Dialogue Of The Day: The Wrong Box (1966).

Bryan Forbes’ The Wrong Box (1966) is a very funny movie — a terrific cast in a very dark comedy of errors. It’s a shame it’s not better known, and it seems unfair that it played the UK in Technicolor, but Columbia released it in the States in Eastmancolor.

Michael Finsbury (Michael Caine): I never knew my parents. They were killed in a balloon ascension.

Julia Finsbury (Nanette Newman): Well, I only knew mine vaguely. My father was a missionary. He was eaten by his Bible class.

Michael Finsbury: Your mother?

Julia Finsbury: She too. They never eat one without the other.

4K News #382: Get Carter (1971).

Directed by Mike Hodges
Starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, Britt Ekland, John Osborne, Tony Beckley

It’s good to see older films still getting attention from video companies. The BFI has announced a 4K Blu-Ray (from the camera negative) of Mike Hodges’ Get Carter (1971) for later this year. What a movie.

Blu-Ray News #354: The Harry Palmer Collection (1965-1967).

Here in the States, the Harry Palmer films are available on Blu-Ray from two different companies (Kino Lorber has two, Warner Archive has one) — each film was originally released through a different studio. The folks at Imprint out of Australia have managed to scoop ’em all up and put them in a single package. But however you pack these things, they’re essential.

The Ipcress File (1965)
Directed by Sidney J. Furie
Starring Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd, Gordon Jackson, Stanley Meadows

Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman gave us an anti-Bond with Harry Palmer, based on Len Deighton’s novels. Michael Caine was perfectly cast as the sarcastic spy — caught up in a scheme to kidnap and brainwash noted scientists.

I was 10 and had just gotten my first pair of eyeglasses when I came across The Ipcress File, and a smartass secret agent with glasses and a machine gun (and Sue Lloyd) gave me hope. Maybe it was going to be OK after all. I love this film. But don’t take it from me, the BFI named it one of the 100 best British films of the 20th century.

Funeral In Berlin (1966)
Directed by Guy Hamilton
Starring Michael Caine, Paul Hubschmid, Oskar Homolka, Eva Renzi, Guy Doleman

Palmer is sent to Germany to arrange the defection of a Russian intelligence officer. Things get weird. This one was directed by Guy Hamilton, who’d just done Goldfinger (1964). Given the different tones of the two films, you’d never know. 

Billion Dollar Brain (1967)
Directed by Ken Russell
Starring Michael Caine, Karl Malden, Ed Begley, Oskar Homolka, Françoise Dorléac, Guy Doleman 

A half-dozen eggs containing a deadly virus are stolen from a British research facility. Palmer, no longer part of MI5, is hired to bring them back. Before long, he’s back in MI5 and trying to bring down a supercomputer while recovering the eggs. The great Andre de Toth worked on this one as an executive producer; he’d later direct Caine in the underrated Play Dirty (1968).

Of course, Imprint is giving these their usual wealth of extras, from commentaries and interviews to trailers, stills and more. Even isolated tracks for the scores. Have all three together, and with all this extra stuff, is a really big deal. Coming in September. Can’t wait!

Blu-Ray News #325: The Man Who Would Be King (1975).

Directed by John Huston
Starring Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, Saeed Jaffrey

When Sean Connery passed away in October, one of the things I heard a lot was “It really stinks you can’t get The Man Who Would Be King on Blu-Ray.” Well, technically you could, if you were willing to pay crazy collector prices for it. Luckily, Warner Archive is righting that wrong in January with a re-issue.

Connery, Michael Caine and director John Huston really knocked it out of the park with this one. Huston had been trying to make it for over 20 years, and both Connery and Caine said it was their favorite of their own films. It’s a near-perfect adventure movie and it holds up remarkably well — and the cinematography by Oswald Morris will look splendid on Blu-Ray. Highly, highly recommended.

Blu-Ray News #292: The Ipcress File (1965).

Directed by Sidney J. Furie
Starring Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd, Gordon Jackson, Stanley Meadows

Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray of the third, and last, Harry Palmer film, Billion Dollar Brain(1967), was very nice. And I’m so glad to hear they’re coming through with the first one, The Ipcress File (1965). I love this film.

I was 10 and had just gotten my first pair of eyeglasses when I came across The Ipcress File, and a smartass secret agent with glasses and a machine gun (and Sue Lloyd) gave me hope. Maybe it was going to be OK after all.

DVD/Blu-Ray News #180: The Black Windmill (1974).

Directed by Don Siegel
Starring Michael Caine, Donald Pleasence, Delphine Seyrig, Clive Revill, Janet Suzman, John Vernon

Kino Lorber has announced an upcoming DVD and Blu-Ray release of Don Siegel’s The Black Windmill (1974). Often called a misfire, this Michael Caine spy picture has been on my Wanna See list for a very, very long time.

Not sure when this is coming out, but I can’t wait. And while I can’t give it a real recommendation, there’s the simple fact that Don Siegel directed it (coming between 1973’s Charley Varrick and The Shootist from 1976). That should be recommendation enough. (If Don Siegel directed an instructional film about dental hygiene, I’d want to see it.)

Thanks to (fellow Siegel nut) John Knight for the tip.

RIP, Lewis Gilbert.

Lewis Gilbert (left) directs Sean Connery and Donald Pleasance in You Only Live Twice

Lewis Gilbert
(March 6, 1920 – February 23, 2018)

Lewis Gilbert, who directed the underrated James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967), has passed away at 97. In a couple more weeks, we would’ve been 98. You Only Live Twice gets a lot of flack, but to me it’s a knockout — from the incredible sets by Ken Adam to one of John Barry’s best Bond scores to the fact that Sean Connery hits a guy with a sofa! It’s big, loud and a bit obnoxious, and I love it.

He also directed the hip and influential Michael Caine movie Alfie (1966). Then there’s the terrific Sink The Bismark! (1960), with Kenneth Moore, Dana Wynter, Michael Hordern and some outstanding model work — all in black and white CinemaScope. It’s just a great thing all-around.

Making Movies: A Bridge Too Far (1977).

I was lucky enough to attend a special screening of A Bridge Too Far (1977) here in Raleigh, North Carolina, when it first opened. I was 13. The guy James Caan played, Staff Sergeant Dohun, was there — and he was not happy that Caan dropped an F Bomb in one scene.

Plastic commandoes ready to litter the bridge.

Watching and waiting — something that happened in both 1944 and 1977.

(Sir) Michael Caine (as John Ormsby Evelyn ‘JOE’ Vandeleur) and director (Sir) Richard Attenborough.

Shooting the harrowing sequence where Robert Redford (as Major Julian Cook) and his men cross the river in flimsy assault boats. “Hail Mary, full of grace…”

James Caan with a VW Thing doubling as a Kubelwagen.

I’ve always had a soft spot for A Bridge Too Far. It’s one of the last truly epic war movies, with a few jaw-dropping scenes here and there. And it was a huge moviegoing experience for me. Cornelius Ryan’s book is terrific, too.

The Harry Palmer File.

Kino Lorber’s recent Blu-ray release of the third, and last, Harry Palmer film, Billion Dollar Brain (1967), got me thinking about the series as a whole.* They made a huge impression on me as a kid, and it’s about time to revisit them. Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman gave us an anti-Bond with Harry Palmer, based on Len Deighton’s novels. Michael Caine was perfectly cast as the sarcastic spy.

So where are they on video? Here in the States, they’re kind of a mess. Ken Russell’s Billion Dollar Brain, of course, has this new Blu-ray. The second, Funeral In Berlin (1966) from Guy Hamilton, is available from Warner Archive in an exact copy of the old Paramount DVD. But the first one, Sidney J. Furie’s The Ipcress File (1965)? You can get it on Blu-ray all around the world, but it’s been missing in the US since the Anchor Bay DVD went out of print a decade ago (hard to believe DVDs have been with us that long).

I was 10 and had just gotten my first pair of eyeglasses when I came across The Ipcress File, and a smartass secret agent with glasses and a machine gun (and Sue Lloyd) gave me hope. Maybe it was going to be OK after all.

A post on The Ipcress File is in the works.

* I don’t count the two non-theatrical Palmer/Caine films of the 90s.