Spanish Mono

Grapes of Wrath, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 15th, 2004

Synopsis

Henry Fonda is Tom Joad, returning home after serving four years in prison for killing aman. He arrives to find the farms of Oklahoma devastated by drought, and all the familiesdispossessed of their land. He and his family become part of the great migration from the DustBowl to the Eden of California. There they face exploitation, persecution and misery, andFonda’s rage at the injustice grows.

John Steinbeck’s enormous novel found a stunning screen incarnation in th…
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Good Son, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2004

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Synopsis

After the death of his mother, Elijah Wood is left with his uncle’s family while dad DavidMorse takes off for two weeks to settle their future. Uncle has two children: a little girl and anolder boy Wood’s age: Macaulay Culkin. Behind Culkin’s angelic visage, naturally, lurks thesoul of a devil. Wood suspects the evil, but no one will believe him, and so he is left alone totry to stop the increasingly deadly games his cousin is playing.

Director Joseph P. Ruben made …
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Starsky & Hutch – The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 5th, 2004

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So many people believe the “buddy cop” routine started with Lethal Weapon, or maybe Running Scared. Truth be told, Starsky and Hutch was quite a breakout from the cop shows of the time. The studio was picketed for the amount of violence portrayed, which by today’s standards wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.

This is typical 70’s from the film stock to the wardrobe. The unique Ford Grand Torino was so popular that Ford ended up manufacturing a limited number of the replicas. David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser had s…
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Queer as Folk – The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 3rd, 2004

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Synopsis

The title has two meanings. It works as both the common expression, meaning that peopleare strange (which the show certainly demonstrates). But it also presents the “queer” as “folk”:i.e. gay characters are, for once, realistic, ordinary human beings. This aspect goes a long waytoward explaining the series’ popularity. In this season, the continuing threads include apregnancy for Melanie and Lindsay, and the nasty politics surrounding the campaign of thecontroversial Mayor …
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Raquel Welch Collection, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 20th, 2004

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Synopsis

A more unapologetic objectification of the female form would be hard to find than thiscollection. The camera all but drools over the form of Raquel Welch. For some, that’s reasonenough to check out these films. Fortunately, they are each worth seeing for other reasons too.(And in one case, worth seeing for all the WRONG reasons.)

A remake of 1940’s One Million B.C., Hammer Studios’ One Million YearsB.C. (1967) gave the world what is arguably the most iconic b…
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Belles on their Toes

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 16th, 2004

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Synopsis

The tale is told in flashback as Myrna Loy witnesses the graduation of her youngest daughter.In this flashback, we see Loy, now recently widowed, struggling to keep her family together,even as various forces try to separate the twelve children. The sequel is even more sentimentalthan the original, and so even harder to take. So heartwarming, it makes The BradyBunch look like The Wages of Fear.

Audio

Urgh! Nasty audio. Not only do we ha…
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Cheaper by the Dozen

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 16th, 2004

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Synopsis

Efficiency expert Clifton Webb is the pater familias of 12 children. He runs his family ratherlike an industry, and is simultaneously loving, stern, eccentric, pompous and goofy. He moves hisbrood from Rhode Island to New Jersey, and we follow the family as they adapt to their newsurroundings, and the new surroundings adapt to them. The film is about as family-friendly asyou could possibly imagine, and is so determinedly warm-hearted it pursues the audience withthe implacab…
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Peyton Place

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 13th, 2004

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Synopsis

Welcome to Peyton Place, a charming New England town, and as picture-perfect a postcardof the 1950s as you could hope to fine. Except for all the rape, incest, and murder, that is. LanaTurner is the repressed mother trying to protect her daughter from the real world. Lee Philips isthe dashing new principle who courts Turner. Arthur Kennedy is the drunken janitor withunhealthy designs on his step-daughter. Russ Tamblyn is the quiet boy with the domineeringmother, and he year…
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Vanishing Point

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 31st, 2004

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Synopsis

Well, Vanishing Point is definitely a movie of the seventies. Don’t be deceived by the DVD case, which proclaims this to be “the Ultimate Car Chase Movie” – yes, there is certainly car chases, but this film is more art gallery than speed shop. To contextualize the film, it was originally released in 1971 – the Vietnam war was crawling towards defeat for the U.S., the summer of love had come and gone, and disaffection and disillusionment had become the twin staples of the America.

V…
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Black Widow

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 30th, 2004

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Synopsis

Theresa Russell seduces rich men by conforming to their dreams in terms of appearance andbehaviour, marries them, and then kills them. She thinks her means are undetectable. But JusticeDepartment investigator Debra Winger has noticed a pattern, and becomes obsessed withtracking Russell down. She follows her to Hawaii (where she is working on her latest target),befriends her, and the stage is set for a psychological chess game.

The idea is promising, but the executio…
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Planet of the Apes

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 24th, 2004

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Synopsis

An arrogant, misanthropic Charlton Heston leads a trio of astronauts who left Earth in 1972for a trip they expected to last some 900 years. 2000 years later, they crash-land on what theysuppose to be another planet. They encounter mute, primitive humans, but then are set upon bycivilized apes. Heston is the only survivor, and is befriended by ape scientists Roddy McDowalland Kim Hunter, who challenge the religious and scientific orthodoxy of their society bybelieving that a…
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Lost in Space – The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 16th, 2004

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If your only contact with the original series Lost In Space is the episodes available in syndication ala the Sci-Fi channel then you really don’t know Lost In Space. The first season was a lot different than the final two. The most noticeable difference is that the first season is in black and white. The stories are much less schlock and camp. More Star Trek than SpaceBalls. The cheesy rubber monsters are there, but the characters have a harsher edge to them.

As the season progressed through 29 episodes (Can you imagine having a 29 episode season!) the tone of the later series begins to come through.
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Born to Be Bad

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 3rd, 2004

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Synopsis

Loretta Young plays, from all available evidence, a high-class call girl. When her son isknocked down by a truck driven by milk industry tycoon Cary Grant (hardly the “dairy farmer”the blurb says he is), Young tries to extort a huge settlement from the company. The schemebackfires, and she loses custody of her son to Grant and his wife. But Young hasn’t given upyet…

A wildly improbable melodrama, which contorts itself with all kinds of dubious pretzel logic…
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My Darling Clementine

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 20th, 2003

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Synopsis

The Earp brothers, Wyatt (Henry Fonda), Morgan, Virgil and James, are herding their cattlepast the town of Tombstone, Arizona. The cattle are stolen and James is murdered. Ex-MarshallWyatt suspects the Clanton family, but lacks proof. He becomes Tombstone’s lawman, biding histime, waiting for the Clantons to make a mistake. While he waits, he strikes up a pricklyfriendship with the cynical Doc Holliday (Victor Mature). The tension between the two men isintensified by…
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Warner Legends Collection

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 21st, 2003

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Synopsis

The titles and the stars speak for themselves: Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone and Olivia deHavilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood; James Cagney in Yankee DoodleDandy; Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Of the three,Yankee Doodle Dandy, a musical biopic of singer/dancer/songwriter George M. Cohan,is the one that has been treated the least kindly by the years. Its front and centre flag-waving canbe a bit much, though Cagney’s trem…
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I Love Lucy Season One, Volumes 7-9

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 14th, 2003

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Synopsis

Each disc contains four episodes of the series, moving forward in the order they wereoriginally broadcast (so volume 9 ends gets us as far as episode 35). These are valuable historicaldocuments of TV’s pioneer days, and the show, at the time, was hugely impressive from aproduction standpoint in that it used multiple cameras (and employed such luminaries aslegendary cameraman Karl Freund). I’ll admit Lucille Ball’s style of slapstick doesn’t do muchfor me, but I guess I just…
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Mark of Zorro, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

Returning to California after some years in Spain, Don Diego de Vega (Tyrone Power) finds that hisfather has been deposed and that the region is ruled by a venal, corrupt governer under the thumbof tyrannical lieutenant Basil Rathbone. Pretending to be a useless fop by day, Diego dons maskand sword by night as Zorro, fighting for the liberation of the poor and the downtrodden. Powerspends surprisingly little time in the Zorro get-up, and the climactic duel comes earlier than …
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National Lampoon’s Vacation

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 26th, 2003

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It’s hard to imagine that it’s been 20 years since the Griswald family packed up the Family Truckster and stumbled their way halfway across the country to Wally World.Truth be told, I am not much of a Chevy Chase fan. I often find his buffoon act trying and old, but the Vacation films are a notable exception. With today’s political correctness it’s doubtful that the family dog would meet such a horribly funny end (Before you write to tell me how cruel I am, I own a Siberian husky who is loved no matter how much trouble she gets into).
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House of Wax / Mystery of the Wax Museum

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 5th, 2003

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Synopsis

The plot of both films is identical: a meticulous sculptor of wax figures has his life and workdestroyed in a fire set by an unscrupulous business partner. Years later, now confined to awheelchair and deprived the use of his hands, the sculptor is back in business. This time, thewaxworks are made by murdering people and dipping their bodies in wax. Lionel Atwill playsthe sculptor in 1933’s Mystery of the Wax Museum, while Vincent Price takes over in1953. Both films w…
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Titanic

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 3rd, 2003

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Synopsis

Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck are an estranged couple aboard the Titanic. In ahilariously caricatured Europe vs US conflict, he is elitist snob, and she is the paragon ofMidwestern values, fighting to save her children from corruption. Naturally, Webb will redeemhimself once the ship starts sinking. Though the focus on these two characters gives the storya firm centre, the result is very soap-operatic. The sinking scenes in the last 30 minutes are good,but very sanitize…
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Chaplin Collection Volume 1, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 30th, 2003

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Synopsis

Chaplin’s career was a long one, and the four films here cover a good span. Chaplin is bestknown for his silent work, and that is represented by Modern Times and The GoldRush. Though the former is also technically his first talkie, it is still primarily silent. Thelatter comes in two versions: the original 1925 release, and the 1942 re-issue, which featured afew new scenes, and the intertitles replaced by Chaplin’s narration (though the film remainsbasically a…
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Inn of the Sixth Happiness, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

Based on the life of Gladys Aylward, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness features IngridBergman as Aylward (granted, Bergman’s accent makes her an unlikely Englishwoman, but shealso played a cockney wench in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, so what the hell). Desperate to be amissionary, but turned down by the society she approaches, Bergman makes her own way toChina, where her extreme goodness soon wins over everyone in sight. At the climax, during theJapanese invasion of China, she must…
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Never On Sunday

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 11th, 2003

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Melina Mercouri plays Illia, a character who makes prostitution seem like a carefree Utopia.She lives in a version of Greece where there only appear to be 5 women, and they are all ladies of the night. Into this extraordinarily male fantasy comes Jules Dassin, a deluded American idealist who wants to save Illia from herself. Naturally, he doesn’t have a hope, and Greek enthusiasm (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding on steroids) will inevitably overcome his anti-fun attitudes. Obviously, the picture has dated quite noticeably, and makes Pretty Woman look like a gritty expose.
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Undefeated, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 6th, 2003

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Synopsis

The Civil War has just ended. In fact, John Wayne leads a Union assault on the Confederacythree days after the surrender — it takes that long for the news to reach him. Disgusted by brokenpromises, Wayne heads for greener pastures in Mexico, as does former Confederate colonel RockHudson. Their paths inevitably cross, and they become allies against forces that threatenboth.

Audio

Here’s a puzzler. The other recent John Wayne films from Fox (The Big …
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North to Alaska

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 6th, 2003

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Synopsis

John Wayne and Stewart Granger strike it rich in Alaska during the gold rush. Wayne travelsdown to Seattle to fetch Granger’s fiancee, but discovers she has already married another man.Wayne, who has no use for romance himself (you can see where this is heading), convincesnightclub performer Capucine to return to Alaska with him as a potential wife for Granger. Thetone is light and rollicking, with the mood set by a barnstormer of a bar fight in the openingscene. Great fun….
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