Ten Great MGM/UA Films Criterion Should Issue On
Blu-ray Now That They Are Collaborating Again!
In a move
that made many movie fans unhappy, MGM pulled the rights to any titles they
licensed to Criterion including The Silence
Of The Lambs, This Is Spinal Tap
and a few others early in the DVD days.
In addition, they were just about to issue an elaborate edition of The Usual Suspects, never reissued The Graduate, and never reissued their
special edition of Brian DePalma’s Carrie
(1976) that includes a solid audio commentary by film scholar Laurent Bouzereau
(who wrote the book The De Palma Cut)
and screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen, publicity stills, posters, and lobby cards,
plus a study of De Palma's filmmaking techniques that never appeared on the MGM
Blu-ray. They only shared the same
trailer.
With
Kubrick’s Paths Of Glory coming to
Blu-ray with new extras and an upgraded transfer (Paths Of Glory, Killer’s
Kiss and The Killing that
Criterion issued a long time ago on the old 12” LaserDisc format), the companies
will have plenty to issue including the other Kubrick films. The James Bond films will not be among them,
as the deluxe editions made of the first three Bonds by Criterion were pulled
because Producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli objected to some of the content and
new mega-editions have been produced of all the films since.
We would
like to suggest the following films be issued in the best possible deluxe
editions on Blu-ray, including a few we suggested a few years ago and were
never issued in any Blu-ray version:
The Bride Wore Black (1967) – Francois Truffaut’s followed
the great director’s film of Fahrenheit
451 as he permanently switched back to French in this brilliant thriller
about a newlywed (Jeanne Moreau) who instantly becomes newly widowed and
intends to do something about it. Not a
simple revenge thriller, it is one of the greatest of all Hitchcockian-styled
thrillers not by the master himself, complete with a powerful score by Bernard
Herrmann. Raoul Coutard’s cinematography
is amazing and the use of color superior.
Blow
Out (1981) – Just
before Scarface, the often controversial Brian De Palma pulled off this
daring, great thriller featuring John Travolta’s most underrated performance as
a sound effects man and designer for B-movies. Out one night needing new
audio for a slasher film, a tired gives way and the car it is on drives into
the lake, but it turns out to be the property of a married senator running for
high office who was cheating with another woman (Nancy Allen) and our soundman
saves her. It is too late for the politician. When his handlers
want to cover it all up, the question becomes whether the tire had a blow out
or was it shot out? The more he investigates, the uglier it gets. A
winning amalgamation of Antonioni’s Blow Up and Coppola’s The
Conversation, De Palma may have made more thrillers after this one, but
none come close. Dennis Franz and John Lithgow also star. MGM also has De Palma’s Dressed To Kill, so they should consider that one for Criterion
Blu-ray too.
Burn! (1969) – Marlon Brando said this
was his favorite film, helmed by the director of The Battle Of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo and was his first film
since that international hit. This was
cut down and even the current MGM DVD is a short version, so Criterion should
issue this at 132 minutes. Brando is a
British agent secretly investigating a slave revolt in 1845 Portugal.
A bold film, its time for rediscovery is long overdue and Criterion once
issued this as a 12” LaserDisc a long time ago.
Ennio Morricone even did the score!
The Great Escape (1963) – Back in the 12”
LaserDisc days, Criterion issued a rich special edition of this classic film
that included extras like an audio commentary by director John Sturges,
composer Elmer Bernstein, and stuntman Bud Ekins, The Original Theatrical Trailer,
a still section with military photos of the historical Stalag Luft III prison
camp, the Allied prisoners, the German guards & 250+ production photos and
excerpts from the script by novelist James Clavell. A new transfer would be a great idea too.
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) – Restored a good few
years ago by MGM, this peak of the Film Noir movement was considered by
Director Robert Aldrich as his best film and he was an amazing filmmaker. Ralph Meeker is the darkest, meanest Mike
Hammer we will ever see, Cloris Leachman made her feature film debut here and
the Mickey Spillane novel (adapted by the great A.I. Bezzerides) has one of the
greatest endings in cinema history. The original
ending was censored, but MGM restored it and a new Blu-ray could offer both as
the DVD did along with a load of much needed extras.
Midnight Cowboy (1969) – The deluxe 12” LaserDisc
version of this classic not only featured an outstanding feature length audio
commentary by John Schlesinger and Jerome Hellman, stills and documentary
called "The Medium is the Message:
The Scripting of Details”, but it had a print that looked like a British
Technicolor print and no copy since has ever looked so good. If they could add some new extras too and fix
that odd Dolby Stereo upgrade from a few years ago, this would make for a
classic Criterion Blu-ray release.
Robocop (1987) – After MGM botched this
twice as a basic Blu-ray and via two different distributors, not even going
onto so many bad DVD editions, so it would be nice if Criterion finally got
this out on Blu-ray with a transfer that looks like the film Paul Verhoeven
intended. In real life, this is a really
good looking film, one that Orion (its original distributor) rightly did 70mm
blow-ups of. Combine all the extras from
a few different versions that have them, add new ones and you’ll get a major
Blu-ray that everyone will want.
The Trials Of Oscar Wilde (1960) – The soon-to-be-James
Bond producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and the gentleman director Ken Hughes
made this daring 70mm epic drama about the controversial writer (played here by
Network’s Peter Finch) as the writer
takes on The Marquis of Queensbury in court, with ramifications far beyond its
walls. Not a hit in its time, it has not
been seen much in recent years and Broccoli was highly disappointed that it was
not a huge critical and commercial success, only emboldening his stance as he
brought Bond to life. Lionel Jeffreys
and James Mason also star in this ambitious production long overdue for reissue
and with cinematography by the great Ted Moore, a guaranteed High Definition
winner. MGM is likely handling the film
at this time which is STILL not on
home video.
Vera
Cruz (1954) – Robert
Aldrich (see Kiss Me Deadly above) was one of the gutsiest filmmakers in
Hollywood history and this underrated Western recently restored to its
beautiful original condition by MGM is a great teaming of Gary Cooper (High
Noon) and Burt Lancaster (From Here To Eternity) in a very early
example of a Hollywood-made Professional Western. They are part of a team
hired by protect a special lady and her ton of gold on a journey to the title
locale, but they get more than they bargained for in the middle of The Mexican
Revolution. They are joined by a great cast that includes Cesar Romero,
Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson and Jack Elam. Shot in the old
SuperScope format (with a 2 X 1 frame!) by the amazing Ernest Laszlo and issued
in three-strip Technicolor prints at the time, MGM now owns and recently
restored this film, but all we’ve been stuck with is the 2001 DVD. Now is
the time for a stunning Blu-ray version, preferably loaded with extras of
course.
Zulu (1964) – Already available in a
reportedly amazing U.K.
Blu-ray, this huge Technirama epic (lensed by the underrated Stephen Dade) may
not be politically correct, but is an important film and Criterion actually
issued a Blu-ray via a different distributor.
MGM is said to have a great print and the film has never received a
much-needed deluxe edition, though a limited one was issued in Britain on DVD. A 5.1 mix has never been properly produced of
the original 6-track magnetic stereo soundtrack, which is amazing considering
it has a score by no less than John Barry.
MGM did a 12” LaserDisc of this one a long time ago too, so it is long
overdue for better treatment. Stanley
Baker, Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Patrick Magee, Jack Hawkins and a cast of
thousands star in Director Cy Endfield’s best film.
- Nicholas Sheffo
