following featurettes: "Making Loving", "A Loving Ensemble", "Loving v. Virginia", and "Virginia: A Loving Backdrop."

The historical importance of this story, of course, is legendary, yet LOVING is the kind of heartfelt personal drama that works its magic with a slow, deceptive subtlety whose cumulative impact is only realized in its final moments.  Indeed, it wasn't until the epilogue, when I felt tears rolling down my cheeks, that I suddenly realized just how effective LOVING really is.  

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This title will be released on February 7, 2017.

LOVING -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

MAMA'S FAMILY: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 10/24/17

 

Those who were there back when "The Carol Burnett Show" began will recall how a likable but callow young actress named Vicki Lawrence was the junior member of the cast, both in terms of age and talent, who usually played either Carol's younger sister or some flakey proto-Valley Girl character. 

That, of course, would change when the show introduced a new reoccurring sketch, "The Family", in which Vicki, amazingly enough, portrayed the sassy and crotchety old matriarch ("Mama") of a lower middle-class clan of smalltown Southern hicks which also consisted of Carol as neurotic daughter "Eunice" and Harvey Korman as her dullard of a husband, "Ed", in hotly dramatic, highly-dysfunctional family situations that were as painful to watch as they were hilarious. 

Vicki came into her own big-time as Mama, so much so that when Carol ended her show after eleven seasons, her producer husband Joe Hamilton immediately came up with a series spin-off called "Mama's Family" and starring Vicki in her classic characterization, beginning in 1982 on NBC.

Two years after its second-season cancellation on NBC, the show was belatedly picked up for the burgeoning first-run syndication market, where it thrived for four more seasons and reached its finale in January 1990. The show would last for six seasons, with all 130 episodes plus lots of extras now available on 22 discs in the Time-Life DVD collection MAMA'S FAMILY: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION.

Such a spin-off seemed inevitable as long as they could come up with another "family" with which Mama could work her magic.  The first two seasons boast Rue McClanahan as Mama's flakey spinster sister Fran and Betty White as her self-centered daughter Ellen.  Frequent "Carol Burnett Show" guest Ken Berry was Mama's cheerfully childlike son Vint, now living in her basement with his sexpot wife Naomi (Dorothy Lyman of "All My Children").

The fact that Vicki Lawrence was a young actress playing an old woman (most, if not all, of her adult cast mates were older) seemed to give her and the writers license to make her curmudgeonly attitude and acerbic remarks even more outrageous.  A certain delight comes from watching Vicki Lawrence pull off this characterization with such stunning success, especially after being in Carol's shadow for so long.  The character seemed to have been hiding inside her all that time, just waiting for a chance to burst forth.

Berry, after starring in the dull "Mayberry R.F.D.", finally gets a chance to play an addlebrained rube who's actually funny. Lyman is the quintessential trailer-park floozy Naomi, who starts out as Mama's adversarial next-door neighbor.  She turns out to be a high school heartthrob of Vint and, to Mama's horror, the two quickly make wedding plans that include a gaudy ceremony right there in Mama's own livingroom. 

The original "Family" segments on Carol's show displayed a frantic, chintzy kind of bargain-basement Southern Gothic that often came off like Tennessee Williams on laughing gas.  This is carried over into the new show's first season with guest appearances by Burnett and Korman, beginning with Vint and Naomi's disastrous two-part wedding episode. 

Carol Burnett's "Eunice", of course, is one of television's most inspired creations and the only one that can outshine Mama in her own setting.  Far beyond just being funny, Eunice is a tragic, monstrously self-absorbed creature whose simmering familial resentments and crushing disappointments in life always come bursting to the surface just in time to destroy any family gathering she's involved in.  And Mama, of course, is always right there with a cutting remark that slices her right in two.

This results in some of the most astoundingly raucous situations and character interplay in sitcom history, aided by McClanahan and White who add to the Southern Gothic family stew with their own long-standing grudges and gripes.  It's a to-die-for cast that any sitcom, or feature film for that matter, would give its left sprocket holes to have.

Their performances are absolutely inspired--after all, how often would they ever get a chance to play such characters in such extreme mock-dramatic situations and at such full tilt?  There's so much talent being utilitzed at its fullest here that, straining within the bounds of a simple TV sitcom as it is, the effect is often dizzying.  (It's a shame Burnett and Korman are around for so few episodes.)

With all of this going on, it hardly matters that the show isn't always "on" or that moments actually do betray the fact that we're watching a simple--and, yes, often kinda dumb--sitcom that relies largely on insult humor.  Because even in that context it does its job so well that we're entertained by the lesser moments while waiting for the great ones.

The characters frequently relish their chance to let fly with some choice zingers--which, like an athlete, they throw their whole body into--and the live audience goes nuts the way they would for shows like "Married With Children." In fact,  this show, surprisingly, often comes off as even more cynical and outrageous than that infamously sleazy series, albeit in more (relatively) subtle ways.

After the network cancellation and syndication reboot, the show lost McClanahan and White (along with Vint's two nondescript teenage kids) and got progressively tamer, with more standard sitcom plots and less of the early seasons' glorious excess.  Even the character of Mama herself seems to mellow somewhat as time goes by (she'd have to or we wouldn't be able to stand her after awhile) although she never completely loses that acidic edge.

The addition of the delightfully off-kilter Beverly Archer as nerdy next-door neighbor Iola gives Mama a like-minded foil to whom she can reveal her more vulnerable side. Allan Kayser also joins the cast as Eunice and Ed's juvenile delinquent son Bubba, with whom Mama gets stuck after his parents move to Florida without telling him. He's sort of a "Jethro" type and serves his purpose as an example of the crazy "younger generation" for old-fashioned Mama to play off of.

Guest stars throughout the show's run include Brent Spiner, William Windom, Geoffrey Lewis, Imogene Coca, Jack Gilford, Jerry Reed, Robert Mandan, Barney Martin, Cliff Osmond, Marge Redmond, Alan Oppenheimer, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Jack Dodson, Richard Dawson, and Alex Trebek.

The DVD set from Time-Life consists of 22 discs (130 episodes from original broadcast masters) in six cases with slipcover.  Approximate running time is 55 hours.  Episodes are in 1.33:1 full screen and stereo sound.  Each of the six season sets contains a wealth of bonus features such as a roundtable cast reunion and lengthy interviews with cast and crew including Vicki Lawrence, Carol Burnett, Ken Berry, Betty White, Dorothy Lyman, Beverly Archer, Allan Kayser, costume designer Bob Mackie, and executive producer Rick Hawkins.

"Mama's Family Tree" featurettes take a look at the show's various characters and their relationships.  There are two vintage "Family" segments from "The Carol Burnett Show", one featuring guest star Maggie Smith. 

Best of all, we get the 1982 TV-movie "Eunice", a real-time, in-studio theatrical play that follows the Harper family--Mama, Eunice, sister Ellen (White), and successful brother Phillip (Berry again), along with Harvey Korman's "Ed"--from Eunice's turbulent teen years in the 50's to the day of Mama's funeral in the late 70s. 

"Eunice" is absolutely prime stuff, a full-bodied, powerful, incredibly written and performed comedy-drama that has the live audience on its feet during the emotional curtain call.  It's the pinnacle of Burnett's "Eunice" character, played to the hilt, and is alone worth owning the set.

From its turbulent early episodes, each like a gleefully-staged trainwreck, to its more mellow final years, "Mama's Family" was one of the most enjoyably oddball examples of the sitcom genre ever to bombast its way across our television screens. MAMA'S FAMILY: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION takes all that controlled chaos, puts a lace doily on it, and lets us relive it all over again.


Available exclusively at Walmart
Read our original coverage HERE

MAMA'S FAMILY: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION -- DVD Review by Porfle

PORFLE VS. PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW WHO LARRY STORCH IS

 

(In honor of the great Larry Storch, star of "F Troop" and the original "Ghost Busters", who passed away on July 8, 2022, here's an oldie I wrote several years ago which expresses the high regard in which I have always held this wonderful comic actor.)

"What the hell do you mean, 'who's Larry Storch?'"

"I mean I don't know who the hell Larry Storch is!  Who the hell is Larry Storch?"

Infuriating, isn't it?  If you're like me, and find yourself in this situation at least once a day, you can understand why there are so many sudden, unexplained attacks across America every day.  Chances are, it's someone who knows who Larry Storch is attacking someone who doesn't know who he is.

Here's an example that may sound woefully familiar to you: several years ago I got set up on a blind date, and I gallantly called the young lady up in advance to verify the time and place where we'd meet--which, by the way, was a Denny's on Wilton Boulevard, since I wanted to impress her.  She asked me what I looked like, and I told her (again, wanting to impress her) that I resembled actor Larry Storch.

"Who's Larry Storch?" she inquired.

"What the hell do you mean, 'who's Larry Storch?'" I screamed, a volcanic eruption of blazing hot fury erupting like a million geysers from every fiber of my tortured being.

"I mean I don't know who the hell Larry Storch is!  Who the hell is Larry Storch?" she persisted, incredibly unaware of her own utter stupidity.

"What are you, incredibly unaware of your own utter stupidity or something?" I shrieked, kicking the glass walls out of the phone booth that I was standing in and repeatedly smashing my body into the frame until the whole thing fell over into the street with a resounding crash.  "ARE YOU SOME KIND OF A TOTAL F**KING IDIOT?  GRRRRRRR!!!  By the way, that's the Denny's on Wilton Boulevard, not the one next to the bowling alley on Burton Street."

Well, she never showed up.  She was probably too embarrassed by her own utter stupidity to show her face, and you can hardly blame her, but she could at least have stopped by my house later for the obligatory blind-date sex that I have come to expect over the years.  I've never actually had sex on a blind date, of course, but I have come to expect it.  Anyway, it's just as well, because I found out later that she looked more like Larry Storch than I do.

I guess one of the reasons that women who look like Larry Storch don't know who he is might be that people are reluctant to tell these women that they look like Larry Storch.  But that's still no excuse for never having heard of him.  Anyone who's ever watched an episode of "F Troop" or "Ghost Busters" should not only know who he is, but should in fact consider him to be one of the greatest human beings who ever walked the face of the earth, next to Robert Loggia and Ben Gazzara.  They should also know who Forrest Tucker is as well, since he co-starred in both of those series with Larry Storch.

Well, I brought all of this up at a political fundraiser that I attended several years ago, in an attempt to liven up what I considered to be some pretty boring chit-chat amongst a gaggle of pseudo-sophisticates who were standing around sipping drinks and tittering a lot.  When the mayor's wife gaily inquired, "Who's Forrest Tucker?" I poured my drink in her face.  As I congratulated myself for my restraint, another total moron--I think it was the mayor--chimed in with, "How dare you!  And 'Ghostbusters' was a movie with Bill Murray in it, not a television series!"

Again I held my temper, and responded by merely flinging the hors d'ouevres table over, drenching several people with caviar and other gooey, expensive treats.  But then, just as I was returning to my usual casual demeanor, I heard a voice say, "Yeah, and who the hell's Larry Storch?"  The next few moments are still a blur in my memory, but the next day there was a picture of me on the front page of the newspaper in which some quick-thinking photographer had managed to catch me in mid-air as I hurled myself at the governor with the crazed look of a kabuki dancer.

My interest in politics continued when I later attended the Carter-Ford debate and, after furiously waving my hand for several minutes, managed to get called upon to ask the presidential candidates a question.  When the guy held the microphone up to my face I took a deep breath, cleared my throat, and asked, "How do you feel about Larry Storch?"  A perplexed Jimmy Carter smiled uncertainly and asked, "Who's Larry Storch?"

Just as I was about to charge the stage and hurl myself at him, Gerald Ford responded confidently, "Larry Storch is the greatest actor who ever lived.  Perhaps even the greatest human being who ever lived."  Banging the podium to emphasize each word, he added, "I...love...Larry...Storch!" The audience erupted with unrestrained cheers and applause! Well, I did, anyway.  And I sure as hell voted for Gerald Ford that year.  Jimmy Carter won, though, and, as you might expect, my extensive campaign to have Larry Storch's Birthday declared a national holiday was totally ignored by the government of the United States of America for the next four years.  Talk about malaise.  That, and possibly the Iran hostage situation as well, resulted in Carter losing his bid for re-election.  Take that, Carter!  Betcha know who Larry Storch is now!  BWAH-ha-ha!!!

Well, I've cut down on my attacks in recent years.  Maybe because of the wisdom and maturity that come with age, or maybe because I was getting beaten up a lot.  But the realization that attacking people because they don't know who Larry Storch is might not be a good thing to do finally came to me as I was discussing future attacks with my trusted consigleri, Tom Hagen.  Tom, not a wartime consigleri, is often the voice of reason in contrast with my unrestrained hostility, as can be heard in the following exchange...

TOM: Now, former President Carter and the Governor of Texas are on the run. Are they worth it? And are we strong? Is it worth it? I mean you've won...you want to attack everybody?

PORFLE: I don't feel I have to attack everybody, Tom. Just people who don't know who Larry Storch is, that's all. Now, are you gonna come along with me in these things I have to do or what? Because if not, you can take your "F Troop", your "Ghost Busters", and your "Dean Martin Celebrity Roast" DVDs...trade 'em all in for Adam Sandler movies.

TOM: Why do you hurt me, Porfle? I've always been loyal to you. I mean, what is this?

PORFLE: You're right, Tom.  I should stop attacking people who don't know who Larry Storch is.

TOM: Well, you should try to cut down, anyway.

PORFLE VS. PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW WHO LARRY STORCH IS

HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL -- DVD review by porfle

  Originally posted on 8/22/14

 

When two great tastes go together, it can create something magically delicious. Thus, when someone back in 1958 had the bright idea of mixing the cool-cat teen angst of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE with the old-fogey paranoia toward the dreaded marijuana of REEFER MADNESS, out hopped the hipster hoot HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL (1958) to tickle our cinematic taste buds.

The film declares its intention to lure the nation's youth by opening with none other than Jerry Lee Lewis belting out the rockin' theme song from the back of a truck that's toodling slowly by the titular institution. Following closely behind is bad-boy new kid in school Tony Baker, played by Russ Tamblyn (who still had the highs of WEST SIDE STORY and the lows of DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN in his future).

Russ looks like the kind of guy girls used to beat up back in high school, but here, he's the most bad-ass thing to hit the hallowed halls of Hop-Head High since ducktails and saddle shoes. Why, he even pulls out a "reefer" in the Principal's office! No doubt about it, this slang-spoutin' kid's a rebel.

We then get a load of the rest of the cast, and it's a doozy--Jan Sterling as Miss Williams, the hot teacher with the heart of gold, Diane Jergens as gullible student Joan, who's being led down the path of marijuana addiction by the creepy J.I. (played by Drew's dad John Drew Barrymore), and--as Tony's aunt, "Gwen Dulaine", no less--the torpedo-chested blonde bombshell Mamie Van Doren.

There's also Jackie "Uncle Fester" Coogan (continuing his upward climb from dreck like MESA OF LOST WOMEN to better material that would also include THE BEAT GENERATION and SEX KITTENS GO TO COLLEGE, which reunited him with Mamie van Doren) as local drug kingpin "Mr. A", Charles Chaplin, Jr., Mel Welles of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, William Wellman, Jr., Ray Anthony, Ed Wood regular Lyle Talbot as a shady police inspector, and the previous year's "Teenage Werewolf" himself, a pre-"Bonanza" Michael Landon. (I haven't found Gil Perkins or William Smith yet.)

Our boy Tony wastes no time demonstrating to everyone how tough and super-cool he is, and letting it be known that he's in the market to deal some weed to his classmates in need. This gets him introduced to Mr. A, but first he makes a little time with both Miss Williams and the jittery Joan, who is fast acquiring a marijuana monkey on her back. Of course, there's also the expected run-ins with various tough guys from school including J.I. and his gang of jock-types known as "The Wheeler-Dealers", whom Tony smirkingly blows off by waving his switchblade around.

In lieu of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE's nerve-jangling "chicky run" is a nocturnal auto race that ends with Tony and Joan being hauled in by the cops when Tony's bag of reefers pops out of his hubcap, which we could've told him was a dumb place to hide them right before an auto race anyway. The fact that there's a horrifying car crash in which the driver emerges bloodied but unharmed (and even smiling cheerfully) seems to tell young viewers that such dangerous activities are okay as long as they remain unsullied by the evil weed.

An incessant amount of jive lingo is the order of the day for these young punks. "Man, you sure told off the fuzz in the pokey!" "Crazy!" "What a drag--you bugged this jam like a real L-7!" There's a coffee-house hangout reminiscent of "The Purple Pit" from Jerry Lewis' 1963 hit THE NUTTY PROFESSOR in which hot jazz is accompanied by some of the worst beat poetry ever recited by kids who appear to be in their 20s, and in some cases 30s.

When Joan tries to light up at their table, Tony lets her have it: "Hey, you torchin' up? Now don't be a drag, kitten--we don't wanna get caught with the reefer again! I had enough of the pokey and all that jazz." But even here, the mood is on the brighter side of sleazy, and by the last fifteen minutes or so the whole thing starts to resemble an episode of a high-end 50s cop show, including a brawl and a shoot-out.

When Tony finally gets a meeting with Mr. A, Coogan deftly lays on the sleaze as he describes how poor Doris, suffering in agony from heroin withdrawal in the next room (the inevitable result of smoking reefer), wouldn't cooperate with his offer to turn her on if she'd work in his "nice little 'home' upstate. But--heh--she wants to be a 'lady.'" At this point Tony definitely seems to be in over his head and looking at a forecast of unexpected danger with the possibility of scattered bullets.

The film boasts the usual solid direction by 50s superstar Jack Arnold (CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, and numerous other classics) and the DVD print displays good, crisp quality for the most part, albeit a little rough and imperfect in spots--which, with a movie like this, is just the way I like it.

Arnold seems to have a ball directing some of this fun-filled stuff, especially one sparks-filled dialogue scene between competing blondes Mamie Van Doren and Jan Sterling in which super-slinky Mamie delivers her sassy, hardboiled dialogue with dazzling aplomb. Later, she's like a female barracuda as she tries to seduce her "hunky" nephew Tony, cooing "What's cookin'?" as he gets dressed and telling him he'd better "tell that Staples kid to drop dead!"

The DVD from Olive Films is in 2.35:1 widescreen with English mono sound. No subtitles or extras.

HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL may deliver pretty much the same "marijuana leads to ruin" message as REEFER MADNESS, but not nearly as stridently or with as strong an intent to shock or scare. There's a bizarre curtain call ending in which the narrator assures us all is well and that from now on, "Joan will confine her smoking to regular cigarettes." But a final blast of that theme song by Jerry Lee Lewis seems to portend a little something called "the 60s" that was just around the corner.

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Blu-ray

DVD

HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL -- DVD review by porfle

SHED OF THE DEAD -- Movie Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 4/19/19

 

Still need your "zombie comedy" fix after SHAUN OF THE DEAD? If so, you might want to try a visit to the SHED OF THE DEAD (2019, Indican Pictures).

Monty Python's Arthur Jackson may have had two sheds, but one's enough to get Trevor (Spencer Brown) into trouble. It sits on one of many verdant plots of land where nice British people do their gardening, but Trevor's plot has gone to seed while he stays in his shed meticulously crafting medieval warrior figures with which to have intense fantasy wargames with his corpulent nerdy friend Graham (Ewen MacIntosh, "The Office").

The proper gardeners, led by Mr. Parsons (a very proper Kane Hodder), are threatening to have Trevor evicted, but their plans are thwarted by the onset of a very inconvenient zombie apocalypse.

 

It takes a while for this to fully spread into their little neck of the suburbs, however (Trevor manages to miss all the frantic radio reports), and in the meantime we observe out-of-work Trevor's dicey relationship with nagging wife Bobbi (Lauren Socha) and her dominatrix friend Harriet (Emily Booth, GRINDHOUSE), for whom Graham carries a very long, hard torch.

The action stops every once in awhile to delve into some of Trevor's medieval wargame fantasies in which he plays magical warrior knight Casimir. These interludes are nicely rendered with some fairly good green screen and well-drawn motion comics. 

Back in the real world, things really get going when Trevor accidentally kills Mr. Parsons and, while cutting up the body for a hasty burial, is attacked by the now-zombiefied Mr. Parsons' legless torso within the cramped confines of his tiny shed.  It's one of the film's goriest sequences, and lets us know that the laughs in this movie will definitely be tempered by occasional bursts of the old ultra-violence.

While the photography's a bit murky at times, production values are good and director Drew Cullingham (A VAMPIRE'S TALE, BLACK SMOKE RISING) stretches his budget dollars (or pounds, in this case) quite well.  When the zombie attacks finally occur, there's good use of extras to make the zombie horde look larger and more menacing. 

An old-fashioned zombie siege takes place when Trevor, Bobbi, Harriet, and Graham end up fighting off the undead as they invade Trevor and Bobbi's house.  There are some very imaginative variations on the familiar tropes, with Trevor and Graham taking on aspects of their wargaming alter egos, and just as things look hopeless the script pulls off some nice twists that send the whole thing off with a bang. 

Performances by the leads are fine, with Spencer Brown's Trevor carrying most of the seriocomic weight while the rest provide ample support. The rest of the cast comes with quite a substantial pedigree, with the aforementioned Kane Hodder (FRIDAY THE 13TH, OLD 37, BTK, CHILLERAMA) as Mr. Parsons, Michael Berryman (THE HILLS HAVE EYES, THE TENANT) in a delightful turn as one of Harriet's clients, Bill Moseley (HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES, THE CHURCH) as dedicated zombie hunter "Doc", and Brian Blessed (FLASH GORDON, "I, Claudius") providing full-throated narration.

While hardly a Romero-level epic, SHED OF THE DEAD pulls its weight as a funny, suspenseful, gore-drenched zombie romp that takes a nice, big, juicy chomp out of the genre and really gives us something to chew on. 


Buy it from Indican Pictures

TECH SPECS
Runtime: 85 minutes
Format:  2:35
Sound: Dolby Sr.
Country: USA
Language: English

SHED OF THE DEAD -- Movie Review by Porfle