Josh's Blind Buys: Watching The Unseen Collection (1 Viewer)

[Doug Wallen]

I picked this up (The Big Trail) several years ago from BestBuy when it was on sale for Father's Day. I was amazed at the presentation. With the exception of the silent film affect of over the top comedy, I felt as if I was making that trip myself. Such astounding photography of the prairie schooners, especially when lowering everything down the mountainside. A very documentary like film.

I was thinking that this scope of filming is virtually lost in our current green screen/cgi world of today.

I feel this is a very well preserved example of experimental filmmaking. Glad I picked it up, a blind buy for me also as a big John Wayne fan.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

#10 - Pony Soldier (1952)
Viewed on: January 24th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Twilight Time)

I picked up Pony Soldier during one of Twilight Time's recent 7 for $70 sales; I've been on a little bit of a western kick, and the movie promised to be something a little bit different than what I had seen so far. Starring an excellent Tyrone Power, with a wonderful supporting performance from Thomas Gomez, the story involves a Canadian Mounted Police Constable (Power) who has to help get the Cree to sign a peace treaty, and the obstacles he runs into along the way. I hadn't seen a western set in Canada before, and it was a nice twist on a familiar genre. Power's performance is the kind of thing we don't see much of anymore; a likeable lead actor playing an uncomplicated man with good, decent values. I appreciate and enjoy the nuances that today's performers bring to a role, but there's something about this type of character in this type of film that can be pure comfort food on a cold or difficult day. Though the movie is only about ninety minutes, I could watch Power and Gomez together all night.

I was very pleased by the transfer on the Twilight Time disc, provided by Fox. It's not perfect, and I don't have another frame of reference for what the movie is supposed to look like, but it appeared to have good color and detail. If this was one of those Technicolor films where Fox no longer had the original three strip negatives and got this disc off an old dupe, then I'm really impressed. The audio was fine but nothing outstanding; on very rare occasions I had a little difficulty with the dialogue, but for the majority of the film, it's not a problem. The disc did not have any subtitles. An isolated score track is included.

Pony Soldier was a nice variation on the classic western, and Tyrone Power and Thomas Gomez give fantastic performances. Especially with the discount price of only $10, this was a nice addition to my collection.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Such astounding photography of the prairie schooners, especially when lowering everything down the mountainside.

That, more than anything else, is the image that sticks with me from the film. That was simply astonishing.

 

[Matt Hough]

I think I like Send Me No Flowers a bit more than you do. Simply love Paul Lynde in the movie. His two sequences are about as funny as it comes, and he went on to do The Glass Bottomed Boat with Doris. Hudson gets to play a character very removed from his usual screen comedy persona, and that was really a refreshing change of pace, and his and Tony Randall's camaraderie (and sometimes sparring as Randall continually marks out passages in his eulogy as Hudson pisses him off) is priceless. With Clint Walker, you've got a co-star that almost dwarfs Hudson in size, not an easy feat, and the couple of jokes at his expense (his proclivity for cowboy boots) makes me laugh every time Doris does a take.

I had to review the early sound western In Old Arizona several years ago (won Warner Baxter the Best Actor Oscar in the second year of the awards), and soon after that I watched the Grandeur version of The Big Trail and was simply astonished at its production quality coming just a year after In Old Arizona. The widescreen helps that sense of advancement, of course, but everything about it seems bigger, grander, more sophisticated in size and scope. Yep, Wayne is too green to carry the leading role, but it was probably a great learning experience for him. Fox also filmed it in standard ratio, but I've never had any desire to see it though that's definitely the way most of the US saw the movie since the Depression made installation of new wide screens commercially impractical.

 

[Mike Frezon]

#3 - The Secret Life Of Pets 3D (2016)
Viewed on: January 3rd, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray 3D (Universal)

...

Unfortunately, I just didn't really like the movie. (My wife did, so it was a good gift and that's what really matters.) The trailer was indeed hilarious, but it turns out that it wasn't really representative of what the movie was about. I was expecting a movie like the trailer, about the silly stuff that pets do to fill their day while the humans are away. And the movie did start out that way, and I enjoyed that part of it. But soon into it, the main character's owner adopts a new pet, and very quickly the movie turns into a series of cliches that have been done countless times before, and better than here. The old pet of course wants to get rid of the new pet, but the new pet fights back, and then they both get lost, and all of a sudden there's a secret underworld of gangster animals, and this cute little idea for a movie has suddenly gone so far off the rails that the whole thing felt like a bait and switch. There have been so many movies made about pets getting lost and trying to find their way home, both live action and animated. Heck, that's essentially the plot for the Toy Story movies as well. I walked into this movie thinking I was about to get a breath of fresh air, and instead felt the air sucking out of the room as it turned into a pretty generic movie. Such wasted potential.

That said, the presentation on Universal's Blu-ray 3D release was very high quality. The quality of the 3D in and of itself was about average for a CGI animated film, some good depth and separation of objects, nothing truly inspired but not a waste either. Frankly, the movie lost my interest so early on that the 3D was about the only thing keeping me entertained. But it's not a good enough 3D experience in and of itself for me to recommend it independently of the movie. The disc was loaded with a short and other bonus features but since I didn't enjoy the movie, I didn't browse the disc's bonus offerings.

The Secret Life Of Pets wasn't for me, but I imagine I'm in the minority there. It was competently made, with good voice talent and good visuals, and if the subject matter does appeal to you, you'll probably like it a lot more than I did.

P.S. I'm very curious for Mike Frezon's comments on Secret Life Of Pets if he stops by, I remember him saying he was disappointed by the movie but I don't recall his reasons why.

So I had already "quoted your review of Secret Life of Pets to reply to it...and then I saw your 2nd post asking for my comment!

Josh, you totally nailed my exact opinion of the film. The marketers must have known exactly what they had with this film--a wonderful premise that quickly devolves into something completely different. With my wife and I so keenly tuned into stories which reflect the human/animal bond, we shook with anticipation after having seen the trailer for The Secret Life of Pets. This was going to be a fabulous insight into the relationship between pets and their owners and there was going to be a fair amount of comedic gold mined into those things the pets do when their owners aren't around to see.

But, no. The first ten minutes of the film is based on that premise (PERFECTLY encapsulated in the trailer). But as you note it quickly morphs into the same old mish-mosh of action pieces (chase scene after chase scene, animals in peril, etc.).

"Bait & switch" is exactly the feeling we had as we were walking out of the theater.

To this day, when I've seen some really good deals on the Blu-ray of the film I think so fondly about that trailer...and that maybe I should buy the film just to watch those first few minutes again. But I'm not going to.

I remember being worried after we saw the trailer that this was NOT a Pixar film. I wasn't sure how it was going to go since I have been disappointed in nearly every animated feature of the past 15 years that hasn't been a Pixar production (Dreamworks, Illumination, even Disney Animation themselves!). And I had every right to be worried.

What a shame of "what might have been."

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think I like Send Me No Flowers a bit more than you do. Simply love Paul Lynde in the movie. His two sequences are about as funny as it comes, and he went on to do The Glass Bottomed Boat with Doris.

I really enjoyed Paul Lynde in his roll. Coincidentally, my wife and I had just seen him in an episode of Bewitched the night before watching Send Me No Flowers - we immediately recognized his voice, and I agree, he's one of the highlights of the movie. I think I might enjoy the movie a little bit more on a rewatch, especially if there's a little more distance from the other Day-Hudson movies.

And speaking of Day movies, it'd be nice if someone wanted to put out a BD of The Thrill Of It All. I recorded it off TCM in HD a while ago, but my DVR had a little hiccup and lost it before I got a chance to watch it.

 

[Matt Hough]

The Thrill of It All is by far my favorite of the Doris Day comedies that don't co-star Hudson or Grant.

 

[Frank Ha]

Josh, I'm looking forward to reading your comments on the movies you watch from your "unseen collection". I'm sure it will inspire me to watch some of my own unwatched movies.

For instance, my wife has a meeting this evening and I was wondering what movie to watch while she is out. Reading your review of "The Enemy Below" answered that question for me. I don't have it on Blu-ray because the reviews about the image weren't good. Therefore, I decided not to upgrade my DVD, which I haven't watched yet. So, I'm looking forward to watching it in just a bit.

Anyway, I'm glad you started this thread as I always enjoy reading about your take on the movies you're currently watching.

 

[TJPC]

Hi! I have a large collection of Blu Rays and DVDs in two large floor to ceiling bookcases. I sometimes watch favorites, but like you have a huge collection of discs I have not seen yet. Most of these are made with my recordable DVD player from TCM, but I also have fallen behind in my Blu Rays. When I have a new one, I immediately add it to my data base and file it with the others one of the sleeves.
There are to many unwatched to just rely on my memory, (or I am just too old to remember!), and many are of movies I have seen, but not on disc, so I needed a way to keep these virgin ones separated. At first I would leave the unwatched sticking out an inch, but this looked untidy and sometimes would get pushed in accidentally and I would lose track.
I finally hit on an elegently simple solution. When I first acquire a new disc, and until I watch it, I put one of those small dot stickers on the spine. If it is a set, I put dots over each disc inside. When they are watched I take the sticker off of course.
Now my shelves look neat and tidy, and when I want to watch something I just pick one with a sticker!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Terry, that's a great idea with the stickers.

For the longest time, I'd try to do the "pulling it one inch out of the shelf" when I was picking out a movie. It doesn't look particularly neat, as you pointed out, and eventually I wouldn't be able to resist the urge to press them back in. Most of my new titles used to wind up in the shelf, on top of the row where it would be slotted into after watching. I got married last fall, and we both have pretty big collections - after we got home, I merged the collections into a single shelf, and I took that opportunity to make an empty row at the beginning to hold unwatched stuff. So most of my blind buys are now sitting at the very beginning, so it's easy to find. I know there are some tucked into the collection that I haven't fished out, but most of the stuff I've gotten over the past couple years but haven't yet watched is at least in one easy to find place now.

 

[David Weicker]

I use a simple spreadsheet
Title, date acquired, date last watched.

Whenever I watch something I update the entry. Just sort by the dates, and my 'next to watch ' is at the top (or bottom).

It takes some effort to start the list, but going forward it's pretty easy.

And Josh, since you enjoyed the Day/Hudson titles, may I suggest Down With Love

 

[Josh Steinberg]

And Josh, since you enjoyed the Day/Hudson titles, may I suggest Down With Love

I adore Down With Love! Was very familiar with that movie for years, I didn't realize how liberally it borrowed from Pillow Talk until watching PT.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

#11 - The Front Page (1931)
Viewed on: January 25th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Criterion)

Let's include the copy of The Front Page that Criterion includes as a bonus in their new His Girl Friday release as a blind buy. Why not? Though I've seen His Girl Friday many times, I had never seen The Front Page before, and at least part of my reason for buying this set at this time was for The Front Page, so... I think I can count this. This is an example of me being productive with my blind buy watching. The play was recently revived on Broadway, starring John Slattery, Nathan Lane and John Goodman. I had tickets for Jan. 24th, and figured that I'd watch the three movie versions afterwards. And I actually did it! Having seen it as a play, and then in three different flavors onscreen, I have to say, I think seeing the play performed with a great cast in front of a live audience was my favorite way to experience this story. Of the screen versions, His Girl Friday was my favorite, with this version of The Front Page coming in second.

This version of The Front Page was the most faithful to the play, for the most part keeping the closed setting of the play. If I'm a little less enamored with the performances here (though I did think Edward Everett Horton was perfectly cast in a small role), I'm very appreciative of the technical quality of the film. As one of the bonus features rightly points out, for an early sound movie, the dialogue here is exceptionally well recorded, allowing this story of words to be clearly heard.

An interesting note about this version of the film offered on the Criterion disc. It turns out that, for years, the version of The Front Page available on home video was actually the international release. During the silent era and at the dawn of sound on film, there weren't a lot of good options for dupe stock, so it was common to film multiple versions of the same movie at the same time, so each territory could get its own negative (one for the United States, one for Great Britain, and one for the rest of Europe). In the silent era, they'd line up all three cameras next to each other to record the same take, but with the sound cameras being more complex affairs, they'd have to do three different takes. Often, the take that was considered "best" went to the U.S. version, with the second best going to England and the third best to Europe. Lines would be changed when necessary to adjust for differences in censorship and local references. The version that the Library Of Congress has, which is the basis for the Kino release, turned out to be the international version, which in this case meant the third best. The version on this disc is the U.S. version, taken from a different archive. A fantastic bonus feature on the disc has some great comparisons of scenes and sequences from both versions.

The transfer on this disc isn't perfect, but it's surprisingly clean, and if it seems a little soft, it's still a joy to watch. It looks and sounds better than many other films from this same period. The included featurette is well worth watching. The disc also includes English subtitles.

Though it wasn't my favorite version of the story, I still really enjoyed this 1931 version of The Front Page.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

#12 - The Front Page (1974)
Viewed on: January 28th, 2017
Viewing Format: DVD (Universal)

On paper, this should have been great, and I was looking forward to it the most. With Billy Wilder adapting The Front Page with his legendary writing partner I.A.L. Diamond, and directing Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, this seemed like an easy recipe for success. But the result is underwhelming. Some of the familiar beats from the play have a welcome Billy Wilder sensibility in this telling, but it's not enough to make up for the draggy pace. Ironically, this version opens up the play the most, but it's strangely inert on the screen. Matthau fares best here; he's able to slip into the role of grumpy editor Walter Burns with ease. But Jack Lemmon seems almost out of place as Hildy Johnson; he's a step too slow and a touch too sincere in a role that calls for a more manic energy. While it's always nice to see Matthau, Lemmon, Susan Sarandon, Carol Burnett and Austin Pendleton on the big screen, the end result is somewhat disappointing. I don't think it's from having watched all of the versions in quick succession; I was very eager to watch this and was surprised by my disappointment.

As the film is unavailable on Blu-ray or for HD streaming, I picked up the DVD for about ten bucks on Amazon. Some DVDs look beautiful, even when projected onto a 100" screen. This wasn't one of them. It wasn't terrible, but it was soft, with some visible compression that showed up on the larger screen. It gets the job done, and preserves Wilder's widescreen compositions, but it's not anyone's idea of pretty. The audio was clear, and with this production lacking the overlapping dialogue that made His Girl Friday so noteworthy, it's all too easy to understand every word spoken. English subtitles are also provided. There are no bonus features on this disc.

The 1974 version of The Front Page is one of the few duds I've seen from Wilder, Lemmon or Matthau. It's a rather ordinary movie, which is a shame considering the potential with this combination of material and talent. The completest in me appreciates having all three versions of the movie, but if I'm being honest with myself, I wish I had been able to rent this instead. Unlike The Secret Life Of Pets, where I at least know my wife will watch it again even if I don't, I'm not sure anyone here will be revisiting this one. (I shouldn't say never, in ten years I'll probably think "Maybe I was being too hard on it, I'll watch it again".. and probably come to the same conclusion.)

 

[Josh Steinberg]

#13 - The Cowboys (1972)
Viewed on: January 29th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Warner)

Last year, HTF member Tino started a thread about The Searchers, and I realized I had never seen that one and probably should. I was all set to rent The Searchers when I saw that Amazon had a Blu-ray triple feature pack with The Searchers, The Green Berets and The Cowboys for $8. (The rental on The Searchers would have been $4 or $5.) That's an easy way to talk me into a blind buy. I knew I wanted to see The Searchers, that I had heard of The Green Berets (mostly being referenced as the reason George Takei missed some of the second season of Star Trek), and knew nothing about The Cowboys. As happens too often, I got distracted and never got around to watching The Searchers, so the whole thing sat on my shelf until now, when I started feeling like more westerns. I'll confess that I picked this one on this night because I wasn't in a great mood and wasn't expecting much from a movie, so I figured I'd just watch one I wasn't that excited about instead of wasting a good one on a bad mood.

Shows you what I know.

Because it turns out that The Cowboys is an absolutely delightful film. I loved seeing John Wayne as the wise older man. In a movie where you've got about a dozen boys sharing the screen, they can either be obnoxious or endearing, and fortunately, they all hit the right notes here. The story of a rancher who is forced to hire boys to help him move his cattle when the men desert him to search for gold, it's not a complex idea, but there's plenty of room for great character moments. Slim Pickens is fantastic early on as Wayne's friend in town, and Roscoe Lee Browne is an utter delight as the cook who goes along on the trail. Bruce Dern provides the villainy. I loved watching every moment of this movie.

The Blu-ray is Warner's early efforts, including a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack which honestly sounded just fine to my ears. Likewise, while I recognize a newer transfer might look a little bit better, I was perfectly satisfied with what was presented here. English subtitles are available. An even nicer surprise was that it's a roadshow presentation on the disc, complete with an overture and intermission. I didn't get to the bonus features yet, but they include two featurettes, a commentary and a trailer.

The Cowboys is a wonderful addition to my collection, and worth the price of the set in and of itself.

 

[Matt Hough]

The 1974 version of The Front Page was such a disappointment. Putting back in all the profanity didn't make it one bit funnier, and, you're right, it DRAGS. Carol Burnett, one of my favorite performers of all time, is badly miscast and gives a terrible performance making Molly a mawkish mess instead of a streetwalker with some dignity. I think a Wilder in his 1940's period (around the time of A Foreign Affair) could have made a wonderful version of The Front Page.

 

[Frank Ha]

I watched The Enemy Below yesterday afternoon and really enjoyed it, too (4.5/5). Enough so that I wonder if I should go ahead and upgrade to Blu-ray from the DVD. Josh, sometime over the next few days, I'm going to watch that Star Trek episode that you referenced in your second post. Like you, I have heard that Balance of Terror was enfluenced by this movie. Should be interesting. And speaking of Star Trek, it also reminded me, a bit, of The Wrath of Khan when they are in the nebula, although Khan, while being very intelligent, is inexperienced.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I watched The Enemy Blow yesterday afternoon and really enjoyed it, too (4.5/5).

That's that documentary on the dangers of cocaine??

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

That's that documentary on the dangers of cocaine??

Or a wartime porno/propaganda film.

 

[Frank Ha]

That's that documentary on the dangers of cocaine??

Or a wartime porno/propaganda film.

I'm sitting here laughing. I certainly messed that up! But, it's now corrected.