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Barrie
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November
Review (continued)
The Italian Job
(1969)
The Italian Job
(2003)
(both released on DVD by Paramount on October 7th, 2003)
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There's
one good thing about a modern remake of an older film. When it
comes to the DVD release, there's a decent chance that you'll
get a version of the original included with it or in a separate
disc release of its own. That's what happened with the likes of
Meet Joe Black (1998)/Death
Takes a Holiday (1934), Cape
Fear (1962)/Cape Fear
(1991), The Truth About Charlie
(2002)/Charade (1963),
Scarface (1983)/Scarface
(1932) to name a few, and now The
Italian Job (2003)/The
Italian Job (1969). In the latter case, for once
we've got an original and a remake that are both worth seeing. A
central character named Charlie Croker, a fleet of Mini Coopers,
and an Italian robbery are common to both films, but the framing
stories are considerably different. The 1969 version was a
British film starring Michael Caine that presented a tale
involving a mob of working-class Brits giving the finger to the
continental types by staging a daring robbery under their noses
in Turin, Italy. The 2003 version takes the carrying-out of an
Italian heist as its starting point for a tale of pay-back that
leads to an even more daring robbery in Los Angeles.
The 1969 film starts off with a fine opening credit sequence
involving a drive, through a European alpine pass, that ends
rather abruptly. This serves to introduce us to the infighting
amongst various elements of the European underworld, a situation
which Charlie Croker and his boys will exploit as they plan and
carry out their heist in Turin. The pleasure of the film is
found in the interaction between the various gang members and
Charlie's barely-controlled frustration arising from trying to
keep everyone in line. The actual heist is well-staged and the
sequences with the minis are exciting and tightly cut, but not
so much as to defy belief. The conclusion is a literal
cliffhanger that at first catches one by surprise, but upon
reflection is the perfect ending. The film is not your
conventional thriller, but its combination of just enough
elements from one with its slightly tongue-in-cheek style,
results in something much better. Michael Caine is the class of
the film playing Charlie Croker, but good work is also provided
by Raf Vallone and Benny Hill. Noel Coward seems diminished by a
role as a criminal mastermind.
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Since
1969, we've had all sorts of thrillers with the result that it's
pretty hard to find one with anything really new in it. The 2003
version of The Italian Job
doesn't really offer novelty either. It is, however, well-oiled. By
that I mean that all the usual elements that we expect - suspenseful
build-ups, great action sequences, a not completely unbelievable
plot-line - are bound together by a cast of characters who are
actually appealing in themselves and in their relationships with
each other. As a result, we aren't sitting there just waiting for
the next bit of action because the cardboard characters and banal
dialogue are tedious. Charlie Croker and his gang enjoy each other's
company and recognize each other's strengths, so we do too. Mark
Wahlberg is no Michael Caine, but his amiable approach to the Croker
character works well here. The supporting cast of Charlize Theron,
Donald Sutherland, and Edward Norton are fine (although one does
wonder when Edward Norton is going to try to stretch himself in a
film again). Particularly entertaining are the characters portrayed
by Rob Statham (Handsome Bob) and Seth Green (Lyle - "I am the
Napster"). Director F. Gary Gray ties it all up nicely in under
two hours. And one final welcome note - the film manages to tell its
tale without the blizzard of four-letter words that characterize too
many literacy-starved scripts nowadays. Amazing!
Amazing too is Paramount's effort on making the 1969 version disc
something special. Unlike its standard classic film DVD release,
which is usually a bare-bones job, included here are an informative
and pleasantly-chatty audio commentary by the film's producer
Michael Deeley and the author of the book "The Making of the
Italian Job" Matthew Field, three very interesting making-of
featurettes which comprise over an hour of fresh material, a great
deleted scene, and trailers for the film and its remake. The film
transfer itself is handsome. We get a 2.35:1 anamorphic effort that
is very film-like in its effect. The image is crisp and clean with
but a slight hint of grain and no edge effects. The perfectly
satisfactory original mono track is present, restored, but many will
also be pleased to know that Paramount has also delivered a 5.1
surround track that is quite dynamic and does enhance the whole film
experience. The disc for the 2003 remake sports a standard
pat-each-other-on-the-back making-of documentary and four shorter
featurettes focusing on the script, the car driving, the Mini
Coopers, and the stunt sequences. Six deleted scenes are included
along with the theatrical trailer. The film itself looks very good -
again a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer (watch out you don't get stuck
with useless full screen versions which are also available for sale)
which provides a sharp, clean image with good shadow detail and
fairly vibrant colour. Edge effects are minimal. The Dolby Digital
5.1 surround track is good, but not particularly memorable as action
thrillers go. Both discs feature English subtitles and both films
are recommended.
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Lon
Chaney Collection - Ace of Hearts, Laugh Clown Laugh, The Unknown
(1921, 1928 and 1927)
(released on DVD by Warner Bros. on October 28th, 2003)
One of the more surprising announcements to have appeared earlier
this year was WB's intention to release a set of Lon Chaney silent
films. It was certainly welcome, mind you, but still surprising
given that the major studios had so far shown virtually zero
interest in making their silent titles available on DVD. Columbia
was the only one to actually retail a silent film under its own
imprint - Frank Capra's The Matinee Idol
- although Universal has shown some willingness to at least allow
independent DVD releasers access to them, e.g., Kino's release of
William Wyler's The Love Trap.
Fox did make Sunrise available
in its Studio Classics series, but for a long time it was only
accessible through a mail-in offer and even now is only otherwise
available as part of a Studio Classics box set. But back to Lon
Chaney.
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Lon
Chaney is one of the handful of silent actors whose name is
still almost sure to invoke healthy discussion whenever it's
raised. While many of his films were and continue to be highly
entertaining, few of them were the masterpieces that the likes
of Douglas Fairbanks or Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton could
point to. It is likely that Chaney's reputation as "The Man
of a Thousand Faces" is the main reason for the continued
interest in him and his films, for the offbeat and the bizarre
have always been audience magnets. In this respect, Chaney
certainly delivered although it must be said that a surprising
number of his films do not fit that mold. It is in such films
that one realizes that Chaney was more than just a master of
makeup. He was a fine actor indeed, with an ability to convey an
amazing range of emotions through facial expression and body
language. The expressiveness of Chaney's hand movements is truly
amazing, for example. It is possible that that quality was a
vestige of the sign language that Chaney had to master, as his
parents were both deaf.
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In
the 1920s, Chaney made films principally for Universal and MGM. His
two most-widely recognized films were made for Universal - Hunchback
of Notre Dame and Phantom of
the Opera, but it was at MGM and its forebears that he
really cemented the wide diversity of characterizations for which he
has become known (clowns, circus performers with and without arms,
Chinese gentlemen old and young, gangsters, an old woman, a
magician, a vampire, a Scandinavian farmer, and so on). TCM has
drawn upon its access to the MGM library for the titles included in
the Lon Chaney Collection. The
choices are perhaps not the obvious ones. I suspect that The
Unknown would have general agreement as to its selection,
but Laugh Clown Laugh and
especially The Ace of Hearts
are more questionable. One may wonder why West
of Zanzibar or The Unholy
Three were not among the first choices. Part of the
answer may relate to TCM's Young Film Composers competition which
has yielded scores for Laugh Clown Laugh
and The Ace of Hearts. In any
event, veteran laserdisc collectors won't complain. They already
have West of Zanzibar and both
silent and sound versions of The Unholy
Three on laser, so this DVD adds a couple of new Chaneys
to their collections.
The Ace of Hearts is strictly
a programmer about a secret society that sets itself up as
executioner for unworthy members of society. The actual sentence is
carried out by the member who is dealt the ace of hearts during a
meeting of the society. Two men (one of whom is Chaney) who both
love the same woman (Leatrice Joy) hope to be dealt the "assassin"
card in hopes of gaining the upper hand for the woman's favour. In
Laugh Clown Laugh, Tito the
clown (Chaney) and his partner take in a young orphan girl whom they
name Simonetta, but once she grows into a young woman (a very young
Loretta Young), Tito finds that he has fallen in love with her.
Simonetta, however, loves someone else and Tito realizes eventually
that he must not stand in her way. The
Unknown tells the tale of a performer named Alonzo
(Chaney) who pretends to be armless in order to maintain a job as an
armless knife thrower in a Spanish circus. Alonzo loves Nanon (an
early role for Joan Crawford), who fears any man putting his arms
around her. So Alonzo actually has his arms amputated so that Nanon
can truly love him, only to find that in the meantime, she has
overcome the arm phobia and taken up with the circus strong man.
All three of these films are united in their common theme of
unrequited love and in the fatalistic resolution of the main
character's quandary. Chaney excels in each in making the main
character physically and emotionally interesting and in conveying
the tragedy of his character's situation. This was common ground for
Chaney and he improved noticeably in his efforts throughout the
1920s as these films clearly show. Another pleasure is the
demonstration of the above-mentioned fact that Chaney was not simply
a one-dimensional boogie-man as he tends to be thought of now.
Although there are better examples in Chaney's filmography than The
Ace of Hearts, it does give us a Chaney entirely free of
the grotesque and in a way, simply a man in love (even if the secret
society plot allows him a non-conventional way of demonstrating and
eventually resolving it). If your experience with Lon Chaney is
solely through seeing a clip of his face in Phantom
of the Opera, you owe it to yourself to see what he was
really capable of. The Lon Chaney
Collection is your opportunity.
The DVD release is in the form of a two-disc digipak, similar to
Warner's two-disc special edition releases of individual titles. The
first disc contains a short introduction by TCM host Robert Osborne
and then the two features, The Ace of
Hearts and Laugh Clown Laugh.
The Ace of Hearts is the
roughest-looking of the three features. There is pronounced
speckling and scratches and numerous instances of debris and some
decomposition. Still, it's quite a workable transfer with middling
black levels and acceptable contrast. Accompanying it is an audio
commentary by Chaney biographer and historian Michael Blake. His
talk is extremely interesting in all respects as he relates
production details, player information, and historical context.
Other supplements are a stills gallery and a short profile of the
composer of the film's new musical score, Vivek Maddala, the 2000
winner of the TCM Young Film Composers Competition. For me, this
score was very pleasing indeed, as its tone seemed to mirror my own
reactions throughout the film. The presentation is in stereo
(surround stereo according to the packaging although it certainly
doesn't give that sense), which allows the music a dynamic feel
without intruding too greatly on one's sensibilities in terms of the
film's era. French and Spanish sub-titles are included. The
presentation of Laugh Clown Laugh
pretty much mirrors the comments about the audio and supplements for
The Ace of Hearts except that
the composer is different, this time 2002 winner Scott Salinas. The
big difference is in the image transfer, which is the best of those
for the three films in the Collection. There are speckles and
scratches of course, but otherwise the film looks very bright and
clear for the most part. Blacks are deep and solid, and the shadow
detail and contrast are very good.
The second disc begins with the third Chaney feature, The
Unknown. Once again we get an excellent audio commentary
from Michael Blake and a stills gallery. There is no young
composer's profile for the obvious reason that this film's score is
a slightly older one by the Alloy Orchestra. It's okay, but not of
the same complexity as those for the other two features. The image
transfer is quite acceptable for a film of this vintage, but softer
looking overall than that of Laugh Clown
Laugh. Contributing to this at times is the use of gauze
over the lens for a number of scenes (sometimes obtrusively so). The
second disc concludes with Rick Schmidlin's fine photo
reconstruction of the lost Chaney film London
After Midnight, which runs about 50 minutes, and
Photoplay's excellent documentary, Lon
Chaney: A Thousand Faces (80-odd minutes). Both of these
are worth the price of admission in themselves. The Lon
Chaney Collection is altogether an admirable package and
one that I highly recommend.
The Ox-Bow Incident
(1943)
(released on DVD by Fox on November 4th, 2003)
When the titles of the Fox Studio Classics for 2003 were first
announced, The Ox-Bow Incident
and Laura were among the three
or four that I was most looking forward to. As most of you are well
aware, Laura was to be the
November release, but was cancelled by Fox (hopefully to appear
sometime in 2004) and replaced by what was to be the December
release - The Ox-Bow Incident.
This was a highly acclaimed film when it first was released and its
powerful story of mob vengeance remains potent today. Its story
concerns the inhabitants of a town frustrated by widespread cattle
rustling that hears that popular rancher Larry Kincaid has been
murdered. Eager to see the murderers lynched, a posse is formed
under the command of self-styled town leader Major Tetley. Dragged
along is cowboy Gil Carter who, along with his buddy, has just
ridden into town for some entertainment after the winter round-up.
The posse eventually comes across three strangers who have cattle
with Kincaid's brand on them and using that as proof of their guilt,
the posse prepares to string them up.
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Virtually
no one thought that this film would make a profit, neither the
makers before nor the critics after its release. When the story
rights were brought to him by director William Wellman, Darryl
Zanuck was finally persuaded to make the film (despite his
recognition of its uncommercial nature) by Wellman agreeing also
to do two other films for Fox. Fox apparently did not turn a
profit on it until after its release abroad and eventual
re-release domestically. The "uncommercial" tag arose
because the film was unrelenting in its depiction of how the mob
mentality feeds upon itself until things go beyond the point of
no return. Even a basically decent man like Gil Carter is
powerless in the presence of such a force. The ending is an
inevitability that for once was not subverted by a typical
Hollywood white hat riding to the rescue. As Carter, a low-key
Henry Fonda is the only star in the film and clearly its
conscience. The rest of the mob is comprised of numerous
familiar character actors (Henry Morgan, Jane Darwell, Harry
Davenport, Marc Lawrence, Paul Hurst, and so on) which gives the
audience a sense of complacency about the proceedings. After
all, if the mob is composed of decent people we know and whom we
expect to do the right thing in the end even if they're a bit
caught up in emotion at the start, surely nothing really bad can
happen. All the more effective then when it does. Two actors
then on the verge of stardom - Dana Andrews and Anthony Quinn -
play two of the strangers. Andrews is particularly affecting in
his part. Director Wellman maintains tension throughout while
moving things along briskly and with panache (for example, note
how he films Henry Fonda reading the letter that the Dana
Andrews character has written to his wife).
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Fox
has cranked out a winner on all counts in this latest Studio
Classics release. The image transfer is crisp indeed in the full
frame presentation that is in accord with the original 1.37:1 aspect
ratio. Deep blacks, clean whites, and a finely detailed gray scale
characterize the results. There are the odd speckle and some minor
grain, but edge effects are absent and the overall effect is very
film-like. High marks to Fox on this one. Both English stereo and
mono audio options are included, but as with most such offerings for
older films, there's really little to choose between the two. Both
provide a very satisfactory sound experience, free from the usual
age-related sound imperfections. A Spanish mono track and English
and Spanish sub-titles are also available. Supplements include the
theatrical trailer, a gallery of stills, and a restoration
comparison, but most interesting are the A&E Biography, Henry
Fonda: Hollywood's Quiet Hero, and an excellent audio
commentary by western scholar Dick Eulain (although it sounds like
Etalain when he introduces himself) and William Wellman Jr. Their
contributions were separately recorded and then edited together.
Eulain's somewhat academic but highly informative approach is nicely
balanced by Wellman Jr.'s more relaxed and anecdotal one. The
Ox-Bow Incident gets a very strong recommendation from
me.
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New
Classic Release Announcements
Well, as we get near the end of the year, new announcements and
rumours are coming in fast and furious for 2004. In fact, as good as
2003 has been for classic releases, 2004 is shaping up to be every
bit as good if not better. I've listed the announcements
alphabetically by studio (first the majors and then the
independents) and once again I acknowledge several readers for
bringing release news to my attention. The
Classic
Release Database has been updated accordingly.
On January 13th, Columbia brings us its fourth release of a Judy
Holliday film - It Should Happen to You
(1954), in anamorphic widescreen - and the latest Three Stooges
collection, Stooges At Work,
which reportedly only contains four shorts.
Disney has confirmed the delay of this year's Walt
Disney Treasures releases. Previously scheduled for
December 2nd, The Chronological Donald
Volume 1 (1934-1941), Mickey
Mouse in Living Color Volume 2, Tomorrowland:
Disney in Space and Beyond, and Walt
Disney On the Front Lines are now all slated for a May
18th, 2004 appearance. Disney's explanation for the delay is
unexpected consumer demand that could not be met on the original
release date.
Fox's February 3rd Studio Classics release of The
Diary of Anne Frank (1959) will be presented in 2.35:1
anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. Supplements will
include audio commentary by George Stevens Jr. and Millie Perkins,
the Diary of Anne Frank: Echoes from the
Past special, footage from a George Stevens press
conference, a Millie Perkins screen test, Academy Award highlights,
a still gallery, and two trailers.
On February 10th, MGM will release two box sets. The first will be
The Ingmar Bergman Collection
which will include special editions of Persona,
Shame, The
Passion of Anna, Hour of the
Wolf and The Serpent's Egg,
as well as a sixth disc containing the Sven
Nykvist: With One Eye He Cries and Faro
Island Mystique featurettes, the Intermezzo 2002 Swedish
TV special, a 1970 interview with Bergman, the Film-Making
in Sweden article gallery, a still gallery including
never-before-seen, intimate photos from Bergman's personal archives,
and a poster montage. The five Bergman features will also be
available separately. The second box set will be the five-disc Sidney
Poitier Collection. It will contain They
Call Me Mr. Tibbs, The
Organization and For Love of
Ivy (all new to DVD and all widescreen, but only Ivy
anamorphic) and the previously released Lilies
of the Field and In the Heat
of the Night. Also due on the 10th is the thriller X-15
(1962, with Charles Bronson), in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. In
April, it appears that MGM plans to release a six-disc,
special-edition DVD box set of the first five films in the Pink
Panther series [The Pink Panther
(1964), A Shot in the Dark
(1964), The Pink Panther Strikes Again
(1976), Revenge of the Pink Panther
(1978) and Trail of the Pink Panther
(1982)] and a wealth of supplementary material.
Other MGM releases for 2004 will include I
Could Go on Singing (1963, Judy Garland), Man
of La Mancha (1972, Peter O'Toole), Duel
in the Sun (1946, Gregory Peck, postponed from late
2003), Guns of the Magnificent Seven
(1969, with Goerge Kennedy), Jack the
Giant Killer (1962), Ned Kelly
(1970, with Mick Jagger), and Chastity
(1969, with Cher in her acting debut), A
Minute to Pray, a Second to Die (1967, with Alex Cord),
Junior Bonner (1972, with
Steve McQueen), Shalako (1968,
with Sean Connery), Follow That Dream
(1962, with Elvis), and Billie
(1965, with Patty Duke).
Part of Paramount's release schedule for the first half of 2004 has
surfaced. If this pans out, we can expect these titles of interest:
The Greatest Show on Earth
(1952) and an SE of The Ten Commandments
(1956) both on March 9th, Half a Sixpence
(1967, with Tommy Steele) on April 6th, Posse
(1975, with Kirk Douglas) and The Tin
Star (1957, with Henry Fonda) both on May 11th, Day
of the Locust (1975), Goodbye
Columbus (1969), and The
President's Analyst (1967) all on June 8th, and Fancy
Pants (1950, with Bob Hope), Here
Comes the Groom/Just for You (1951/1952, both with Bing
Crosby), and The World of Suzie Wong
(1960, with William Holden) all on June 29th. Hogan's
Heroes: Season One (1965) is also expected to appear in
2004.
Universal has no new concrete news this time, but a Region 2
happening has some interest. On October 6th, they released the
following eight westerns, all with new transfers: The
Spoilers (1942), The Virginian
(1946), The Man from the Alamo,
Ulzana's Raid, Joe
Kidd, Rooster Cogburn,
High Plains Drifter, and The
War Wagon. Could these possibly comprise Universal's
slate of western releases for May (a traditional western release
month) 2004 in Region 1? The first three titles would be new to DVD
while the others all would replace older releases needing an
anamorphic transfer.
Warner Bros. has its usual healthy amount of new release news. For
February 3rd, it is offering a major Oscar promotion with the
release of five Best Picture winners: Grand
Hotel (1932), Mutiny on the
Bounty (1935), The Great
Ziegfeld (1936), Mrs. Miniver
(1942), and My Fair Lady
(1963, a new 2-disc SE). Each disc will have a mixture of
contemporary shorts, newsreels, and cartoons as well as new
documentaries in a couple of instances. Being released as part of
the same promotion will be Gaslight
(1944, with Ingrid Bergman's Best Actress performance, and the 1940
British version of the film as a supplement) and Goodbye
Mr. Chips (1939, with Robert Donat's Best Actor
performance). February 3rd will also see the appearance of Gilligan's
Island: Season One (1964). It will be a three-disc set
featuring all the black & white first season episodes (including
the ultra-rare pilot episode) and commentary by creator Sherwood
Schwartz. On February 17th come Luchino Visconti's The
Damned (1969, the 157-minute version) and Death
in Venice (1971), and Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup
(1966). All will be anamorphic.
April is shaping up to be the month for a WB Judy Garland festival
with four titles apparently planned for release. They include: Meet
Me in St. Louis (1944), For Me
and My Gal (1942), Ziegfeld
Girl (1941), and In the Good
Old Summertime (1949), but no details as to content as
yet.
August appears to be the month when WB will release Freaks
(1932), a double bill of Village of the
Damned and Children of the
Damned (1960, 1964), and a 2-disc SE of Forbidden
Planet (1956). Other WB releases in 2004 will include
Back to Bataan (1945, John
Wayne), Helen of Troy (1955,
directed by Robert Wise), Mogambo
(1953, Clark Gable), Three Godfathers
(1949, John Wayne), Dracula Has Risen
from the Grave (1968), Frankenstein
Must Be Destroyed (1969), Taste
the Blood of Dracula (1970), and The
Flintstones: Season One (1960) and The
Jetsons: Season One (1962).
Turning to the independents, Alpha has its usual string of monthly
releases with the latest announced list scheduled for January 27th.
It's the usual mix of the familiar and the obscure. Consult the
database for all the titles, but items of interest may include: Bulldog
Drummond's Bride (1939), I
Cover the Waterfront (1933), Phantom
of the Range (1936), Sea
Raiders (1941 serial), Valley
of Terror (1937), and The
Whispering Shadow (1933 serial). (By the way, anyone who
has tried Alpha's discs is kindly asked to let me know about the
quality of specific titles.)
Anchor Bay is planning on packaging five of its previously released
spaghetti westerns in a box set entitled Once
Upon a Time in Italy - The Spaghetti Western Collection.
The films included are: A Bullet for the
General, Companeros,
Four of the Apocalypse, Keoma,
and Texas Adios. Release date
is February 10th.
Criterion is showing cover scans of three new releases on its
website raising speculation that these will comprise the company's
February release slate. The films are Le
Corbeau (1943, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot), Salvatore
Giuliano (1962), and Tunes of
Glory (1960, with Alec Guinness).
Previously announced in this column were a number of Cecil B.
DeMille silent features to be brought to DVD by David Shepard's Film
Preservation Associates (via Image). The latest news on these titles
suggests that release is still many months away (perhaps late 2004
at the earliest). Seven titles are involved, but only two have been
scored so far. The films are: Why Change
Your Wife, Don't Change Your
Husband, Old Wives for New,
The Golden Chance, Miss
Lulu Bett (William DeMille), The
Whispering Chorus, and The
Volga Boatmen.
Image's January releases include a double bill of Gamera
Vs. Monster X and Monster from
a Prehistoric Planet (1970, 1967) and two 1941 Gene Autry
films, Back in the Saddle and
Under Fiesta Stars, all on
January 20th. The company is also planning to release more seasons
of the Dick Van Dyke Show in
2004. Season 3 is set for
February 10th, Season 4 for
April 13th, and Season 5 for
June 15th.
Kino plans a nice edition of The Thief of
Bagdad (1924, with Douglas Fairbanks) for release on
February 4th, as well as a re-release of Robin
Hood (1922). Also in 2004, Kino will be releasing a
collection of eight Charley Chase silent shorts. Some of the titles
include Mighty Like a Moose,
Mum's the Word, April
Fool, Crazy Like a Fox,
Long Fliv the King, and All
Wet.
Milestone has just released (on November 25th) Norman
McLaren: The Collector's Edition. This is a box set
focusing on the acclaimed Canadian animation expert that includes
two discs and a book Norman McLaren and
the Creative Process. The discs contain 14 of McLaren's
films and an extensive documentary, The
Creative Process: Norman McLaren, that explores McLaren's
approach to animation. And in news that somehow slipped by me
before, Milestone (via Image) will release Michael Powell's 1937
film The Edge of the World on
December 9th. The disc will include an audio commentary and a
documentary that Powell made 41 years later, Return
to the Edge of the World.
VCI plans an ambitious serial release program over the next couple
of months. The company doesn't always meet its targeted dates, but
here they are for your consideration. On December 16th: the
previously rumoured King of the Royal
Mounted (1940), Jack Armstrong
The All American Boy (1947), and Zorro's
Cliffhanger Collection [Zorro
Rides Again (1937), Zorro's
Black Whip (1944), Zorro's
Fighting Legion (1939)]. In January (no specific date as
yet): The Adventures of the Flying Cadets
(1943) and The Miracle Rider
(1935, with Tom Mix). And in an interesting move and one which I'm
surprised no one else thought of, VCI will release The
Great Train Robbery: 100th Anniversary Edition on
December 16th. The film is only about 10 minutes long; I wonder what
else they have planned for the disc?
And finally, in a bit of Region 2 news, Warner Bros. will release
the Boulting Brothers' Private's Progress
(1956) and I'm All Right Jack
(1959) on February 16th.
So we come to the end of the column for another month, but I'm
hoping to increase the frequency and likely decrease the length of
these efforts in the future. This may not take effect until the new
year, but we'll see. One way or another, I'll certainly have another
edition of the column before Christmas. So, see you all soon.
Barrie Maxwell
barriemaxwell@thedigitalbits.com |
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Maxwell - Main Page |
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