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

[DavidMiller]

Day of the Jackal is a fantastic movie. Great review thank you.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Thanks David! It's one of those I had always heard of and had vague interest in, one of those "yeah, I probably should see that someday" kind of titles. I'm particularly appreciative of this as a gift because I wouldn't have thought to have asked for it, and I might not have seen it on my own otherwise. Now that I've been enlightened I'll of course be rewatching it one day!

 

[bujaki]

Great director, that Zinnemann fellow. Watch more of his stuff.

 

[RMajidi]

#115 - The Day Of The Jackal (1973)
Viewed on: July 8th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Cinema Cult - Australian import/region free)

I'm back! Looking over the list on the main page, it looks like the last time I watched a blind buy was on June 22nd. Since that time, I went and saw four U2 shows in three different cities (and visited with old friends along the way), as well as binged some Marvel movies in preparation for the new Spider-Man release, and also am rewatching Planet Of The Apes movies in anticipation of the latest in that series. I've also been watching and re-watching the new episodes of Twin Peaks. So I've been busy, but I haven't been living a media-free diet either. I had a little bit of extra time yesterday; they asked me to work an earlier shift than I usually do, and when I found myself home earlier than usual as a result, I took it as an opportunity to go back to the blind buy shelf.

The Day Of The Jackal was a gift, and one that I enjoyed greatly. Directed by Fred Zinnemann, working from a tense script by Kenneth Ross based on Frederick Forsyth's novel, the film is one of the greatest slow burns I've experienced. On one side, there's a shadowy French organization that's grown tired of the current president, but has failed at their own assassination attempts. They bring in a British assassin (Edward Fox), hoping both that a foreigner might slip under the radar and be less prone to slip-ups caused by emotions and passions that a true believer to the cause would hold. The French government is suspicious of the group that's hired the assassins, and one man in particular (Michael Lonsdale) is determined to identify and extinguish the thread. The film cleverly cuts between both sides, allowing us to see each side at work, while withholding just enough detail to keep the outcome from being easily guessed in advance. This really is one of the best cat-and-mouse type films that I've seen, and I was genuinely at the edge of my seat the entire time, wondering if the Jackal would succeed in his plans or be brought down.

The two lead actors, Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale, are each fantastic in their roles. As the unnamed Jackal, Fox puts forth a slightly aloof exterior that disguises what a methodical and resourceful killer he is. When facing obstacles both minor and major, Fox is able to handle the situation dispassionately and effectively, bringing to mind someone with all the skills of a James Bond but without the charm to temper it. And on the other side, Lonsdale is driven, inventive and determined to put an end to the threat despite having to serve a president unwilling to take the danger completely seriously. I know Lonsdale well from his role as the villain in Moonraker, and it's a lot of fun to see him playing the good guy this time around.

The disc is an Australian import by a company called Cinema Cult, who have licensed the master from Universal. Though the packaging claimed it was Zone B, the disc itself appeared to be region free. The film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, with a PCM audio mono track. There were no subtitles or bonus features on the disc. The set also included a slipcover which repeated the artwork from the sleeve. The transfer is typical for Universal titles that haven't gotten the deluxe remastering treatment. Though there are moments of imperfection, including a couple scenes that had some mild unsteadiness, and others with had some debris and speckling, on the whole, the transfer is completely watchable and has some moments which are pretty good. To be honest, I found the whole movie so riveting that after the first ten minutes or so, I stopped noticing the transfer and was just sucked into the movie. What's on the disc looks and feels like film, and if it's slightly less than pristine, I don't think that's a problem here.

The Day Of The Jackal was a wonderfully tense thriller that had me at the edge of my seat until the very last moments. Feeling far shorter than its two-hour-and-twenty-minute runtime, Fred Zinnemann keeps the momentum going without ever resorting to a frantic pace. With a great script and solid lead performances, there's a lot here to recommend.

Great review, Josh.

Love this film, and fully agree with Jose about the great Fred Zinnemann.

Have you ever recorded your favourite sports team/player winning an absolute nail-biter? Watching it again, you already know the outcome, but still feel the tension and emotion. That's how I feel whenever I watch The Day of the Jackal.

What's even more impressive about it is that when it came out in 1973, Charles de Gaulle had passed away of natural causes only three years earlier, and the audience would have been aware of this; so the likely ending would have been known to them. Yet the film was so well made that it was (and remains) all about the journey.

Arrow UK is due to release this on Blu this September. It will likely be the same transfer as the Oz release, but with a raft of extras that the Oz Blu lacks. So the Arrow might be a better option for those capable of playing a region B disc:

www.amazon.co.uk/The-Day-of-the-Jackal-Blu-ray/dp/B071G99QFL

 

[Nelson Au]

I've known of The Day of the Jackal, but I've never seen it before. Might be fixing that one soon too! Sounds like a real thriller. Looking at the cast, I only recognized one name. Michael Lonsdale known for Moonraker, but I remember him better for Ronin.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I've known of The Day of the Jackal, but I've never seen it before. Might be fixing that one soon too! Sounds like a real thriller. Looking at the cast, I only recognized one name. Michael Lonsdale known for Moonraker, but I remember him better for Ronin.

You should recognize Edward Fox too. Great film!

 

[Nelson Au]

Edward Fox made me think of Bernard Fox, but I know it's two different actors. I'm afraid I managed to miss every film Edward Fox has appeared in. Looking at his IMDb entry, his resume is very full and he's done a lot of work! I did see Never Say Never Again, so I did see that. The trivia section says he was first choice to appear in Time After Time as Jack the Ripper.

 

[B-ROLL]

Great review, Josh.

Love this film, and fully agree with Jose about the great Fred Zinnemann.

Have you ever recorded your favourite sports team/player winning an absolute nail-biter? Watching it again, you already know the outcome, but still feel the tension and emotion. That's how I feel whenever I watch The Day of the Jackal.

What's even more impressive about it is that when it came out in 1973, Charles de Gaulle had passed away of natural causes only three years earlier, and the audience would have been aware of this; so the likely ending would have been known to them. Yet the film was so well made that it was (and remains) all about the journey.

Arrow UK is due to release this on Blu this September. It will likely be the same transfer as the Oz release, but with a raft of extras that the Oz Blu lacks. So the Arrow might be a better option for those capable of playing a region B disc:

www.amazon.co.uk/The-Day-of-the-Jackal-Blu-ray/dp/B071G99QFL

On the original release of "The Perfect Storm" there was an interview (or commentary) with the director Wolgang Petersen who said that the studio thought everyone new the end to the story... as there was a book and it was on the national news about the fates of the main characters ... they did a survey of movie-goers at one of the screenings and under 10 % knew.

There have been several examples of person-on-the-street interviews where the person being interviewed could not even name the Vice-President ... let alone the leader of another country. So of the same may be said for the US public when Day of the Jackal came out ...

But a well-made film can definitely overcome a known outcome Inglorious Bastards being the most recent example I can think of ...

When I saw your second paragraph Ramin ... all I could think of was a certain scene in the original Trainspotting ...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

#116 - She-Wolf Of London (1946)
Viewed on: July 10th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Universal)

She-Wolf Of London is the last film in The Wolf Man Legacy Collection Set. Unrelated entirely to the Lon Chaney, Jr films and not directly related to Werewolf Of London, She-Wolf Of London is more of a psychological thriller than a horror film. June Lockhart plays Phyllis Allenby, who lives at an inherited mansion along with her aunt (Sara Haden) and cousin (Jan Wiley). Allenby is engaged to a barrister named Barry Lanfield (Don Porter). When a series of murders begins at a nearby park, with a werewolf spotted leaving the scene, Allenby becomes convinced that she's the werewolf and is horrified at what that means for her future. Look out for Dennis Hoey (Inspector Lestrade in the Sherlock Holmes films) as a pompous police inspector.

Frankly, She-Wolf Of London was not up to the standards of the earlier films in the set. On the one hand, I liked some of the atmosphere, and I appreciated that the film decided to take a more psychological approach to the horror; rather than being a film where we witness horrific acts, we instead spend our time with a woman dealing with the ramifications of those horrors. Perhaps it was just me, but there were stretches where the film didn't hold my attention as well as the other films did, and considering this one was only 61 minutes, that's not a great sign.

The transfer from Universal was a little disappointing, if only because all of their other Legacy titles have been virtually pristine. Though the film still looks fine and is very watchable, it shows some imperfections and age. There's some speckling throughout and some light scratches along the edges at parts of the film, though these are barely noticeable. The audio is of a similar quality: very good but not spotless. It's by no means a bad transfer, but after seeing so many home runs in a row, a mere base hit just wasn't as thrilling. English subtitles were also available.

With She-Wolf Of London, the Wolf Man Legacy Set ends more on a whimper than a bang. While I was really moved by Lon Chaney, Jr. as Larry Talbot, and while I found the original Werewolf Of London to be thrilling, She-Wolf Of London was merely competent by comparison. It's not a bad way to spend an hour, and I'm glad to have seen it, but it's not one of the better films here either.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

#117 - Kingdom Of The Spiders (1977)
Viewed on: July 11th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Code Red)

I saw this on another thread here and was pretty much sold when I saw the movie had William Shatner against an army of spiders. There's one thing you have to understand about me: I love William Shatner. Captain Kirk is obviously amazing, but I love the other stuff he's done too. He's in two of the very best Twilight Zone episodes. His TekWar books and subsequent television series was fun when I was growing up. I'm the one person in the world who liked his CBS sitcom "$#*! My Dad Says". And I genuinely enjoy the music. I think his album "Has Been," written and recorded with Ben Folds, is actually an incredibly deep and profound work of art. So when I saw Shatner vs. Spiders, I wanted in on it.

I wasn't disappointed.

There's no way anyone will mistake Kingdom Of The Spiders for a good movie. But with that out of the way, Shatner's performance as veterinarian Rack Hansen is one for the ages. When cows start dying at a local Arizona farm (owned by Woody Strode!), Shatner is stumped to the cause. When visiting arachnologist Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling) suspects that it's rogue spiders, Shatner is initially skeptical until he sees the spiders. Spreading from the farm, they kill people with their venom and cocoon them in their webs. Before long, Shatner, Bolling and a few others are trapped in a cabin and must defend themselves from the onslaught. It's ridiculous, and the use of real spiders might be troublesome to some modern viewers, but I couldn't help but get swept up in the fun. The music seemed very familiar; when I looked it up afterwards, I discovered it was mostly television stock music, including themes I had heard in Twilight Zone episodes.

This is my first Blu-ray from Code Red, and I'm pleased with the care taken to present the film - it almost certainly looks better on this disc than it did on its original release. Made from a new 2K scan of the IP, it's a very good transfer. With the exception of some very minor, very fleeting dirt and light scratches, this is a mostly spotless presentation. Audio is presented in mono via DTS-HD MA and is similarly pleasing. Unfortunately, the disc did not include subtitles, but I didn't end up feeling a need for them. Though I didn't sample any of the bonus features, the disc included a commentary and interviews with the cast and crew (except for Shatner).

Kingdom Of The Spiders was exactly what I expected and hoped for when I ordered it. After watching so many Universal horror films in succession (with a few left to follow), this was a fun change of pace. There's also a certain joy in seeing one of my favorite actors in such a ridiculous part; frankly, with a generic lead actor, I would have passed on the title. But the combination of Shatner, spiders and schlock proved irresistible.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

On the original release of "The Perfect Storm" there was an interview (or commentary) with the director Wolfgang Petersen who said that the studio thought everyone new the end to the story... as there was a book and it was on the national news about the fates of the main characters ... they did a survey of movie-goers at one of the screenings and under 10 % knew.

I was one of those 90% - I didn't know how that was going to end, although I had a suspicion it wasn't going to end well. (I had no idea how the recent Finest Hours would end either - New England nautical disasters are something of a blind spot, I guess.) Apollo 13 was another one, I hadn't heard about that mission before the movie and I genuinely didn't know if they'd live or die. I figured, maybe they died and that's why they didn't teach it in school. The movie is still thrilling knowing the outcome, but the suspense and tension was unbelievably thrilling watching that for the first time as a twelve-year-old and being so completely absorbed in the story.

 

[B-ROLL]

#117 - Kingdom Of The Spiders (1977)
Viewed on: July 11th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Code Red)

I I'm the one person in the world who liked his CBS sitcom "$#*! My Dad Says".

You weren't the ONLY one !

 

[Mike Frezon]

Based on your Shatner fandom, Josh...what do you think of Chris Pine?

I love 'em both...and think casting Pine as Kirk was one of the best casting moves in a long time. Pine brings that same Shatner slyness to all his roles.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

You weren't the ONLY one !

It aired on CBS but Warner produced it... every now and then I ask Warner Archive on Facebook if they could do a DVD-R, but no dice yet.

Based on your Shatner fandom, Josh...what do you think of Chris Pine?

I have to say, I was completely skeptical before the release of the '09 Star Trek reboot - I thought Kirk was Shatner, and Shatner was Kirk, and that was that. But Pine is actually fantastic in the role. What amazes me is that he's very clearly playing Captain Kirk, and yet he's not doing a Shatner impersonation. (Though when he hosted SNL this year, they did have a skit where he was playing the Shatner version of Kirk and that was hilarious.) And I was really impressed with the non-Trek roles I've seen him in over the past year: Hell Or High Water was fantastic, he was a perfect compliment to Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman, and he even did a credible Boston accent for The Finest Hours. Without being too flashy or drawing too much attention to himself, he's put up a really solid resume in the past couple years. I'm a fan.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I see a lot of Shatner traits in Pine. It's weird.

Pine was very good in People Like Us with Elizabeth Banks and Michelle Pfeiffer, too.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I just realized that we're in our 50th page -- thank you everyone for joining me here!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

#118 - Dracula's Daughter (1936)
Viewed on: July 11th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Universal)

Continuing with the Universal horror theme, I picked up a copy of the Dracula Legacy Collection for the two films that are unique to that set: Dracula's Daughter and Son of Dracula. I had never seen either of them, and the set was cheap enough that it worked out to $10 or $11 for each of those two films, which was something I could live with. While I wish Universal had made one master set with all of these films from that period in one box, these individual sets are so inexpensively priced that it's hard to get too bent out of shape over having three or four copies of many of the titles within.

As to the movie itself, Dracula's Daughter picks up almost immediately following the end of the original Lugosi Dracula (which made me kick myself for not rewatching it beforehand). As the film begins, Van Helsing (again played by Edward Van Sloan) - inexplicably called "Von" Helsing in this film - has been caught by police for his "murder" of Count Dracula at the end of the previous film. Van Helsing maintains that since Dracula has already been dead for hundreds of years, it's not murder. Rather than hiring a lawyer, Van Helsing enlists a psychiatrist to prove his sanity (afterall, if Van Helsing isn't crazy, then what he says about Dracula must be real, and if it's real, then Van Helsing isn't guilty). Meanwhile, Countess Marya (played by Gloria Holden), who is in actuality Dracula's daughter, steals Dracula's body from the morgue and burns it, hoping this will break the curse of vampirism. Unfortunately, the ritual doesn't change the fact that she's a vampire, and hungry for blood. Wanting to be cured of this affliction, she seeks out the very psychiatrist Van Helsing was seeing. Though the psychiatrist is initially eager to help, the Countess' own resolve for working towards a cure begins to falter, putting everyone in danger.

While Dracula's Daughter doesn't reach the heights of Bride Of Frankenstein, it's better than decent, with some good atmosphere, and a convincing lead performance from Gloria Holden. There are hints of eroticism, never explicitly spoken, but nonetheless winked at, including the suggestion of lesbianism (the Countess does seem fond of the psychiatrist's girlfriend). Unfortunately, there are also stretches where not much seems to happen. When the film is at is most seductive and atmospheric, it's great fun, but there's an equal amount of time that seems dull by comparison.

The transfer here is back to the high quality of all of the other Universal horror titles I've reviewed so far (with the notable exception of She-Wolf Of London). The image is virtually pristine, and the audio is equally good. English subtitles are available.

While Dracula's Daughter didn't live up to the original for me, it was still an entertaining sequel that was worth seeing. Some modern critics have said that the film surpasses the original, but I found myself disagreeing with that assessment. For a film that's only 71 minutes, it does feel a little more uneven than it perhaps should, but there's enough here to make it worth a look.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

#119 - Son Of Dracula (1943)
Viewed on: July 12th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Universal)

Son Of Dracula is a bit of an oddball. Where Dracula's Daughter was a direct sequel to the original Dracula, this one is a bit more nebulous. Taking place in American instead of Transylvania and England, and taking place in contemporary times rather than the 19th century, the film doesn't concern itself with continuity. When the film begins, the mysterious Count Alucard (Lon Chaney Jr.) has arrived at a New Orleans plantation at the invitation of the owner. When the owner dies and his daughter Katherine (Louis Allbritton) inherits the estate, she starts ditching her boyfriend Frank (played by Robert Paige) in favor of Alucard. When Frank confronts them and attempts to shoot Alucard, the bullets pass through him and hit Katherine instead. Distraught, Frank goes to find the local doctor (Frank Craven), but is utterly shocked to find Katherine alive when he returns. It doesn't take long for Frank and the doctor to put together the puzzle - that "Alucard" is "Dracula" backwards, bite marks showing up on local victims, and Alucard's fear of the cross - and realize that they're dealing with a vampire. (The film is somewhat vague on whether this is meant to be the Lugosi Dracula character, that character's son, or an entirely new character.)

While it's not Lon Chaney Jr.'s best monster (that would be the tortured Larry Talbot, aka the Wolf Man), he's nonetheless a competent Dracula. He's aided by some fantastic special effects that allow us to see his transformations from man to various other forms, adding an extra layer of creepiness to the film. Unfortunately, the movie drags even more than Dracula's Daughter. It runs for about 81 minutes, but doesn't seem to have enough story to fill that run time. Still, the film has numerous highlights worth sticking around for, even if they're spaced a bit too far apart.

As with most of the other Universal horror titles, the transfer here is impressive. I'm sure it must get tiring to read "nearly pristine video, nearly pristine audio, very pleasing transfer" over and over, but I have to say, it never gets old discovering how good these classic films can look and sound. As with the other titles in this set, English subtitles are available.

Son Of Dracula isn't the best film in the series, or the best role that Lon Chaney, Jr. has held, but it's entertaining enough. By placing the film in an American setting and by improving the quality of special effects (specifically the transformations from man to bat, or man to fog), the film feels fresher than its story might suggest.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

#120 - Phantom Of The Opera (1943)
Viewed on: July 13th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Universal)

Nelson has asked a while ago if I had ever seen this film, and while I've owned it ever since the release of the Universal Classic Monsters set, it's the only film in that set that I still hadn't seen. When I started binging on the other Universal monster films, I realized now was as good of a time as any to check it out. To be honest, I wasn't hugely excited about watching this movie (as five years sitting on the shelf can attest). When I was in high school, a friend of mine was given tickets to Phantom Of The Opera on Broadway as a Christmas present, and invited me to join him. Although it was a great experience to see a show on Broadway, and really cool to have a friend share his gift so generously, I was very underwhelmed by the musical. I think its actual running time was three hours, but it felt even longer than that. And to this day, almost two decades later, I can still remember how uncomfortable my seat was. Although the sets were impressive, everything else was underwhelming. I can't remember a single note from the play's score, or a single song. But that bad taste has stayed in my mouth all of this time, which contributed to me ignoring this movie as long as humanly possible. But sometimes it's good to have a project like this to shake things up.

So, after all that dread, it turns out that the 1943 adaptation of Phantom wasn't the worst thing ever. Nor is it the greatest thing ever. But, to start with, it does feature Claude Rains as the Phantom, and Claude Rains is always worth watching. There's an opening sequence (or rather, a couple sequences) that together do a great job of introducing the key players and the conflicts, but the resolution was less satisfying to me. As the film begins, Christine (Susanna Foster) is a young soprano with a bit part in the Paris opera. She's being mentored by the violinist (Rains), who secretly has fallen in love with her. But Christine has other would-be suitors as well, including a police inspector (played by Edgar Barrier) and a fellow performer (Nelson Eddy). When Rains is fired from the opera, he tries to get a concerto he's written published to make ends meet. But when the publisher appears to steal the composition from him, Rains murders the man, but is disfigured by acid that's thrown at his face by one of the publisher's assistants. Fleeing the scene, he disappears, and takes refuge underground. Presumed dead, Rains steals the Phantom disguise from the opera company, and begins plotting a way to force the opera company into giving Christine a chance to play the lead. If only he can help Christine succeed, so the world sees in her everything he does, perhaps then she'll finally love him in return.

On the whole, I found the film to be uneven, and it's not one I'm likely to revisit often. But there were some great highlights to be found here. The opening sequences, where we meet Christine and Claude Rains, are fantastic. We get a sense of what it's like for Christine, trying to carve out a career at a time when women were expected to get married and stay at home. It's easy to feel sympathy for Rains, who begins with the best intentions and only turns to evil after everything he's spent his entire life working towards is unceremoniously stripped away from him. And the costume and set design are gorgeous, rendered in often stunning three-strip Technicolor. But on the downside, the film is almost too polished for its own good. There's very little atmosphere, almost no sense of dread. More than special effects, more than gore, more than violence, a horror movie needs to have great atmosphere to function, and without it, this film veers more often to the melodramatic than the terrifying. The film opens with a performance at the opera that goes on far too long, and there are several performances throughout the film that suffer from the same excessive length. A little bit of trimming and a few shadows here and there could have gone a long way towards improving the film.

The transfer, part of the Universal Classic Monsters set, was underwhelming, but not awful. Rather, it's typical of what Robert Harris would call "the old Universal". It's completely watchable, but like the transfer on Universal's Rope, rarely shines. While the image is very clean, and the audio is very clear, there are registration issues throughout. According to the old RAH "Few Worlds About" post on the film, this transfer was created from an IP that had those issues baked in, rather than being sourced from the original three strip negatives. When things are in alignment, the color is gorgeous, but the alignment is inconsistent from start to finish. Subtitles were available. The disc also included a number of bonus features, but I did not get a chance to sample of them.

The 1943 version of Phantom Of The Opera is probably one of Universal's lesser horror pictures, and doesn't really feel part of the same series as the Frankenstein, Wolf Man, Dracula and Mummy titles. This is more of a prestige picture with a little bit of a horror flavor to it, rather than the straight-up horror films led by the aforementioned monsters. If you already own the set, it's worth taking a look at (and Claude Rains is fantastic as always), but I'm not sure it's worth a purchase in and of itself. Still, I expected to be completely bored with the movie, and found myself really into at least half of what happened, so I got more than I had hoped for out of this title.

 

[Matt Hough]

I'm sure you know that the production design and cinematography of Phantom of the Opera won the Oscars in 1943, pretty impressive for Universal who wasn't accustomed to taking home Oscars especially for color films. If the Costume Design category had been around in 1943 (it didn't come into existence until 1948), that might have been another Oscar for the film. I'm sure they figured if they had noted baritone Nelson Eddy as one of the stars of the movie, they may as well let him sing for a spell, and that's likely why the movie has SO much singing in it.