Stephen Schaefer’s Hollywood & Mine
‘The Court Jester’ (Blu-ray, Paramount, Not Rated), now beautifully remastered for Blu-ray with a 6K film transfer from the original VistaVision negative, stands very tall, It’s the high point in Danny Kaye’s celebrated legacy (1911-1987). A remarkably multitalented actor-singer-comedian-dancer whose specialty was intricately constructed patter songs delivered nonstop at high speed, Kaye became a movie star in the mid-1940s. His hits, often in Technicolor, include ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,’ ‘The Inspector General,’ ‘White Christmas’ with Bing Crosby and the biopic ‘Hans Christian Anderson.’ ‘The Court Jester’ (‘55) ranks as his best, a musical medieval satirical romantic comedy that is crazy clever but able to be appreciated by tots who’ve not yet learned how to read.
The real magicians in this saga of potions, spells, double identities and a dozen dwarfs riding to the rescue are the writing, producing and directing dynamic duo Melvin Frank and Norman Panama (the Cary Grant classic ‘Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,’ the bubbly Italian comedy ‘Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell’ which seemingly morphed into ‘Mamma Mia!’). At the time ‘Jester’ was the most expensive comedy, nearly $4 million, ever made and was co-produced by Kaye and his wife Sylvia Kaye. As was customary, she contributed songs for the film. Both a spoof of medieval movie conventions and a rollicking adventure, ‘Court Jester’ has — yet again — Kaye in dual roles. He’s buttressed by an outstanding cast — Angela Lansbury and Glynis Johns, both still with us, Basil Rathbone, forever beloved as Sherlock Holmes and the sword-fighting villain of ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ and ‘The Mark of Zorro.’ There’s Mildred Natwick’s scene-stealing sorceress and the famous patter about a planned homicide: ‘The pestle with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle. The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.’ Bonus: A new consideration of ‘Court Jester’ by Leonard Maltin.
NEW DVDs:
RIDING AN ICE AGE For ‘Snowpiercer: The Complete First Season’ (Blu-ray + Digital Code, TNT, Not Rated), the triumph was to transform ‘Parasite’ Oscar winner Bong Joon Ho’s 2013 sci-fi thriller to weekly television. An elaborate concept – the only humans left on Earth during a New Ice Age have sought refuge on a speeding train with 1,001 cars that never stops crisscrossing the globe – has worked with a diverse cast led by Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs. Special Features: Overview, Class Warfare, Jennifer & Daveed Behind the Scenes interview, Behind the Curtain: Art of the Frozen World.
DOOMED? NOT AT ALL ‘Doom Patrol: The Complete Second Season’ (Blu-ray, DC WB, Not Rated) continues the exploits of this DC Super Hero team. Its 6 members – among them are Brendan Fraser as Cliff Steele, Diane Guerrero as Jane and Matt Bomer’s Larry Trainor — began as each of them achieved their powers through tragedy and are consequently shunned by society. They are treated by the Chief (ex-007 Timothy Dalton) in his expansive mansion. While S1 meant trying to rescue the kidnapped Chief, it also uncovered disturbing revelations. This S2 introduces the Chief’s daughter Dorothy whose power is the ability to bring her pretend friends to actual life! Wouldn’t you know it – Dorothy actually makes things worse for everyone if she unleashes an ancient and very dangerous entity. Special Features: ‘Doom Patrol – The Magic of Makeup’ and ‘Doom Patrol S2: Come Visit Georgia PSA.’
BLOOMING INSPIRATION Director and co-writer Diane Paragas gives ‘Yellow Rose’ (DVD, Sony, PG-13) a gritty authenticity that carries its aspiring showbiz make or break story. Rose Garcia (Eva Noblezada, a Tony nominee for the Broadway revival of ‘Miss Saigon’), an undocumented Filipina, wants more than anything to get out of her Texas small town and be a country singing star. Then her mom (‘Miss Saigon’ Broadway veteran Lea Salonga) is arrested and taken by the Immigration Enforcement. Rose flees to Austin and must decide where her future lies. Practically all the songs are written by Christopher Hoyt Knight. A long overdue Filipina-American film release from a major Hollywood studio.
THREE NEO-NOIRS The 1944 ‘The Suspect’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) showcases England’s Oscar-winning Charles Laughton. His versatility, whether playing kings (‘The Private Life of Henry VIII’), lawyers (‘Witness for the Prosecution’), the handicapped (‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’) and evil martinets (‘Mutiny on the Bounty’) had made this doughy character actor a box-office star. In ‘Suspect,’ a Victorian-era suspenser directed by the great German émigré Robert Siodmak (‘The Killers,’ ‘The Spiral Staircase’) and now given a brand new 2K master, Laughton’s meek, henpecked accountant is the prime suspect when his hideous wife ‘accidentally’ dies. His (innocent?) infatuation with a lovely young woman (Ella Raines) presents a motive leading to the question: Will Scotland Yard hang the wrong man? Bonus: An invigorating audio commentary. Also in a brand new 2K upgrade, the aptly titled ‘So Evil My Love’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated). Here a good woman (Britain’s Ann Todd) is seduced by her criminally inclined boarder (Ray Milland, Wilder’s ‘The Lost Weekend,’ Hitchcock’s ‘Dial M for Murder’). Enticed to steal blackmailing material from a wealthy friend, Todd finds herself enmeshed in murder. Milland epitomizes this suave sleazebag, effortlessly. Imogen Sara Smith offers a most marvelous commentary.
And from Universal Pictures in ’65 comes another Victorian suspenser, the TV movie ‘Dark Intruder’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) with Leslie Nielsen (‘Airplane!’ ‘Forbidden Planet,’ ‘Tammy and the Bachelor’) as Brett Kingsford, an intrepid millionaire amateur crime sleuth in 1890 San Francisco. 
Amid a gruesome series of murders with suggestions of the occult, Kingsford’s friend (Peter Mark Richman, who died just last week at 93) becomes a leading suspect as he lapses into trances and is connected to the victims. Directed by the well-regarded Harvey Hart (‘Bus Riley’s Back in Town’), ‘Dark Intruder’ has also been given a brand new 2K master upgrade. There’s an audio commentary and an interview with makeup maestro Mike Westmore of the famed Westmore Hollywood dynasty.
IT’S SAMMY DAVIS JR! Ripe for reassessment is the versatile ‘Mr. Showbiz’ Sammy Davis, Jr., who could literally do it all – act, sing, dance, impressions, Broadway, movies, clubs. Today he’s known for his Rat Pack era, swinging through the Swinging Sixties with Vegas cronies Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford. Davis, of course, was a Black entertainer who began at 3, a child prodigy in segregated America. He survived a deadly auto crash but lost an eye, was active in the civil rights era and became a barrier-busting figure when he married Swedish actress Mai Britt in 1960. In 1965 he published his best-selling autobiography ‘Yes I Can.’
While Davis starred in Rat Pack movies (‘Ocean’s 11’) and opposite Sidney Poitier in the Gershwin musical ‘Porgy and Bess’ 2 of his serious drams have been given brand new 2K upgrades: ‘Anna Lucasta’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) is a 1958 starring vehicle for the inimitable ‘sex kitten’ Eartha Kitt whose Anna is a hooker and Davis her streetwise sailor. It’s actually a remake of a 1949 Paulette Goddard movie, given new purpose with its racial switch. ‘A Man Called Adam’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) from 1966 has Davis’ Adam a self-destructive jazz cornetist, stymied by racism, alcoholism, ill health and persistent guilt over the death of his wife and child. With his bitter personality Adam is a trial to his friends (Ossie Davis) as he begins what looks to be a blighted or at the least troubled romance (with Cicely Tyson!). Musical appearances by Mel Torme, Frank Sinatra Jr., Louis Armstrong are here to perhaps counter Adam’s depressing downward slide. Directed by Leo Penn, Sean’s dad.
LET US NOW SALUTE ‘In Case of Emergency’ (DVD, Kino Lorber, Not Rated) is Carolyn Jones’ latest documentary, focusing on the all-important, continually stressed emergency room in hospitals big and small. We learn that nearly half of all medical care in the US is delivered in the ER. That by itself is both astonishing and disturbing. And who are the first line of care there? Nurses. Jones (previous docs ‘The American Nurse,’ ‘Defining Hope’) follow ER nurses in 7 locations. Made possible, the packaging notes, with the support of the Emergency Nurses Assn. In English and Spanish with optional English subtitles. Bonus: Q&A.
EXCITEMENT IN 3-D Film fans know that America’s 3-D craze, meant to lure moviegoers from their ‘free’ shows on TV, briefly existed as a Hollywood craze from 1952-54. An early hit was ‘House of Wax’ (’53) which crowned Vincent Price as the Mad King of horror movies and made studios see they could get moviegoers out of the living room. ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ (‘54) may be the most famous 3-D movie but it was only in urban areas that it was seen 3-dimensionally. Other prominent 3-D hits: ‘It Came From Outer Space,’ the Broadway Cole Porter musical ‘Kiss Me Kate’ (released in both standard and 3-D formats), sand tar vehicles like John Wayne’s stunning western ‘Hondo’ and Rita Hayworth’s ‘Miss Sadie Thompson.’ The most curious 3-D entry is Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Dial M for Murder’ which was never seen in the Fifties this way. A big hit, ‘Dial M’ was released in the standard 2-D format until the ‘90s when it became an arthouse specialty hit and has continued to highlight 3-D film festivals. 
Newly released on Blu-ray is Budd Boetticher’s 3-D western ‘Wings of the Hawk’ (’53) (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) with Van Heflin and Julia Adams (the star of ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’) as a guerilla leader during the Mexican Revolution in 1910. This Special Edition includes both 2-D and 3-D versions as well as ‘Hypnotic Hick,’ a Woody Woodpecker 3-D cartoon. There’s an audio commentary by ace film historian Jeremy Arnold and a 20-minute audio commentary by 3-D expert Mike Ballew
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3iz2dAA
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