Crawdaddy's "Random Thoughts" about Home Video, Film & TV (2 Viewers)

[Robert Crawford]

I kind of slack off from my disc viewing the last 3-4 days. I did watch Starship Troopers on 4K/UHD disc. Great video and audio presentations for a film that I always liked and found very funny even with the extreme violence in it. I've been busy messing with my digital library with that new application Movies Anywhere and sequencing that application with Vudu, Amazon and iTunes. Also, setting up my new 4K Apple TV to properly display 4K/UHD video. This crap is time consuming as I play around with my Roku Ultra and Apple TV units.

Tomorrow, I'll be watching another Anthony Mann directed film on Noir Alley with Eddie Muller. Side Street with Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell. Also, I'm going to cue up my 4K/UHD disc of Baby Driver tomorrow. All this before watching some NFL football. Why??? I don't know as one of my teams, the New York Giants are headed towards having maybe a 4 win season or worse. My other team the Oakland Raiders look like a .500 team and not a playoff contender. God, I hate sports!

 

[larryKR]

I've slacked off disc viewing since the current baseball season started in Spring. I follow all the teams, so I see parts of games almost every day. I am retired, but still there are not enough hours in a day for sports, movies, and family. I watch perhaps 1 or sometimes 2 discs a week if I'm lucky, and have somewhere between 70 or 80 unseen purchased Blu-rays since the season started that will have to wait until November. The Chiefs are my NFL team and they are doing ok, but that won't last much longer.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I've slacked off disc viewing since the current baseball season started in Spring. I follow all the teams, so I see parts of games almost every day. I am retired, but still there are not enough hours in a day for sports, movies, and family. I watch perhaps 1 or sometimes 2 discs a week if I'm lucky, and have somewhere between 70 or 80 unseen purchased Blu-rays since the season started that will have to wait until November. The Chiefs are my NFL team and they are doing ok, but that won't last much longer.

Actually, baseball is my favorite sport and I've been a Yankee fan since the final days of the M & M boys. I not only have MLB TV package, but I follow the Yankee minor league teams with the MiLB package on my computer. So I spend a good portion of my day watching baseball too.

Thankfully, being an insomniac who happens to be retired has its advantages.

 

[Matt Hough]

Yes, looking forward to Noir Alley. I've never seen the film, and that's always exciting to see an old movie that's new to me.

 

[Rodney]

The Chiefs are my NFL team and they are doing ok, but that won't last much longer.

They are just doing okay???
They are the only undefeated team in the NFL, man! Where's your team spirit? Alex Smith has been playing lights out this season. You should be jumping for joy right now, and enjoying the ride. Save the pessimism for post-season.

 

[Rodney]

Yes, looking forward to Noir Alley. I've never seen the film, and that's always exciting to see an old movie that's new to me.

I hope you like it!
I have this movie on DVD, and as a Mann fan, I've seen it before and I like it. But I love the backstory information Mueller gives us, and the original ending voiceover, which I agree with him works better for a noir picture. But this film isn't quite noir in my judgement.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I hope you like it!
I have this movie on DVD, and as a Mann fan, I've seen it before and I like it. But I love the backstory information Mueller gives us, and the original ending voiceover, which I agree with him works better for a noir picture. But this film isn't quite noir in my judgement.

Well, you can have that same argument for a number of films that are generally thought of as noir and are shown as such on TCM. Several of them are crime films with a touch of noir.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Side Street shown on Noir Alley today is a good film, but the one thing that always bugged me about this film is the empty NYC streets during the chase scene in the last ten minutes of the film. I could forgive how stupid, Farley Granger's character was because I'm used to seeing stupid movie characters get themselves jammed up in films. However, I can't get over seeing empty NYC streets except with police cars and the car they're chasing, even early on Sunday mornings in 1949.

 

[Matt Hough]

I thought the same thing, Crawdaddy. The chase was wonderfully shot, but it IS New York City and there are cars on the streets at ALL times even Sunday mornings at dawn. Yes, Granger's character makes one wrong decision after another to the point you want to pistol whip him the way James Craig does.

Loved Muller's comments pre and post movie.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Busy day watching a few DVR'd TV Shows, two new video discs, messing with Movies Anywhere, Vudu and iTunes applications again while watching my beloved New York Yankees tie up their playoff series.

The Universal 4K/UHD release of Apollo 13 looked very good on my OLED with an excellent DTS: X audio track. Also, viewed Topper Blu-ray release from VCI. I was pleasantly surprise how good that disc looked as well as how good the audio track sounded on my system.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The Spielberg Documentary on HBO got me in the mood to watch "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". The 4K/UHD disc is outstanding as I watched the special edition and director's cuts of the film. By the way that Spielberg Documentary was outstanding too. I learned a few things about him personally which will definitely cause me to look at his films with a different perspective. With that said, I'm going to watch the 4K/UHD disc of E.T. tomorrow.

A heads up for people that Noir Alley with Eddie Muller on TCM is broadcasting Raw Deal (1948) on Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. ET.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I swear every time I watch Raw Deal during some of its music cues I think about The Thing from Another World or It Came from Outer Space. Those that have seen all three films know what I'm talking about. Also this film reminds me why Claire Trevor has been a favorite actress of mine since first seeing her in Stagecoach when I was young kid. Her narration of Raw Deal was excellent as I thought she had one sexy voice. Between her and Ms. Stanwyck, they were the queens of film noir. Speaking of Ms. Stanwyck, I'm looking forward to next Sunday's Noir Alley showing of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. A film I revisit every couple years.

Raw Deal is a terrific film and I agree with Eddie Muller, it's one of the most stylistic film noirs ever made. Great commentary by Eddie again especially his personal salute to Marsha Hunt on her 100th birthday. She's another favorite of mine that deserved a better career before the Blacklist got her. I remember my first film with her too which was The Human Comedy which was a film I watched a lot when I was a kid. I need to revisit that movie.

 

[Rodney]

Great commentary by Eddie again especially his personal salute to Marsha Hunt on her 100th birthday. She's another favorite of mine that deserved a better career before the Blacklist got her. I remember my first film with her too which was The Human Comedy which was a film I watched a lot when I was a kid. I need to revisit that movie.

The Human Comedy is coming up on TCM in just a few months: SATURDAY, JANUARY 13 @ 10:00 AM (ET)

 

[Matt Hough]

Enjoyed Raw Deal very much (though I think the use of the theremin rather silly), but the transfer certainly had its share of dirt and problems. I'm sure the Blu-ray will improve on it in every way. As always, Muller's intros and follow-ups are solid gold, and his passion for the genre is so palpable.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Enjoyed Raw Deal very much (though I think the use of the theremin rather silly), but the transfer certainly had its share of dirt and problems. I'm sure the Blu-ray will improve on it in every way. As always, Muller's intros and follow-ups are solid gold, and his passion for the genre is so palpable.

Yeah, I didn't think the theremin fitted the film either. Like I stated, it fit more of the 1950;s sci fi films, but perhaps those guys got that idea from this film. Yes, that Classic Media transfer is not good so I can't wait until December to see a decent video presentation of it.

 

[B-ROLL]

Yeah, I didn't think the theremin fitted the film either. Like I stated, it fit more of the 1950;s sci fi films, but perhaps those guys got that idea from this film. Yes, that Classic Media transfer is not good so I can't wait until December to see a decent video presentation of it.

If you haven't already seen it ,I highly recommend Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey

 

[Vic Pardo]

Side Street shown on Noir Alley today is a good film, but the one thing that always bugged me about this film is the empty NYC streets during the chase scene in the last ten minutes of the film. I could forgive how stupid, Farley Granger's character was because I'm used to seeing stupid movie characters get themselves jammed up in films. However, I can't get over seeing empty NYC streets except with police cars and the car they're chasing, even early on Sunday mornings in 1949.

I thought the same thing, Crawdaddy. The chase was wonderfully shot, but it IS New York City and there are cars on the streets at ALL times even Sunday mornings at dawn. Yes, Granger's character makes one wrong decision after another to the point you want to pistol whip him the way James Craig does.

I beg to differ with you on the issue of empty streets in lower Manhattan on Sunday mornings in 1950. The Financial District and the area north of it now known as Tribeca were indeed quite devoid of traffic on Sunday mornings once upon a time. When I made Super 8 films with post-apocalyptic themes with friends of mine in 1971 and 1972 we went down to Wall Street on Saturday and Sunday mornings and shot there because the area was deserted on weekends. When MGM made the New York-set post-apocalypse drama, THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL in 1959 with Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens and Mel Ferrer, they shot it in the Financial District on weekends because they wouldn't have to deal with crowds or traffic.

It's very different now, of course, with lots of residential dwellings added to the area in the last 30 years or so and lots of shops and tourist attractions.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I beg to differ with you on the issue of empty streets in lower Manhattan on Sunday mornings in 1950. The Financial District and the area north of it now known as Tribeca were indeed quite devoid of traffic on Sunday mornings once upon a time. When I made Super 8 films with post-apocalyptic themes with friends of mine in 1971 and 1972 we went down to Wall Street on Saturday and Sunday mornings and shot there because the area was deserted on weekends. When MGM made the post-apocalypse drama, THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL in 1959 with Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens and Mel Ferrer, they shot it in the Financial District on weekends because they wouldn't have to deal with crowds or traffic.

It's very different now, of course, with lots of residential dwellings added to the area in the last 30 years or so and lots of shops and tourist attractions.

Even if true, the scene of empty NYC streets didn't work for me.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Warner Archive did another fine job with The Hidden Blu-ray Release. I can't believe it's been 30 years since this film first came out and I watched it in a near empty movie theater in Bloomington, Indiana. Despite it's low budget this is a really good film and the Blu-ray's audio and video presentations are splendid. I actually watched it a second time to listen to the director's commentary which gave me some more insight into the film, actors and how it was filmed. I used to think of this film as a guilty pleasure, it's more than that, it's a damn good film.

Also, watched the HD Digital stream of Kelly's Heroes on iTunes. This movie was filmed in Panavision so the aspect ratio looks about right, I didn't measure it, but it looks to be 2.35-2.40. I remember seeing that movie at my local Highway Cinema theater with a bunch of my high school buddies. All of us were big Clint Eastwood fans. Sutherland's character was out of place in this WWII film, but it has grown on me over the years and I laugh out loud at some of his scenes. Rickles, O'Connor and Savalas were great in their roles as well as the rest of the supporting actors. I can't believe that George Kennedy turned down the Big Joe role. Telly did just fine! That stupid song from this movie always brings a smile to me. Up Yours Baby!

By the way, the HD Digital Stream on Vudu has the wrong aspect ratio and is presented at 1.85!

 

[bujaki]

Even if true, the scene of empty NYC streets didn't work for me.

It didn't work for you, Robert, but history is history (not "fake" news), and that's the way it was at that time. There was no reason for people to be out there on a Sunday morning. It was a business district, not a residential or touristy area. If you bend your perspective a little then you'll enjoy the film much more.