Bewitched
(1945/MGM/Warner Archive DVD)/Curtains
(1982/Synapse Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/B Sound: C+/B- Extras: C-/B- Films: C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
Bewitched
is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here
are two lesser-known thrillers worth your time. Even when they don't
work all the time, they have interesting elements going for them and
should each be seen at least once...
Arch
Obler was a Rod Serling for his time and as noted before, since his
work was more often for radio, he tends to get forgotten, but he
always tried to make interesting work out of the out of the ordinary.
He wrote and directed Bewitched
(1945) for MGM and with a few Noir elements, the film is actually not
the basis for the TV sitcom, but a darker tale about a woman (Phyllis
Thaxter) who is having mental health issues, has a slit personality
and when her darker side takes over (it talks to her!), she kills!
Issued
the same year as Hitchcock's superior Spellbound
(reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site), the film takes its
subject matter seriously, but becomes unintentionally funny at times
and has some dated devices to convey a more obviously serious
situation, down to oversimple solutions. Still, this was daring and
unusual in its time (the original Cat
People had been issued by
RKO only 3 years before) psychology was finally arriving on the big
screen.
Warner
Archive has issued this as an online-only DVD to order and it is
worth a look for several reasons, including a supporting cast that
includes Edmund Gwenn and what a major studio like MGM was willing to
try out as thing in the world were starting to change.
An
original theatrical trailer is the only extra.
By
the early 1980s, a slasher trend was happening thanks to Carpenter's
Halloween
(1978), but that trend can be traced back to the original Texas
Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
and the late, great Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1972), made in
Canada. Curtains
(1982) was also made in Canada and actually started production at the
turn of the decade with one director, then picked up 18 months later
(!!!) with another, then was released in theaters with the name of
the main male lead (John Vernon as Jonathan Stryker) listed as the
director.
He
is a theater director with an old friend (Samantha Eggar of The
Girl In The Car With Glasses & A Gun)
and actress ready for a big new stage role, but instead, he has her
committed to a mental hospital (the kind in horror films where
everyone overacts and doctors and nurses never treat anyone, but walk
around a lot), yet this is on purpose so she can method-act research
the madness of the character she will play. However, she is not
released by him soon enough, so a friend gets her out and when she
sees him, he has invited several young woman and one other pro to
audition for the role.
The
veteran is played by no less than Linda Thorson (Tara King on the
original British TV spy classic The
Avengers) and the rest
include Sandra Warren, Deborah Burgess, Lesleh Donaldson, Anne
Ditchburn and Lynne Griffith, but someone is killing them off one by
one. The original shoot turned up about 45 minutes of footage, so
the reshoots (more on that in the extras) added new footage and
storylines that don't quite cohere. Because of this, the film has
built a cult following and the film fits well in the incoherent texts
of horror film as recognized by the late Robin Wood in his landmark
book Hollywood: From
Vietnam To Reagan... And Beyond
(reviewed elsewhere on this site). It is a film worth seeing, now
restored in this later final cut (as an earlier one was trashed!!!)
and has some fine moments, including as a good mystery movie.
Extras
include two feature length audio commentary tracks (one of vintage
recording of Producer Peter R. Simpson and co-star Samantha Eggar,
the other a new one with co-stars Lesleh Donaldson & Lynne
Griffith), the Original Theatrical Trailer and two featurettes: the
vintage Ciupka - A
Film-Maker In Transition
film on the cinematographer-turned-director Richard Ciupka (the first
director on this film) and the new 2014 The
Ultimate Nightmare: The Making Of Curtains.
The
1.33 X 1 black and white image on Bewitched has some nice
shots and comes from a really nice print of the film, though there
are some soft spots here and there as expected for a film its age,
but anyone watching will be pleasantly surprised. The 1080p 1.78 X 1
digital High Definition image transfer on Curtains may have
been shot in two halves a few years apart, but the print is in nice
shape and though there is grain, it never gets in the way of detail
or depth. This is how the film should look, is a new 2K transfer
from the best 35mm materials and the hard work to bring it to Blu-ray
pays off.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on
Bewitched
can have a few spots of distortion or softness, but it sounds fine
for a production of its time. Curtains
offers lossless DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) in both a newly upgraded 5.1 mix made for this new
Blu-ray release and a 2.0 Mono mix for purists, but the 5.1 mix is
better and brings out the most in the music score, sound effects and
dialogue, so it is preferred choice.
To
order Bewitched,
go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
