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The Great Escape

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I don’t know if this will lose me any “cred,” not that I should worry about that with all the imposter syndrome I have anyway, but I have a little theory about three-hour-long movies I’d like to share with you. Simply put, if your movie is going to be in the ballpark of three hours or more, you’d best have a good reason for it, and it’d best not feel like a three-hour movie. “Anatomy of a Murder” is the one I always point to as my example, it feels like it’s an hour and a half, not nearly three.   It’s been a good stretch of years since I last saw director John Sturges’s wonderful 1963 film “The Great Escape.” When the wonderful new blu-ray edition by The Criterion Collection showed up at my doorstep, I was quite surprised looking over the back of the case to see the film was almost exactly three hours long. My memory of watching the movie was not of a three-hour movie, maybe one that was two at the most. As I watched “The Great Escape” yesterday afternoon, I was reminded
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The Grand Budapest Hotel

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People tend to be split on the work of filmmaker Wes Anderson, folks either don’t care for his unique, inventive worlds, or they’re all in on them. I, am the latter, and have been ever since “Rushmore” came out in 2002, though I don’t think I fully fell in love with his work until “The Life Aquatic” in 2004. The Criterion Collection has recently issued a wonderful new blu-ray of Anderson’s 2014 film “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which I hadn’t seen since it first hit theaters.   “Grand Budapest” features many from familiar faces, several from the “Wes Anderson repertory” in its large cast. Throughout the course of the film’s 100 minutes running time you’ll see: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody, William DeFoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Edward Norton, and Jason Schwartzman. Set In Europe, largely during the 1930s, “Grand Budapest” tells the story of a charming concierge at an opulent hotel who is soon framed for the murder of
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Detour

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    I was familiar with director Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1945 bleak noir “Detour” in name only. The film was from PRC, a poverty row studio that specialized in low-budget, bargain basement B-films. “Poverty Row” is a term used for studios of the classic Hollywood era that did just that—low-budgets with no name stars. As with most movies released by PRC, “Detour” is in the public domain, which is why I’ve seen the title in the countless budget bin DVD releases of Noir films that people have gifted me over the years—often with prints that were rough to watch and missing frames.     However, that changes with a new blu-ray edition of “Detour” from The Criterion Collection that features a stunning 4K digital restoration of the film made by The Motion Picture Academy and The Film Foundation, with funding from The George Lucas Family Foundation. The film looks stunning, and I was especially happy to see one of the bonus features showing the years-long effort into restoring the film.     “Det
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The Kid Brother

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   This past December I took a short drive down to Knoxville to see a 16mm screening of the seminal Film Noir “Out of the Past.” The movie was at Central Cinema, a really cool indie theater that opened up last Fall down there. Before the film, there was the added bonus of silent comedy shorts from Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd. Before the program began, the gentleman hosting it asked those gathered who their favorite of the three were.       The majority of the group was all in for Keaton, with a few for Chaplin, and much to my surprise, I was the lone member who cited Lloyd as his favorite. That changed that day, as the Lloyd short that played—and I forget the name of it—got a huge reaction from the crowd. It was a lot of fun seeing Lloyd on the big screen for the first time, and also with an audience. Though Lloyd is my favorite of the silent comedians—with Keaton at a close second—I still haven’t seen a great deal of his existing filmography.       Luc
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The 13th Knight

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    As February comes to close I bring you a look at two recent releases from Warner Archive, both of which cover two quite different kinds of material. First up is a blu-ray of “The Blue Knight” the 1973 TV mini-series that pioneered the concept of “Novels for Television” and stars one of the greatest actors of the screen, William Holden. Then, Warner Archive brings us a double feature DVD with two versions of the stage mystery “The 13th Chair.” One version is an early talking picture from 1929, and the other is a late ‘30s version with a number of familiar faces.       Based off Joesph Wambaugh’s novel of the same name, “The Blue Knight” was a “major television event” (when was the last time you heard that phrase?) broadcast by NBC in November of 1973. The TV movie/mini-series starred William Holden, making his first major appearance on TV in years, alongside an amazing cast that included: Lee Remick, a VERY young Sam Elliott, and future Mrs. Peacock Eileen Brennan. Holden p
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The Diary of the Twelve Days of Christmas: Revised

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December 25 Dear Diary,     Here we are, Christmas day! My wife and I have had a wonderful Christmas! We had a marvelous meal and enjoyed spending time with family and friends. We're doing something different, however, we're going to roll our gifts out over the 12 days of Christmas. Should be exciting, and perhaps let that Christmas spirit last longer. Today I was given a beautiful pear tree, with a partridge on the top of it. The cat is having a fit over the bird, and I'm trying to figure out where in the yard to put the tree.  December 26 Dear Diary,     Today my wife gave me two turtle doves, they're getting along just fine with the partridge. I didn't really ever think I'd have any birds in my lifetime, but now I have three. They're pretty, and they sing well. The cat drools when he walks by them. We're keeping them as far away from him as possible, I have to run to PetSmart and buy bird feed.  December 27 Dear Diary,
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The Beast with Five Fingers

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    During the golden age of Hollywood, one studio held the monopoly on horror films. That studio was Universal, who between the 1920s and the 1950s released a steady stream of films featuring some of the most popular and iconic monsters in movie history. Seeing the success Universal was having with their horror offerings, other studios would occasionally take a shot at trying to grab some of the horror going audience.       Warner Brothers’ 1946 horror/mystery film “The Beast with Five Fingers” was that studio’s only attempt at anything in the horror genre during the entire 1940s. Headed by a cast that included Robert Alda, Andrea King, and Peter Lorre—in this last film for the studio—“The Beast with Five Fingers” is an adaptation of the short story of the same name by W.F. Harvey. I don’t know if there’s any real connection between “The Beast with Five Fingers” and “The Hands of Orlac,” but one can’t help but wonder if the latter inspired the former ever so slightly—both sto
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