The three faces of "Touch of Evil" make their U.S. debuts on Blu-ray in Universal's "limited edition" rerelease of the dark Orson Welles classic. The Blu-ray release is essentially a rerun of the October 2008 "50th Anniversary Edition," complete with director Welles' pleading and cajoling notes to the studio that took the editing away from him. … [Read more...]
‘Foreign Correspondent’: Hitch at war
The Brits excelled at propaganda movies, an awkward genre that nonetheless produced a handful of classics -- say, Noel Coward's "In Which We Serve" and the Archers' "The 49th Parallel." MIA from the brisk U.K. propaganda effort was one Alfred Hitchcock, the director who'd found fame combining dark British sensibilities with German … [Read more...]
Fritz Lang’s ‘Ministry of Fear’
Funny thing about the wrong man: He never, ever did it. This lack of mystery never held back the thriller subgenre, in large part because of Alfred Hitchcock's fondness for tales of the unjustly accused on the run. The German director Fritz Lang also worked cases of mistaken identity, notably in "Fury" (1936) and "Ministry of Fear" … [Read more...]
‘Spellbound’ on Blu-ray: a nightmare revived
A man takes scissors to a surrealistic curtain, cutting an eyeball in half. Another man runs across a terrible angular landscape, stalked by a gigantic bird. A faceless tyrant lets slip a warped wheel as the camera slithers into the void of its center hole. Just another day at the office for Salvador Dali, mad genius and painter of the unreal. … [Read more...]
‘Blue Velvet’ a stunner on Blu-ray
Those lost and deleted scenes from "Blue Velvet" have been found, and for better or worse they're on display as extra features on MGM's Blu-ray debut of this touchstone of American surrealism. While mostly interesting, the 50 minutes of deleted scenes reveal no artistic oversights, no need for the fabled 4-hour director's cut. David Lynch's … [Read more...]
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