4K News #382: Hatari (1962).

Directed by Howard Hawks
Starring John Wayne, Hardy Krüger, Elsa Martinelli, Red Buttons, Gérard Blain, Bruce Cabot

With its incredible Technicolor location scenes in Africa — such as John Wayne strapped to the front of a truck actually trying to catch a rhinoceros, Howard Hawks’ Hatari! (1962) is the kind of film you’d think Blu-Ray was made for.

But when it was released on Blu-Ray a few years ago, word quickly spread that it looked terrible — and many of us decided to stick with our old DVDs and hope something better would come along. Well, it looks like some better has come along — Kino Lorber has announced an upcoming 4K release. The announcement does not mention a Blu-Ray disc being included.

Hatari! is a cool movie, Hawks’ usual “group of people doing a difficult job thing.” Recommending it comes down to transfer and format, not the film itself.

Blu-Ray News #358: Cushing Curiosities (1960 – 1974).

Peter Cushing and Randolph Scott are my favorite actors, and it’s always good news to find out more of their films are coming to video (especially in high definition). Today belongs to Mr. Cushing, with Severin Films’ announcement of the Cushing Curiosities Blu-Ray set, a real wealth of riches coming in October.

Cone Of Silence (AKA Trouble In The Sky, 1960)
Directed by Charles Frend
Starring Peter Cushing, George Sanders, Michael Craig, Elizabeth Seal, André Morell, Bernard Lee 

Cushing plays an airline pilot who tries to interfere in the investigation of a deadly plain crash — because he’s the one who was actually at fault. Based on an actual crash.

Suspect (1960, AKA The Risk)
Directed by Roy & John Boulting 
Starring Tony Britton, Virginia Maskell, Peter Cushing, Ian Bannen, Donald Pleasence

Cushing plays a research biologist who just might be selling government secrets to a foreign power. The cast includes Thorley Walters and Spike Milligan!

The Man Who Finally Died (1962)
directed by Quentin Lawrence
Starring Stanley Baker, Peter Cushing, Mai Zetterling, Nigel Green

After World War II, Stanley Baker journeys to Bavaria to find out what happened to his father. He’s told that his dad is dead, but he starts to believe there’s a coverup going on. Peter Cushing plays a doctor who knows a lot more than you think. In black and white Dyaloscope. 

Sherlock Holmes (1968)
Starring Peter Cushing, Nigel Stock, Madge Ryan, Ann Bell, Nick Tate

After Hammer’s Hound Of The Baskervilles (1959), Cushing was back as Sherlock Holmes in a 1968 BBC TV series — with Nigel Stock as Dr. Watson. Cushing Curiosities will include the entire series, from BBC tape protection masters, on two discs.

Bloodsuckers (1971, AKA Incense For The Damned, Freedom Seekers)
Directed by Robert Hartford-Davis
Starring Peter Cushing, Patrick Macnee, Alex Davion, Edward Woodward

Halfway through production of Incense Of The Damned, the money ran out and everything ground to a halt. When more dough was rounded up, filming resumed with a new script and additional actors, resulting in the usual jumbled-up mess of a movie. The key differentiator here is that it’s a jumbled-up mess of a movie with Peter Cushing in it (along with a restored orgy sequence).

Tender Dracula (1974)
Directed by Pierre Grunstein
Starring Peter Cushing, Miou-Miou, Alida Valli, Bernard Menez

Cushing plays a horror star who says he’s going to quit making horror pictures. Two screenwriters and a couple of starlets head to Cushing’s castle to talk him out of it. If any of these films is a true curiosity, it’s this one.

All these pictures are scanned from the finest materials available, from camera negatives to fine grains. Of course, this being a set from Severin Films, you can count on a stunning array of extras — hours and hours of commentaries, trailers, interviews, newsreels, alternate titles and more. Don’t think any of the “Blood-Sucker Rings” will be included.

This thing sounds like a monster kid’s dream come true (well, this one’s at least). Can’t wait!

Blu-Ray News #350: The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962).

Directed by Riccardo Freda
Starring Barbara Steele, Robert Flemyng

Riccardo Freda’s The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962) — that’s the version I first saw, so that’s what I’ve always called it (the repeated H thing is kinda nice) — is one of the creepiest movies I’ve ever seen. It was also the first of Barbara Steele’s Italian movies I came across. It had a big impact on me as a kid and hasn’t let up. 

But there are THREE different version of the Dr. Hichcock story, each a different cut with a different title:
• Raptus: The Secret Of Dr. Hichcock – the original Italian version
• The Horrible Dr. Hichcock – the 76-minute cut that played the States
• The Terror of Dr. Hichcock  – the 87-minute export version

Radiance Films has announced a Blu-Ray set for October that will pull together all three (with an English dub of the Italian version) and a huge batch of extras. All that and new 2K restorations, too. Recommended!

Blu-Ray News #332: Kid Galahad (1962).

Directed by Phil Karlson
Starring Elvis Presley, Gig Young, Lola Albright, Joan Blackman, Charles Bronson 

We named our daughter Presley, which just might indicate a bit of bias when it comes to Elvis. Keep that in mind.

Elvis’ film career might not have turned out quite the way anyone wanted (especially him), but he worked with some notable directors along the way — Michael Curtiz, Don Siegel, Gordon Douglas and Phil Karlson. It’s Karlson who gave us Kid Galahad (1962), which is coming to Blu-Ray in April from Sandpiper Pictures. This good news for those (like me) who missed the Twilight Time release a few years ago.

Lola Albright, Phil Karlson and Elvis on the set of Kid Galahad

Kid Galahad is a remake of the 1937 boxing picture starring Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart and Wayne Morris. Here, Karlson’s direction is typically tight, Elvis is good, Charles Bronson is cool and the songs are pretty good. Plus, it was shot by the great Burnett Guffey, which always warrants a Blu-Ray upgrade. Recommended.

A Night At The Movies, Halloween 1963.

Happy Halloween from Emporia, Kansas! I’m sorry, Howl-O-We’en.

This woulda been a good one. You’ve got Godzilla. You’ve got Christopher Lee in a Hammer pirate movie. And you’ve got an Italian monster movie shot (and partially directed) by Mario Bava!

Would’ve gone, but I wasn’t born yet.

Blu-Ray News #310: Marco Polo (1962).

Directed by Piero Pierotti (and Hugo Fregonese)
Starring Rory Calhoun, Yoko Tani, Camillo Pilotto

Early next year, Kino Lorber will bring Marco Polo (1962) to Blu-Ray. The English-language version included scenes directed by Hugo Fregonese. American International distributed it in the States with a new score by Les Baxter.

This one’s been hard to track down over the years (I’ve never seen it), so a nice hi-def version will be quite a treat.

Blu-Ray News #405: Hell Is For Heroes (1962).

Directed by Don Siegel
Starring Steve McQueen, Bobby Darin, Fess Parker, Harry Guardino, Bob Newhart, James Coburn, Nick Adams, LQ Jones

Steve McQueen and Don Siegel. How could Hell Is For Heroes (1962) not be great? 

Making the movie was hell, judging from stories you hear about the production.  Writer Robert Pirosh was to direct, but left after trying to deal with McQueen. Paramount cut the budget. McQueen threw his weight around, demanded rewrites and fought with Don Siegel. It was so hot in California in the summer of 1961, many scenes were shot at night to make things more comfortable. The prop machine guns didn’t like with the blank cartridges being used. And on and on.

But it’s a great film. The B&W cinematography of Harold Lipstein is remarkable. Siegel’s direction is as taught as always. And the performances are top-notch across the board.

And it’s finally making its way to Blu-Ray, thanks to the folks at Kino Lorber. Highly, highly recommended.

Blu-Ray News #402: Dr. No (1962).

Directed by Terence Young
Starring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, Jack Lord

Over the years, I’ve had the Connery Bond movies in about every format there is — film, Beta tape, laserdisc (three different editions of some of them), DVD and Blu-Ray. And while I don’t see that list getting any longer any time soon, this new package is really cool and worth looking at.

Dr. No (1962), the first in the series, is 60 years old. Time flies when you have a license to kill! A new 60th anniversary “steelbook” edition is one the way from MGM UK — and it’s a really terrific package.

The deluxe package gives you:
• Steelbook of Film on Blu-ray
• A Rigid Slipcase (good idea since those steelbook things scuff easily)
• Theatrical Poster
• New 32-Page Booklet
• Dragon Tank Buildable Board Figure
• 4 Lobby Card Reproductions and Envelope

The Dragon Tank model sounds like fun, and the cover reflecting Maurice Binder’s innovative title design (there’s a great story behind those) is a nice touch. If you don’t have Dr. No, this’d be a great way to get it. Coming in October.

Blu-Ray Review: The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm (1962).

Directed by Henry Levin (& George Pal)
Produced by George Pal
Screenplay by Charles Beaumont & William Roberts,
based on the stories of Wilhelm & Jacob Grimm
Cinematography: Paul Vogel
Film Editor: Walter Thompson
Special Effects: David Pal, Tim Barr, Wah Chang, Robert Hoag, Gene Warren
Music by Leigh Harline

Cast: Laurence Harvey (Wilhelm Grimm/The Cobbler), Karl Bohm (Jacob Grimm), Claire Bloom (Dorothea Grimm), Barbara Eden (Greta Heinrich), Yvette Mimieux (The Princess), Jim Backus (The King), Russ Tamblyn (The Woodsman/Tom Thumb), Buddy Hackett (Hans), Terry-Thomas (Ludwig), Beulah Bondi (The Gypsy), Ian Wolfe (Gruber)

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The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm premiered in the US in August of 1962, with the distinction of being “the first dramatic film in fabulous Cinerama” — shot and exhibited in the original three-panel format. Next came How The West Was Won (1962), again with the three-panel setup. (Grimm was actually shot after West.) These things were expensive to shoot and hard to exhibit, so beginning with It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), non-travelogue films for Cinerama exhibition were shot in things like 70mm Ultra Panavision.

The one time  I saw The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm was on laserdisc. And while I was thrilled to be seeing it in something widescreen-ish, the merging of the three Cinerama panels was a mess and incredibly distracting. I was not impressed, though Buddy Hackett and the dragon (my reason for watching it to begin with) really knocked me out. Hooray for Jim Danforth!

All these years later, a truly gargantuan restoration of The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm has come to Blu-Ray, and it’s a really remarkable thing. The picture had been declared un-restorable, its elements too far gone. Luckily, David Strohmaier and Tom H. March, the folks responsible for the Blu-Ray of How The West Was Won, really outdid themselves here to give Brothers Grimm a new lease on life. The panel lines are practically gone, the color’s near-perfect and it comes complete with overture, intermission and all the trimmings. Even a few glitches in the original effects have been repaired, not in a revisionary way — just a subtle patch here and there.


Producer George Pal used the story of Wilhelm (Laurence Harvey) and Jacob Grimm (Karl Bohm) as a backbone for a series of Grimm’s fairy tales: “The Dancing Princess,” “The Cobbler And The Elves” and “The Singing Bone.” It’s pretty ingenious, with some nice effects and beautiful locations, but you might could argue whether this was a good fit for the mammoth Cinerama screen.

The cast in impressive. Russ Tamblyn reprises his title role from Pal’s Tom Thumb (1958) and Yvette Mimieux had been in Pal’s The Time Machine (1960). Pal was able to revisit his Puppetoon days (above) for “The Cobbler And The Elves.” It’s interesting that Jim Backus, Buddy Hackett and Terry-Thomas would soon be back on the Cinerama screens in It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. 

For movie nerds like me, the real story is the miracle this Blu-Ray pulls off. The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm looks marvelous, whether you choose the standard widescreen version or the “smilebox” setup that approximates the feel of the curved screen (and gets rid of the odd bowl-shaped effect that comes with these three-panel films). The sound has been spiffed up, with plenty of punch. My favorite thing was the documentary, which shows just all the work, and all the technical whatzits, that were needed to get Pal’s picture looking better than ever. I’ve watched it twice.

As a movie, The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm is cute, but as an example of yesterday’s roadshow exhibition and today’s film restoration, it’s nothing short of a miracle. Highly, highly recommended.

Blu-Ray News #376: Night Creatures (AKA Captain Clegg, 1962).

 

Directed by Peter Graham Scott
Starring Peter Cushing, Yvonne Romain, Patrick Allen, Oliver Reed, Michael Ripper, David Lodge, Derek Francis, Jack MacGowran

Night Creatures (1962, known as Captain Clegg in the UK) is Hammer’s take on the story of Dr. Syn, with Peter Cushing terrific as the rum-smuggling vicar. Disney’s version, The Scarecrow Of Romney Marsh starring Patrick McGoohan, played TV around the same time. Scream Factory has announced that they’re bringing it out on Blu-Ray in April.

By whatever name, Night Creatures or Captain Clegg, this is an outstanding Hammer film. It’s become one of my favorites, and I’m sure Scream Factory will do it justice, with a stellar transfer and some nice extras. Can’t wait! Highly, highly recommended.