Andyland, USA

    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 t...

   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 fi...

    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 ...