kino lorber

The early 1960s was a wonderful era for quality black & white cinematography, and Robert Mulligan's Love with the Proper Stranger is a prime example. Think Hud, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, The Miracle Worker... Milton Krasner's b&w work, goes back beyond his cinematography for some of...

I did a bit of checking, since Roy Rogers and Trigger, make a rare Technicolor appearance in Son of Paleface. The only other reference I find for Mr. Rogers is Melody Time. Trigger, however, makes an earlier appearance, as the trusty steed ridden by Maid Marian, in the 1938 Adventures of Robin...

William Wellman's 1928 Beggars of Life is a look back at a story about hobo life at the time, as told by Jim Tully. While Richard Arlen and even of more interest today, Louise Brooks, are interesting to watch, the star of the film is truly the great Wallace Beery for his films c. the mid-1930s...

As a huge David Selznick fan, I've been waiting for this one to arrive on Blu-ray. The original elements were re-composited more than a decade ago at Disney, and this Blu-ray is representative of that analogue work. Not digital. Generally, Kino Lorber's new Blu-ray looks fine, although I...

The Devil's Brigade, not to be confused with The Devil's Rejects, was directed by Andrew McLaglen. It's one of those films about the need for a crack fighting team, and someone has an idea to use prisoners. Of course, the team turns out to be the best, most perfect, and deadliest team ever...

There's a short sequence with Bob Hope in Frank Tashlin's The Lemon Drop Kid (1951), that I always felt was just a tiny step away from Chaplin. It takes place around a department store window at Christmas, and rather than detail it, I'll suggest that you see it yourselves, as it's worth the...

Nunnally Johnson is a name that's known to tried and true cinephiles, but possibly not to the more generally cinema public. His career began as a writer, associate producer, and then producer, making his home at Fox, beginning in 1934. His credits include, Prisoner of Shark Island, Dimples...

From his beginnings in the cinema arena in the mid-1930s, appearing in short films, through his over fifty feature films, Bob Hope was one of America's most beloved imports. Fortunately, via releases from Kino Lorber, fans are being treated to a selection of his work, Road pictures, and...

Someone had to do it. And it was Ridley Scott who took on the task of making a feature length film celebrating the 500th Anniversary of Columbus' discovery. Photographed by Adrian Biddle, the new Blu-ray looks film-like, with occasional non-problematic bits of minus density, making it appear...

Hello! I couldn't find anything about the Kino Lorber release of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying and I wanted to know if it was worth buying or not? I missed out on the Twilight Time Blu-Ray release and I was kind of curious about this DVD release. In the details about the DVD...

We have Kino Lorber to thank for a bit of whimsy, as they're about to release two of the seven Crosby-Hope "road" pictures in Blu-ray. While Dorothy Lamour appeared in all seven, the final film featured Joan Collins, with Ms Lamour making an appearance. The series, which began in 1940, with...

John Boorman's Hell in the Pacific, with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune in the leads is an interesting WWII drama. The third star is Conrad Hall, whose gorgeous lensing on Koror Island cannot be overlooked. Kino Lorber's new Blu-ray is a very nice looking presentation, presumably from an IP, as...

Jeff Kanew's 1986 Touch Guys, is a film that I just plain out enjoy. It's a comedy, with a great deal of silly business, that places Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas center stage for the (correct me, if I'm wrong) fourth time, and the rapport between the two is undeniable. The film is just...

I'll watch anything that involves Billy Wilder. I'll watch anything that involves James Cagney. One, Two, Three, a Cold War comedy, is Mr. Cagney's penultimate performance, and it's a doozy. For the production, Mr. Wilder returned to Germany. This is an easy one. Buy it. Enjoy it. The...

Those who are aware of Rudolph Valentino, probably think of The Sheik (1921) and The Son of the Sheik (1926), as opposed to the handful of other films for which he might be remembered, the major productions being: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), Camille (1921), Blood and Sand...

Kino Lorber, under its Studio Classics label, has released Irving Rapper's 1958 Marjorie Morningstar, based upon the novel by Herman Wouk. It's a good film, with some interesting performances, but never a great one. It has a superb cast, with Natalie Wood, freshly out of her teens in the lead...

Little Sister, as directed by Zach Clark, is a loose remake of Fred Zinnemann's The Nun's Story. Only it's set in North Carolina and New York, has no violence in Africa, and has diminutive Addison Timlin in the Audrey Hepburn role. Except that Timlin's character, Colleen, a novitiate returning...

Phil Kaufman has directed twelve feature films, with subject matter across a wide spectrum. The Wanderers is pure New York. Everything about it just works, as 1963 is brought back to life. Great casting, great music, great cars, great hair. And a film that has become a cult classic...

Of necessity, we need to file Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat under the "special case" category, for problems. Decades ago I had a pleasing 16mm print, but the original 35mm elements seem to be gone. Not only the original negative, but any high quality fine grain masters, derived from same...

Yay! Much Love for Kino Lorber! With a newly produced interview with Larry Cohen! Thanks also to Neil Brock for first giving us the news it was coming.

Henry Hathaway's 23 Paces to Baker Street is an interesting drama, that probably played better half a century ago than it does today, but it's still of interest. Mr. Hathaway began his career in props, and worked his way up to AD, hitting his directorial mark in the early 1930s. His early work...

J. Lee Thompson's 1964, "What a Way to Go!" probably sounded like a good idea at the time, and may have worked better as an Ealing comedy, with Sir Alec playing all the roles. What we have here is an impressive line-up of stars, who appear in roles, just larger than cameos, but for very little...

I've been waiting for this one. Henry Koster's No Highway in the Sky has been one of my favorite films for decades. Before home video, I used to run a beautiful 16mm print. The film is less about aircraft, and more about the human spirit, intelligence and sticking with one's beliefs...

You're probably asking yourselves, "who is this John Brahm?" Actually, probably not. Only the most hardened cinephiles have a clue. Mr. Brahm was a German emigre, who arrived in Hollywood by way of the UK, after directing a re-make of D.W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms there, when Mr. G decided...

Anyone with a bent toward film noir, is aware of the wonderfully conceived titles for these productions, and Robert Siodmak's 1948, Cry of the City, starring Victor Mature, is no exception. It's another in the documentary style noirs fostered by Fox, and this release by Kino Lorber, via Fox, is...

Henry Hathaway's The House on 92nd Street, which was released just post-WWII, is an interesting film, from a number of perspectives. It's a blend of police (FBI really) procedural, with a decidedly documentary bent to it. Look at the films of producer Louis De Rochemont, and you'll find the...

Never heard of H. Bruce Humberstone? The name doesn't ring a bell? He works his way through the system, beginning in 1924, directing shorts at Universal, after which he was an assistant director into the early 1930s. Directing a segment of If I had a Million, in 1932, along with four Charlie...

Boomerang is one of those crime dramas that holds up nicely, going on 70 years after its release. Part of the reason may be in its naturalistic style. It's based upon a murder case that occurred in Bridgeport, CT, in the 1920s, but was shot in Stamford, and nearby, White Plains. Dana Andrews...

Otto Preminger's Daisy Kenyon, with Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda in the leads, probably holds up decently today because of what may have seemed an extremely adult premise, when it opened for Christmas business, back in 1947. A love triangle turns into a veritable quadrangle, with...

Faring quite a bit better than Beautiful Blonde as far as quality is concerned, here's a western from Fritz Lang. His fifth production in the States. Robert Young and Randolph Scott are the leads in this large-scale production concerning the beginnings of telegraph lines in the American west...