Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 10th, 2004
Synopsis
During World War II, Walt Disney threw the resources of his studio behind the war effort.The result is what we see here: a massive collection of animated shorts serving to boost morale,educate and propagandize, plus a feature-length argument for long-range bombing. I’m assumingI know have your attention.
Disc 1 breaks its short features down into three categories: “Propaganda and EntertainmentShorts,” “Educational Shorts” and “From the Vault.” The familiar Disney ch...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 7th, 2004
Synopsis
In 1957, the British studio Hammer, having already produced a number of classic SFthrillers, turned to gothic horror, which had been effectively dead since 1946, and brought it backwith a vengeance. Their revolutionary entry was The Curse of Frankenstein (****1/2),which introduced colour, gore and sex to the classic horror formula, and made Peter Cushing (asFrankenstein) and Christopher Lee (as the Creature) into stars. Unlike the Universal Frankensteinfilms of the 3...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 6th, 2004
Synopsis
This is a fascinating collection, but be warned that this isn’t a “Best Of” by any means. Thereis no Duck Soup here. After leaving Paramount, the Marx Brothers moved to MGM,where (as we learn in the commentaries), studio head Irving Thalberg gave their movies a newform: big, lavish production numbers, and more linear plots.
With the first effort, A Night at the Opera (1935) (****), this approach producedwonders. The formula for all the other films in t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 3rd, 2004
The Monsters of Universal Studios during the 1930’s to the 1950’s truly are a legacy. This collection, while including many films already released, is an important set. Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster, and Lon Chaney’s tortured Larry Talbot/The Wolfman have inspired generations of filmmakers, writers, and f/x engineers. The influence on our culture is impossible to deny. When asked about Frankenstein, most of us conjure the classic Karloff image long before we think of Mary Shelley or any ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 28th, 2004
Synopsis
Denzel Washington dons a reasonably credible English accent as Reuben James, who lefthis urban blight of a home to join the military. Six years after the Falklands, he returns home,and finds things in a greater shambles than before, with drugs, theft, and corrupt, racist policeeverywhere. Alienated on all sides, Reuben is pushed closer and closer to the edge. An explosionof violence is inevitable.
It must be said, however, that the violence feels as if its being hel...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 27th, 2004
Synopsis
King Xerxes of Persia marches on Greece with his vast army. Greece’s city states are asquabbling, disunited bunch, but Athens and Sparta lead the way to co-operate against thecommon enemy. King Leonidas of Sparta (Richard Egan) must hold the pass of Thermopylae,but Spartan politics mean he has but 300 men to stand against Xerxes’ thousands. So begins oneof the most famous battles of antiquity.
The battle scenes are entertaining and easy to follow, though hardly eart...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 22nd, 2004
I remember all of the controversy and discussion that was stirred up when Judy Dench won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love. It’s not that the public felt that she didn’t do a great job, it’s just that she was only in the film for approximately six minutes. What’s more, Cate Blanchette was in a film called Elizabeth that same year, in which she played the same historical figure, and was nominated for the role of Best Actress, which sh...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 20th, 2004
Synopsis
Cliff Robertson is a US Lieutenant who had planned to make it through WWII as a radiooperator and translator, and see no action. He is less than pleased when Henry Fonda dispatcheshim to the New Hebrides to accompany a rag-tag squad of disaffected British soldiers (and noneare more disaffected than Michael Caine) on what may very well be a suicide mission. Leadingthe squad is Denholm Elliott, a brave but incompetent officer, and bit by bit, the mission goeswrong. Eventually...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 19th, 2004
Synopsis
John Carradine, playing real-life author R. Chetwynd-Hayes (on whose book the movie isvery loosely based), is ambushed by vampire Vincent Price. Price drains only a bit of his blood,and upon realizing that he has met his favourite author, invites Carradine for drinks at theMonster Club. Here Price spins a trio of tales: a young woman ill-advisedly plans to steal froma lonely “shadmock” (a creature with a fatal whistle); a family-man vampire is stalked byunpleasantly bureauc...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 19th, 2004
Synopsis
Steve McQueen is JR Bonner, rodeo rider who has left his prime behind. Thrown by a bullas the film begins, he returns to his home town for a rematch with the same animal. Hisfamily is a bit of a mess: brother Curly (Joe Don Baker) is a greedy businessman takingadvantage of his parents; father Ace (Robert Preston) is a drinker and a dreamer; and mother IdaLupino stands strong through it all, stoically dealing with the stupidities of the men in herlife.
If one were...
