a few words about

When we were opening Lawrence, I held a dinner one evening that included David Lean, Freddie Young, and two dear cousins from the Colony of Pennsylvania, my paternal home ground. My cousin, the elder, who is a major force in model aircraft, asked David about his 1952 film, known here as...

Another Wonderful Kino release from the Paramount library, Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll, directed by the great Lewis Milestone, and a screenplay by novelist, Clifford Odets. The 1936 production, photographed by Paramount stalwart, Victor Milner. Great fun, and a major Paramount release of...

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Unless one becomes excited by the thought of Techniscope, as used in the 1966 (second) re-make of Beau Geste, there are two that should be of interest. The first, released (silent) in 1926 via Paramount, and based upon the same 1926 novel by P.C. Wren, starred Ronald Colman, as brother "Beau."...

I came to the conclusion many moons ago, that when a new release is publicized as "New (x)k transfer/ master," that it's pretty much meaningless. And so it is with the Gary Cooper, Paramount production from 1935, Henry Hathaway's The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. Other than what are probably...

I've been waiting for a decent release of the 1975 ABC-TV Special for aeons. And can now finally release my old laser disc. I was hopeful several years ago, when (was it Mill Creek) released a multi-film set, but every last one of the films was unwatchable - basically digitally induced VHS...

Robert Harris submitted a new blog post A few words about...™ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker -- in 4k UHD Blu-ray Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

Leave it to the BBC to continually up the ante with the overall quality of their 4k programming. I first experienced a sampling of Seven Worlds One Planet at a demo at Value Electronics. They had virtually every variant of 8k panels in production for the home market on display, and I was...

One of the great American musicals, the 1936 Show Boat, with massive talent in the leads, including one of the finest voices ever recorded, Paul Robeson, and original cast member, Helen Morgan. Derived from a safety fgm, Criterion's new Blu, is the best I've ever seen this film look. Gorgeous...

Not certain where the moniker of the collection comes from, but Their Finest Hour includes five quality British WWII dramas, three of them starring the extraordinary John Mills. Which makes this a Mills Film Festival. All five look lovely, although as always, I have a few caveats. Probably...

I love a really good "whodunnit." And Rian Johnson's (you remember his film, Brick) Knives Out, was one of the best films of 2019. An absolute crowd pleaser, with a wonderful cast. Recently released by Lionsgate in 4k, it's a terrific way to watch the film, especially in Dolby Vision and...

Round about sixty or so years ago, the French decided to hone in on film directors as the main source of inspiration, and credit for filmmaking. Here in the Colonies the concept was heralded by the great Andrew Sarris, and amplified in his book, The American Cinema. The reality is that...

Yet another of the brilliant Ealing comedies, the 1949 Passport to Pimlico, reminds me in an odd way of a bit in Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 Mr. & Mrs. Smith, in which a happy couple, Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery, are informed that via a technicality, their marriage never legally occurred...

The 1933 variant of Song of Songs, based upon the novel by Hermann Sudermann, and the resultant play, appears to be the third incarnation of the film. It was first filmed in 1918, and later, in 1924 as Lily of the Dust, a Pola Negri vehicle, which is currently considered lost. The 1933...

Alec Guinness began his film career at the top, and never wavered. In the past year or so, we've accumulated quite a representation of that career, most notably at Ealing, Beginning with two David Lean Dickens productions, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist - he would appear in four more - he...

Between 1950, and his final appearance on film in 1980, James Stewart starred in some very high quality westerns - almost 20 of them. While the best known, were probably for John Ford or Anthony Mann, there were others. The Rare Breed, with Andrew McLaglen at the helm, was released in 1966...

As I continue to delve into the Film Movement releases, something seems to become more clear, and a couple of different factors may come into play. First, a point must be made as to British films and how they've survived the years - which is not particularly well, regardless of the passion of...

Unlike here in the Colonies, three-strip Technicolor was in relatively short supply in the UK in the early days, even though it is generally acknowledged that some of the finest three-strip work came from Technicolor London, via the Powell-Pressburger entity, The Archers. When one thinks of UK...

In 1957, a new process, which can be considered the offspring of VistaVision and Panavision arrived on the scene. Three films were released in the process that year. The first was Night Passage from Universal, followed by Escapade in Japan (also Universal), and finally Sayonara from Warner...

Kino is offering one of the rara avi of the era, in a 1946 Technicolor western from Universal, Canyon Passage, directed by Jacques Tourneur. I use the term akin to rare, as in 1946 Technicolor was quite new at Universal. While they had used the two color process for sequences and for King of...

Occasionally, with other things going on around us all, I take a bit more time to discern a new entity having entered the field of home entertainment publishing. It wasn't that I was totally unaware of certain titles arriving, properly playable for the region here in the Colonies. Just not...

From the world of the Samuel Goldwyn films, comes William Wyler's wonderful 1936 classic, Dodsworth. Full disclosure, Mr. Wyler is one of my favorite filmmakers. Along with Richard Brooks, and David Lean, one of the most literate in the art form. A lovely new restoration has yielded a...

April Fool's Day, a 1986 teen thriller, which in some odd ways could be a low-budget pre-curser to Knives Out, is a fan favorite. Somehow, I've never understood the attraction, but regardless, Scream Factory's new Blu-ray via Paramount is a very nice Blu-ray, with nary a problem in sight...

Those adept at knot-tying will recognize the subject of the title. https://www.animatedknots.com/clove-hitch-knot-rope-end The IFC film, released via Scream Factory has me befuddled, and that doesn't occur too often. As directed by Duncan Skiles, Clovehitch is a neat little thriller of the...

Marrowbone, directed by Sergio Sanchez (The Orphanage), is not about the adventures of a dog toy. Rather, it concerns a rather off-centric family, in the American Northeast (shot in Spain), who for whatever reason, are holed up in a huge rotting house. A huge rotting house - with secrets... I...

Robert Harris submitted a new blog post A few words about...™ Leave Her to Heaven - in Blu-ray Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

Robert Harris submitted a new blog post A few words about...™ Mortal Engines -- in 4k UHD Blu-ray Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

I'm going to be the naysayer here. I hated Parasite. I thought that it started off well -- a bit of McCarey, a bit of Lubitsch, a touch of Bunuel... And then, I guess a bit after the hour mark, it fell apart for me, and had me thinking that it went into production with neither a completed...

The concept of Rene Eller's Artsploitation film, We, reminds me of a quote from the great Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859), which was slightly changed many years later, and used by Alfred Hitchcock. "If once a man indulges in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing, and from robbing...

Scream Factory is once again gracing our home theaters with another entry in their Universal Horror Collection. This time, Volume 4, which hits some high points in the series. Most interesting, for me, was the inclusion of The Climax, a 1944 Technicolor Boris Karloff production, one of only...