Around
The World Under The Sea
(1965/MGM/Warner Archive DVD)/Killing
American Style
(1990/Cinema Epoch DVD)/The
Public Defender
(1931/RKO/Warner Archive DVD)/Search
For The Gods (1975/Warner
Archive DVD)
Picture:
C+/C/C/C Sound: C+/C/C/C Extras: C/C/D/D Films:
C+/C+/C+/C
PLEASE
NOTE:
All the titles above (EXCEPT
for Killing
American Style)
are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series and can be ordered from the links below.
Even
with their various flaws, these action/adventure genre releases have
their moments....
Andrew
Marton's Around
The World Under The Sea
(1965) was MGM's way of trying to have an action film to make some
money off of a United Artists issued what would be the biggest James
Bond film for many decades to come (and in some ways still is),
Thunderball
from the same year. Ivan Tors, Lamar Boren and Ricou Browning worked
on that Bond, as well as the TV hit Sea
Hunt,
so they are reunited here with its star, Lloyd Bridges and he is
joined by Goldfinger
co-star Shirley Eaton, Brian Kelly, Keenan Wynn, Gary Merrill and the
co-star of MGM successful Bond-like TV hit The
Man From U.N.C.L.E.,
David McCallum.
The
script is slap-happy about the science and science fiction elements,
but the underwater gadgets and equipment are as fun as the use of
color and scope framing throughout. The drama and dialogue are also
often lacking, but this is meant to target families with a side of
fluff that is also trying to convince parents that this is safer than
a Bond film to take their children to. The result is a curio that
has aged well in some ways, badly in others, but deserves to be seen
once, especially as it is here on this DVD.
Extras
include a Spanish Language Trailer (unlisted on the DVD case) and
4:34 Promotion Featurette (in 1.33 X 1, cutting off the sides of the
scope film footage).
Amir
Shervan's Killing
American Style
(1990) is a more entertaining knock-off of The
Desperate Hours
(1955, reviewed elsewhere on this site) than you might think (made
more interesting by comparison to the Michael Cimino remake that came
out not long after with Mickey Rourke and Anthony Hopkins) starting
with some a group of pumped-up tough guys having it out with the
LAPD, leading them to run away to evade arrest for being cop killers.
They
land up at the home of a nice family who they promptly terrorize as
they blackmail them to get a doctor for their cohort who is suffering
from bullet wounds. However, with the sexual sleaziness and often
1970s exploitation set-up, it plays more like a belated pre-home
video drive-in movie than a thriller of its time. To its credit, it
holds well together to about its last reel where it has to become the
film it is, but it is worth seeing and Jim Brown is a plus as a
police chief.
An
interview with Geoffrey Alexander Virden, oddly unlisted on
the DVD case but worth your time after seeing the film, is the only
extra.
J.
Walter Ruben's The
Public Defender
(1931) is an underseen, very interesting film RKO made with then
major movie star Richard Dix (too forgotten for our own good) as
playboy and money heir who at night, is a secret avenger know as The
Reckoner, seeing justice against bad people, some of whom also have
big money. Assisted by Doc (Paul Hurst) and the very well-spoken
Professor (a fine early turn by Boris Karloff the year he debuted as
Frankenstein), it can play like a superhero film a bit, but it leaned
more towards the likes of The
Shadow,
The
Lone Wolf,
Danger:
Diabolik
and detective fiction. The result is a nice little gem that I wished
were longer than its 70 minutes and sadly never led to a series.
Catch it when you can.
There
are sadly no extras.
Last
but not least is Jud Taylor's Search
For The Gods
(1975), intended as a telefilm pilot for star Stephen McHattie, who
never became a leading man like he could and should have, but an
enduring character actor. The curio in this one now is that a young
pre-John Carpenter Kurt Russell (no longer a child star) is the
co-star and Wonder
Woman
and Love
Boat
producer Douglas S. Cramer was backing this to capitalize on the
then-big fascination with the pyramids, new age thinking, ancient
mysteries and UFOs.
A
rich, mysterious, powerful man wants an ancient metal piece made of a
material that has not been identified and a young woman (Victoria
Racimo) has it, but will not be giving it away as it has to do with
her family and people, but that will not stop the rich man's greed
and power to get it. The two main male leads find themselves in the
middle of this and there lies the story.
There
are some good moments here and the supporting cast including Raymond
St. Jacques, Albert Paulsen and Ralph Bellamy are a plus, but this
seems a bit underdeveloped as a telefilm and as a pilot, yet I can
see why Warner and Cramer had hopes this could work and sell. It is
wroth a look, though.
There
are unfortunately no extras.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Sea
is the best-looking transfer on the list with usually decent
MetroColor throughout and was shot for 70mm blow-ups, a treatment
Thunderball
was not going to get. Nice use of real 35mm anamorphic Panavision
and some shots will remind you of that Bond film in a good way.
Despite some good shots with the
1.33 X 1 black & white image on Defender,
the 1.33 X 1 color image on Gods
(both shot on 35mm film) and the anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1
image on Killing,
they are all softer and Killing
has some motion blur issues. All four deserve Blu-rays and new HD
transfers.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Sea
can show its age and is not the original soundtrack for the film, as
in its 70mm blow-ups, it came with 6-track magnetic stereo, but this
is still passable if lacking. Yet, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
on the other DVDs is a little rougher, softer and more compressed,
disappointing a bit. All four films need and deserve some sound
restoration too.
You
can order all of the Warner Archive DVDs by going to this link for
them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
