Stephen Schaefer’s Hollywood & Mine
As the scary season continues, cinema’s enduring scare classics offer a timely wallow for the night before All Souls Day and beyond. Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’ reinvigorated the genre and spawned a franchise. It was due to its clever use of horror conventions, a sparkling, spot-on cast—Drew Barrymore, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard and Rose McGowan– who got the tone exactly right. This 4K Ultra HD considers ‘A Bloody Legacy: Scream 25 Years Later,’ along with a commentary by Craven (who died in 2015) and writer Kevin Williamson and a Q&A with the cast and crew.
The 1940 ‘The Mad Doctor’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) with the always marvelous Basil Rathbone (a towering sword-wielding villain in ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood,’ a memorable Sherlock Holmes). Here, Basil’s a doctor who woos, weds and then murders a series of wealthy women. 
Then there’s Peter Lorre (‘The Maltese Falcon,’ ‘M’) in the 1935 ‘Mad Love’ (Blu-ray, WB Archive, Not Rated). This is the German émigré Lorre’s first American movie and is it a doozy! As Gogol, a plastic surgeon, Lorre goes crazy with ‘mad love’ for Yvonne, a Grand Guignol actress whose unlucky concert pianist husband Stephen (Colin Clive, the great Dr. Frankenstein) loses his hands in a train crash. Can Gogol help? He sneakily gives Stephen the cursed hands of a guillotined murderer. Soon those hands have, dare we say it, a life of their own. Play on!
Val Lewton’s enduring horror reputation rests on his ability to make much ado with little budgets in the 1940s with 3 classics: ‘Cat People,’ ‘I Walked with a Zombie’ and ‘The Leopard Man.’ Those highly profitable hits allowed Lewton to command full control in his filmmaking. This Blu-ray upgrade double bill has 1943’s ‘The Ghost Ship’ partnered with the Boris Karloff insane asylum vehicle, ‘Bedlam’ in ‘46 (Blu-ray, WB Archive, Not Rated). Karloff credited Lewton with ‘saving’ his career from endless iterations of his monstrous Frankenstein.
Finally, a pair of Sixties sci-fi horror thrillers have been given upgrades: ‘Children of the Damned’ from ’63 (Blu-ray, WB Archive, Not Rated) is truly a black-and-white classic as 6 gifted children, all fatherless, all from who knows where, pose a threat not just in England where they are but to the entire world. Special Feature: ’Children’ screenwriter John Briley’s commentary. 
As for the 1966 ‘Eye of the Devil’ (Blu-ray, WB Archive, Not Rated), it reteams the ‘Separate Tables’ English stars Deborah Kerr and David Niven (‘Tables’ was his Best Actor Oscar winner) who own a French chateau and discover not only are there witches, a warlock and a dozen hooded figures lurking – there’s life-or-death danger when a dry season arrives. For according to pagan traditions, the owner must then be sacrificed. Co-stars: a radiant Sharon Tate and ‘Blow-Up’ photographer David Hemmings.
NEW DVDs:
Matt Damon is in top form in Tom McCarthy’s ‘Stillwater’ (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Code, Focus, R). A whodunit, character study and morality tale, ‘Stillwater’ finds Damon’s Oklahoma construction worker in Marseilles, France, determined to reveal new evidence to free his imprisoned daughter (Abigail Breslin), convicted of murder. It’s a journey that’s ultimately bitterly enlightening if unexpected. Bonus Features: Featurettes on the film’s differing viewpoints, the French locations and McCarthy’s curiosity and compassion.
NOT INVINCIBLE A superior sequel, ‘Don’t Breathe 2’ (4K Ultra HD + Digital, Screen Gems, R) also changes the game dramatically in how it’s anti-hero, Stephen Lang’s blind Norman Nordstrom, is presented. In the 2016 entry, a sleeper hit, blind Vietnam vet Norman has trapped would-be burglars in his Detroit house, a lonely outpost in a decimated neighborhood. But from rooting for the clever guy as he disables and dispatches his would-be tormentors, we find real horror: Norman has held captive in his basement a woman to bear the ‘replacement’ baby that he’s lost. In the 8 years later ‘2,’ Norman is in a different house with a Rottweiler. He serves as guardian for 11 year old Phoenix. As mayhem, murder, kidnapping ensues Norman is tested – he no longer the invincible master of the first ‘Breathe’ — and Phoenix is flabbergasted to learn vital truths. Special Features: An alternate ending (!), the filmmakers’ audio commentary and a trio of featurettes.
SO MANY STARS Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the supreme Golden Age Hollywood film studio, proved it was no exaggeration to boast ‘More stars than there are in the Heavens’ with a now-classic 1933 film version of a Broadway hit: ‘Dinner at Eight’ (Blu-ray, WB Archive, Not Rated). Timely in its depiction of the upper-class victims of the Great Depression, ‘Dinner’ assembled a half-dozen A-listers for this serious comedy: Marie Dressler, the beloved Oscar-winning star of the 1930 ‘Min and Bill,’ two Barrymores, John and Lionel, the Oscar-winning Wallace Beery (the 1931 ‘The Champ’), Jean Harlow, the era’s legendary Platinum Blonde and reigning sex symbol until her premature death at 26, and Lee Tracy, the exuberant star of pre-Code Hollywood. Also, with Billie Burke (‘The Wizard of Oz’). Still packs snap, rattle and sting. Special Feature: the documentary ‘Harlow: The Blonde Bombshell’ hosted by Sharon Stone, a ‘Come to Dinner’ comedy short.
THE SCREEN’S FIRST LATIN LOVER Once upon a time, the whole world knew of Rudolph Valentino, the silent screen’s Latin Lover, who was idolized with a fan frenzy that endured for decades after his premature death at 31 in 1926. Valentino’s 1921 career-defining hit ‘The Sheik’ (Blu-ray, Paramount, Not Rated) ushered in rivals like Ramon Novarro (he would play Ben-Hur) and the not so romantic notions of a lover who swept a woman off her feet to take her to his tent! Upgraded to Blu-ray with Roger Bellon’s new musical score, there’s a new Special Feature: ‘Desert Heat: 100 Years with “The Sheik.”’
COPPOLA’S OTHER EPIC Besides the ‘Godfather’ trilogy, Frances Ford Coppola is justly praised for his great war epic ‘Apocalypse Now: Final Cut’ (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital, 2 discs, Lionsgate, R). Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam epic, freely adapted from Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novel “Heart of Darkness,’ is here fully restored from the then-controversial original. Coppola provides an introduction to ‘Final Cut’ and Best Buy is offering a limited edition Steelbook Package. A tumultuous production hit by a hurricane, its leading man Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack during filming and Marlon Brando, it’s marquee attraction in a reunion with the filmmaker who engineered his comeback with ‘The Godfather,’ showed up overweight and totally unprepared, forcing Coppola to film him in shadows. Coppola, as is his nature, has edited and re-edited the film over the decades. In 2019 for its 40th anniversary the 183-minute ‘Apocalypse Now: Final Cut’ was screened by the filmmaker at the Tribeca Film Festival. This is that preferred, ‘final’ version.
AMERICA’S MOST HONORED HERO ‘To Hell and Back’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) is the screen version of WWII hero Audie Murphy’s exploits. Murphy was just 17, a 5 foot 5, 150-pound Texas teenager when he went to war and over 7 campaigns beginning in North Africa through Italy and France became America’s most decorated soldier ever – not just in WWII but in all of American military history. He was reluctant to star in the movie ‘To Hell and Back.’ After all, he had lived it and, as the final line-up onscreen attests, many of his fellow soldiers had died in battle. But Universal, where he was under contract, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse – a hefty salary, extra pay as technical advisor and 10% of the profits, of which there were much. Until ‘Jaws’ in 1975 ‘To Hell and Back’ reigned for decades as Universal’s most profitable movie. If an unexpected box-office smash, the film, in Technicolor and Cinemascope, was praised for the reality of its war scenes – Murphy demanded that blood be shown when soldiers were shot, which immediately set a new standard in big screen violence. The exceptional, extraordinary bravery this Texas kid exhibited was not without repercussions. Murphy was plagued by depression, migraines and anxiety the rest of his life. He slept with a loaded gun under his pillow. There would be several gun incidents. He obviously suffered from PTSD until he died. By the time he made ‘To Hell,’ he was, in fact, a Hollywood star. His notable films range from starring in Graham Greene’s ‘The Quiet American,’ opposite James Stewart in ‘Night Passage,’ ‘The Guns of Fort Petticoat,’ which he produced, and John Huston’s 1951 version of Stephen Crane’s anti-war Civil War classic ‘The Red Badge of Courage.’ He would work with Huston again alongside Audrey Hepburn and Burt Lancaster in the 1960 ‘The Unforgiven.’ Murphy died in May 1971 in a private plane crash that also killed the pilot and 4 other passengers. He was 45. Among the supporting players: ‘60s ‘Fugitive’ star David Janssen and future ‘Imitation of Life’ Oscar nominee Susan Kohner. Special Feature: An audio commentary by ‘Combat Films: American Realism’ author Steven Jay Rubin and film historian Steve Mitchell.
NAZI TERROR The Nazis are back in ‘Counterpoint’ (Blu-ray, Universal, Not Rated), ready to kill … classical musicians. This 1967 adaptation of a 1960 Alan Sillitoe (‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’) novel called ‘The General,’ teams Charlton Heston and Germany’s Oscar-winning ‘Judgment at Nuremberg’ star Maximilian Schell. As WWII enters its final phase in December 1944, a symphony orchestra on a USO tour is captured by Nazis and imprisoned in a Belgian castle. They escape imminent execution because Schell’s general is passionate about classical music and demands a concert. But what happens when the applause ends as conductor and Nazi debate. The LA Philharmonic performs. Ralph Nelson (‘Lilies of the Field,’ ‘Father Goose,’ ‘Charly’) directs.
UP FROM ‘UNDER’-WORLD The war between werewolves and vampires was never more intense, violent or spectacularly successful than the horror film series ‘Underworld: Limited 5-Movie Edition’ (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital, Screen Gems, R or for extended versions Unrated). This box set with extended and theatrical versions of the 2003 hit that kick-started the series stars Kate Beckinsale as a lycan (werewolf) hunter and Scott Speedman as an endangered human. The biggest discovery: Vampires and lycans are spawn, mutated versions of the notorious Middle Ages’ Plague. Special Features: Director and cast commentaries, featurettes, the official movie graphic novel, 2 music videos, a 3-part animated series and a franchise recap. All this and 4K Ultra HD!
THE LEGENDARY MR B Dance remains elusive as each generation must learn from the past. George Balanchine, a classically trained Russian ballet dancer and choreographic genius, founded the New York City Ballet that exemplified a 20th century understanding. His decades of making ballet ripples with relevance into our 21st century. Connie Hochman’s invaluable and exhilarating documentary ‘In Balanchine’s Classroom’ (DVD, Kino Lorber, Not Rated) revisits Mr. B’s aura and era thru his former dancers. It’s a film that asks: What was his secret? Can it possibly be replicated, maintained, survive? Here is Balanchine, who died nearly 40 years ago in 1983 at 79, in never-before-seen footage in rehearsal, in class. Bonus: Additional scenes.
CAN TREES TALK? German forester Peter Wohlleben’s nonfiction bestseller ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ (Blu-ray, Capelight, Not Rated) is now a movie. The book, published in 40+ countries, explores the hidden world of the woods and offers a portrait of the man who talks to trees as well as nature. It’s a film that asks: Is it time to rediscover the forest?
TRAIN BOUND BRONSON Charles Bronson’s hulking physicality had been noticed since his mute Igor in the 1953 3-D hit ‘House of Wax.’ The ’67 ‘The Dirty Dozen’ solidified his rising star status, while in Europe he was already a star (he had turned down ‘A Fistful of Dollars,’ the film that launched Clint Eastwood). But it was as a revenge-driven father in the 1974 ‘Death Wish’ that made him a box-office giant. To his credit, Bronson resisted offers to do variations on ‘Death Wish’ for the rest of his career. A dapper detective in ‘Alistair Maclean’s Breakheart Pass’ (Blu-ray, MGM, PG) in 1975 Bronson must stop a conspiracy of gun-running profiteers while on a moving train in a wintry American West. The Rocky Mountains become a backdrop for a series of murders that climax with Bronson battling for his life on top of the moving locomotive. Bonus: An audio commentary.
LORETTA YOUNG’S NOIR Loretta Young became a star as a teenager in the silent era and remained one until her death at 87 in 2000. What’s remarkable was her ‘second wave’ of stardom in the late 1940s when she scored opposite Orson Welles in the Nazi-is-loose-among-us thriller ‘The Stranger,’ won a Best Actress Oscar for playing an outspoken Swede in ‘The Farmer’s Daughter,’ received another nomination as a nun in ‘Come to the Stable’ and made a holiday perennial with Cary Grant, ‘The Bishop’s Wife.’ As the star of 1949 noir ‘The Accused’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) Young’s college professor of psychology defends herself against a rapist (he’s also her student) by killing him. She first suffers with the fear she will be exposed. Then with the fear she will be tried and convicted. There’s an extensively researched commentary by Eddy Von Mueller.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3jSeyBD
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