A
Bigger Splash (2015/Fox
Blu-ray w/DVD)/Complete
Unknown (2016/Sony
DVD)/Forbidden Hollywood:
Volume 9
(with Big City
Blues,
Hell's Highway,
et al) + 10
(with Secrets Of The
French Police, et al/1931
- 1934/First National/MGM/RKO/Warner Archive DVD Pre-Code Classics
Sets)
Picture:
B & C/C/C+/C+ Sound: B & C+/C/C+/C+ Extras: C/D/C-/C-
Films: C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Forbidden
Hollywood
DVD sets are now only available from Warner Bros. through their
Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Films
for mature adults are not a constant in Hollywood, with a freedom
before the mid-1930s before the Production Code kicked in, then after
the latter films of the 1960s arrived with a new generation of
groundbreaking filmmakers to the early 1980s when suppression arrived
again, than a thaw of sorts in recent years. The following films are
of the more open nature.
Luca
Guadagnino's A
Bigger Splash
(2015) has Tilda Swinton as a singer whose taking a long break from
even talking as she needs to rehabilitate her vocal chords, living
with her current love player by Matthias Schoenaeris, but that peace
is about to be shattered when an old loudmouthed boyfriend of hers
(Ralph Fiennes in nutter mode) visits and oddly brings his daughter
(Dakota Johnson) who looks like his underaged girlfriend to them at
first. Conflict follows, some of it obviously predictable when it is
obvious, toxic behavior, but things seem to be in check at first.
Many of the sequences are pretty convincing (sans documentary feel)
between the actors and that part of the film works.
But
the script cannot find new places to go or ways to deal with a
somewhat obvious situation, outside of being lucky enough to have
this cast. More amusing moments include Fiennes trying to match the
falsetto while dancing of one of The Rolling Stones' most notoriously
criticized hits, ''Emotional
Rescue''
(made during the Disco era) which in itself tells us he is just too
high on himself. The last part of the film is mixed and I'm not for
sure I bought it either, but it is worth seeing this once if you like
the actors because actors rarely anymore get to make films about
humans like this one, even with its many flaws and limits.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other
cyber iTunes capable devices, while the disc versions add a Stills
Gallery, Promotional Featurette and Original Theatrical Trailer.
Joshua
Marston's Complete
Unknown
(2016) has a married Michael Shannon revisited by a beautiful woman
and former lover played by Rachel Weisz, but something is odd. She
seems different and communication with his group seems fine until
they start asking too many questions and she either does not want to
answer or gives answers that don't make sense and/or throw off the
others. Conflict results making Shannon's married man wonder why she
has changed or is acting this way.
As
we learn, she is not who she is or was, but it is the specifics that
are such a mystery. However, the script is not as interested in this
mystery as much as it is showing the interaction between the actors
(not bad here), but it could have done more with its 82 minutes.
Danny Glover and Kathy Bates also show up later on, but it is an odd
aside with mixed results. Thus, this is not great, but has a few
moments that work. Too bad the makers could not take another
approach as this might have worked better and had more to say.
A
feature length director's audio commentary track is the only extra.
Forbidden
Hollywood: Volume 9 + 10
(1931 - 1934) continues a series so popular that Warner scrapped
plans to fold it. These two new sets have five films each, almost
all that would have been changed, censored or not even made by the
mid-1930s. We'll explain why in each case as we describe each
film...
Volume
9 features Mervyn LeRoy's Big City Blues (1932) has Joan
Blondell as a chorus gal finding a young sap she likes to get her
what she wants (greed, drinking and sexual suggestion are among its
qualities) and a young Humphrey Bogart even shows up), but Blondell
is the reason to watch in her early prime. Pretty decent.
Rowland
Brown's Hell's
Highway
(1932) has Richard Dix as a jailed convict working on a road crew for
a corrupt warden in this film bashing prison corruption and big
business as the prisoners are being used for slave labor against
established laws to make a businessman a quick buck. Both themes
would be minimized or nonexistent in later such films, but this one's
as relevant as ever.
Michael
Curtiz's The
Cabin in the Cotton
(1932) has Richard Barthelmess as the son of a cotton picker in a
work situation about to explode as some of the other pickers are
stealing cotton, as they feel they are being cheated by their
landowner, then you have Bette Davis as his daughter with her eye on
our hapless lead. Thus, we get the early classic Davis line, "I'd
love to kiss you, but I just washed my hair" that helped
establish her as a rising star at Warner. Class division, robbery by
the wealthy, official oppression, prejudice and lust are items that
would have made this film impossible to make this a few years later.
Not bad.
Harry
Beaumont's When
Ladies Meet
(1933) has the upper crust getting involved with extramarital
affairs, something the code would later say no one (especially those
with money) does, but this is a smart, not bad film and the
conversations are almost as naturalistic as the kind from the newer
films reviewed above. Robert Montgomery, Ann Harding, Myrna Loy (who
was about to go through a real life such scandal at the time that
almost destroyed her career), Alice Brady and Frank Morgan make up
the really good cast.
Finally
in this set, Robert Florey's I
Sell Anything
(1934) was made when the code kicked in, but this tale of scams,
auctions, fraud and high society still has traces of the city films
of the pre-Code era and includes Pat O'Brien, Claire Dodd and Ann
Dvorak in this sort of heist film. It makes sense to include it here
and is not bad.
Volume
10
offers W.S. Van Dyke's Guilty
Hands
(1931) has Lionel Barrymore as a District Attorney about to see his
young daughter marry one of his friends his own age (!) and then
decides to kill him! Both the marriage and crime where he is the
respectable lead are soon not to be seen in Code Era films,
especially with the zeal in which Barrymore plays the killer. Kay
Francis, C. Aubrey Morris and Marge Evans are solid in the supporting
cast of this mystery where the audience knows who did it, but wonder
if the others will find out.
James
Flood & Elliott Nugent's The
Mouthpiece
(1932) has Warren William as a corrupt lawyer who will do anything to
make a buck or win a case, which would not fly as well a few years
later. This beings with his ego getting an innocent man sent to the
electric chair, then onto other schemes. William plays this to the
hilt, but the script is not bad, though there are a few flaws here
and a few things that go unaddressed.
Edward
Sutherland's Secrets
of the French Police
(1932) is the big surprise here, a mystery film that landed up
influencing the James Bond films, especially
Goldfinger,
involving kidnapping, brainwashing, body mutilation, murder and a
possible plot to overthrow a government or two when a flower gal
(Gwili Andre) is kidnapped and told she's the lost Russian Princess
Anastasia! A smart French Inspector (Frank Morgan, who shows up in
the film earlier in an interesting gag role) and a jewelry thief
(John Warburton) he is not fan of get together to find out what
exactly is going on. This is almost a horror film at times and the
best film on either set. Gregory Ratoff also stars.
Warren
William also shows up as the title character in Howard Bretherton &
William Keighley's The
Match King (1932)
is the silliest film here despite being a biopic, in which he somehow
becomes the top manufacturer of the title fire-starting stick and
this lands up getting him involved in multi-million dollar deals with
governments, debt, robbery, possible murder, sex (Glenda Farrell is
the female lead) and official corruption. Much of this would not be
possible under the code. The film gets silly, but it was worth
seeing once.
Archie
Mayo's Ever
in My Heart
(1933) is a melodrama with Barbara Stanwyck (an impressive early
performance) as a woman married to a German immigrant (Otto Kruger)
just before WWI breaks out and how ugly, hateful prejudice affects
them, her household, her little son and her life. It is very
brutally portrayed to such an ugly extent that you could not get this
made this honestly a few years later. Some parts just do not work,
but this is often intense and worth seeing for sure. Ruth Donnelly,
George Cooper and Ralph Bellamy also star.
For
more from the series, try out these links...
2
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6671/Forbidden+Hollywood+Collection+%E2
3
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8366/Forbidden+Hollywood+Collection+%E2%80%93+Vol
4,
5, 6 & 7
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12262/Forbidden+Hollywood:+Volume+4+-+7+(1932+%
8
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13192/Forbidden+Hollywood,+Volume+8+(1931+-+1934
Some
of the films have original or reissue trailers, but that is the
extent of any extras.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Splash,
mostly shot on 35mm film save a few HD-shot night scenes, is easily
the best playback performer on the list with fine color, depth and
detail. It is also a perfect match for the exotic locale the
characters inhabit. However, the
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image DVD and the anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Unknown
are much softer in their DVD versions than expected, so much so that
the 1.33
X 1 black & white image on all ten Forbidden
movies can compete (from age and damage!) or even surpass their
performance. Blu-ray versions of the DVD-only release could and
would only show improvement.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the Splash
is well mixed and presented enough for a dialogue-based film and is
easily the best sonic performer here too, while its lossy Dolby
Digital 5.1 DVD version is passable. Unknown
also has a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, but it is off, odd and has a
poor soundfield, yet I don't know if it is from the location
recording, mixing or both. That leaves lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
on all 10 Forbidden
films that can offer flaws, background hiss and minor flaws, but they
are often more consistent than Unknown.
To
order either of the Warner Archive DVD sets, go to this link for them
and many more great web-exclusive releases at:
https://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo