Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Gangster > Crime > Dark Comedy > Melodrama > War > Silent Cinema > Horror > Thriller > Psychological > Boxcar Bertha (1972/Scorsese/American International/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Captive (1915/Paramount/Olive Blu-ray)/Cat People (1942/RKO/Warner Bros./Criterion Blu-ray)/High Noon (19

Boxcar Bertha (1972/Scorsese/American International/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Captive (1915/Paramount/Olive Blu-ray)/Cat People (1942/RKO/Warner Bros./Criterion Blu-ray)/High Noon (1952/Republic/Olive Signature Edition Blu-ray)/On Dangerous Ground (1952/RKO/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Patterns (1956/Rod Serling/Film Detective Blu-ray)/The Rain People (1969/Coppola/Warner Archive DVD)



Picture: B/B/B/B/B/B-/C Sound: B-/B/B-/B-/B-/C+/C Extras: C/D/B/B-/B-/D/D Films: C+/C+/B+/B+/B+/B/C+



PLEASE NOTE: The Boxcar Bertha Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last, while the On Dangerous Ground Blu-ray and The Rain People DVD are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.



Up next are a mix of classics and underseen films by some of the most writers and directors ever....



Martin Scorsese's Boxcar Bertha (1972) has Barbara Hershey as the title character in this 1920s Roger Corman-produced gangster film wanting to capitalize on Penn's Bonnie & Clyde (1967), but despite more talent than usual involved for a Corman film, the results are ambitious-but-mixed. Hershey and David Carradine are good together as two lovers who are on the take, but its low-budget limits still show somewhat and some scenes just don't work. Despite that, it does a decent job of evoking and portraying the period.


It is also a surprise it is being issued as a Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray, a first for a Scorsese film, but there is still a larger audience for even this flawed film, and handling it like this will hopefully give it new attention. The Corringtons, who wrote the original Omega Man with Charlton Heston (later remade as the Will Smith I Am Legend; both from the Richard Matheson book) wrote the screenplay and the supporting cast includes John Carradine, Barry Primus and Bernie Casey. Also, even more so than when the DVD was issued, the period props were easier and cheaper to get in the early 1970s then they are now or will ever be. Thus, you should give this one a good look.


Extras include a brand-new illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and another excellent, underrated essay by the great film scholar Julie Kirgo, while the Blu-ray adds a fine-sounding Isolated Music Score and an Original Theatrical Trailer.



Cecil B. DeMille's Captive (1915) is one of the oldest films we've ever reviewed, but we can NEVER review enough silent cinema, especially since the majority of it has been lost to neglect, hatred of the arts and the highly flammable nature of the first film stock known as nitrate. Still, here we are with an early film from the man eventually known for his giant epic films and is the 12th feature he made, even at 51 minutes, the year of Griffith's Birth Of A Nation. A woman named Sonya (Blanche Sweet) suffers after her brother is killed, but is 'given' a Turkish captive (House Peters) to help her with tough farming work. They start liking each other, but sad new unexpected events start to twist and turns their lives.


Not bad at all for its time, helping a young Paramount Studios build itself into the #2 studio in Hollywood. Since so many of the pre-1948 Paramount films are not seen enough (outside if early gems like this, lost films and the titles owned by Universal, who does not promote them much), it is worth seeing just for the style and feel the studio was developing at the time. DeMille would soon move into sound and epics, but would return to relatively smaller films (see Madame Satan (1930) reviewed elsewhere on this site) at times, proving he could handle all kinds of filmmaking. Captive is certainly worth a good look.


There are no extras, but for such an old film, that would have been nice.



Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (1942) is one of the all-time Horror, Thriller, Suspense classics, a groundbreaking tale pf psychological horror and more made just as filmmakers like Hitchcock were exploring early ideas of what psychology was and making them cinematic. One of the biggest hits RKO ever had, the film stars Simone Simon as a young sketch artist who is about to discover she may be linked to a terrifying past and legacy that she cannot escape, but a young man (Kent Smith) starts to fall for her when they meet, but can even he help her against the terror that is about to begin?


In one of the best developments in recent home video, Warner Bros. has finally decided to start licensing films to Criterion, thus making this Blu-ray possible (when Criterion had 12-inch LaserDiscs of RKO, Warner films up to 1948 and MGM titles to 1986, they were by way of Turner Entertainment before the current Warner Studio bought his company) and just as Warner continues to spend big to fix their back catalog. That helps make this great new edition possible.


Extras include an illustrated high-quality paper foldout on the film including informative text, transfer details and an excellent essay Darkness Betrayed by film scholar Geoffrey O'Brien, while the Blu-ray adds the excellent 2005 feature length audio commentary track by Gregory Mank including archival audio clips by Simone Simon, an interview with the great Cinematographer John Bailey on the look of the film, 1979 interview with Director Tourneur on the film and the feature-length documentary on the film's producer, Val Lewton: The Man In The Shadows (2008), narrated by Martin Scorsese.


Know that Warner Archive is issuing other Lewton/RKO thrillers on DVD we will cover soon and hope for more on Blu-ray and DVD soon.



Fred Zinneman's High Noon (1952) is the classic Revisionist Western that did flt in the face of the Hollywood Blacklist and may have helped temporarily save the genre in the long run by getting it to be more honest. We previously reviewed the much referenced, discussed and imitated film (think Peter Hyams' Outland) at this link...


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7136/High+Noon+(1952/Lionsgate+2-Disc+Ultimate+Editi


This is the first of two releases in Olive Pictures new Signature Edition Blu-ray series (the other being the other giant Republic Pictures Western groundbreaker Johnny Guitar, which we hope to see soon) with upgraded transfers and new extras in this case. Thus, it is worthy of a Criterion release all around and the lone man again evil criminals and a scarred, complacent town making things much worse is as relevant as ever before. With the recent wave of revival (if not revisionist) Westerns we've seen, its interesting how well this holds up to them. This is now the edition to get.


Extras include an illustrated booklet with Nick James' essay Uncitizened Kane, while the Blu-ray disc adds an Original Theatrical Trailer and four Making Of featurettes: Mark Goldblatt talking about the film's editing in A Ticking Clock, A Stanley Kramer Production, Imitation Of Life: The Hollywood Blacklist and High Noon and Oscars & Ulcers: The Production History of High Noon narrated by the late Anton Yelchin.



Nicholas Ray's On Dangerous Ground (1952) is the great, true, real, authentic Film Noir with (as noted before) the amazing Ida Lupino as a blind woman who might just have screwed-up police officer Robert Ryan's last chance for some kind of redemption after his life has taken a bad turn, but her brother will twist things further. A. I. Bezzerides, who's Kiss Me Deadly (1955, reviewed on Criterion Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) a few years later would be the peak of the Noir movement, wrote an amazing, enduring screenplay here. Ward Bond, Charles Kemper and Ed Begley also star in this winner produced by ever-great John Houseman and featuring a music score by Bernard Herrmann so incredible, that it may be one of the greatest he ever created. As soon as it kicks in with the opening RKO logo, the film just takes off like all great films do.


Warner has issued this classic RKO Studios film through their Warner Archive series (only sold online) in a restored edition that along with Cat People, shows their work to restore the RKO Catalog is moving along extremely well. There is an excitement in seeing RKO's best films restored to their unique, original luster and then, the studio's greatness and influence on world cinema becomes all the more clear. It is an under-reported event for all serious film fans.


Extras here include an Original Theatrical Trailer and repeat the fine feature length audio commentary track from the DVD by film scholar Glenn Eriksen. Note that Film Score Monthly's FSM CD music soundtrack label's limited edition release of Herrmann's score reviewed elsewhere on this site is still not sold out, if you're interested in getting it while supplies last.



Fiedler Cook's feature film of Rod Serling's Patterns (1956) has Van Heflin in his most underrated performance as an up and coming corporate executive, hired off of being an engineer to be in the rather cold, inefficient offices of the big company that seems to want him to replace longtime executive Briggs (Ed Begley), but both are pawns for the CEO (future Twilight Zone alum Everett Sloane) who want to replace the 'old guy' early with the new hire so he himself can wield the most continuous power there. However, the personable engineer is not stupid and so easily bought off, controlled or sold out, leading to a battle rarely seen or heard.


Film Detective has released the first Blu-ray of the film we know of and it is a welcome addition in the format of an orphan, public domain film of serious importance. If anything, it is more relevant than ever as is the case with Serling's best work. If you've put off seeing this one or just found out about it, here's your chance to catch up with a real gem.


There are sadly no extras, but this is a title that really needs some.



Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People (1969) is not his first feature film, but a somewhat underrated drama with James Caan as a one-time big football player in a small town, but something is wrong. We slowly learn he was in an accident that ruined his life and caused permanent brain damage, while Shirley Knight is a woman sick of her confined life and leaves her husband, discovering our one-time sports hero. The result is a road trip movie with a difference, a personal character study penned by Coppola the is beautiful at times, dark and with a healthy cynicism of how oddly our inhumanities in even small measures ruin things unexpectedly.


Robert Duvall turns up later in a key role and despite some obvious moments at times, the film just holds up together to the end. I like the look ad feel of this work and it is a personal breakthrough for Coppola as well as a great showcase for some of the best actors everyone was about to hear more of.


There are no extras, but you would think extras are inevitable.



The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer Boxcar shows the age of the materials used somewhat, but this looks like a new HD master and surpasses the old MGM DVD with much better color, color range, clarity and Movielab & DeLuxe color processing looks great throughout. This is as authentic to the film as everything I've ever seen on it and you'll be impressed with the upgrade.


The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white with tinting, digital High Definition image transfer on Captive is in amazing shape for a film over 100-years-old and though it can show the age of the materials used, so much of it looks fresh and new as this has miraculously survived. Those not used to seeing silent movies will be very surprised and even stunned by how good some shots look and proves the greatness of celluloid film (nitrate, acetate and polyester/ESTAR) yet again.


The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer on Cat People is a great upgrade from so many poor, older transfers of the film, though a few parts can obviously show the age of the materials used. Video Black is rich, yet shadow detail is excellent and revealing of the true look of the film in ways not seen in a very long time, really experiencing the kind of darkness the filmmakers intended, including demo shots. Like future Lewton-produced films, it came up with a new look in Horror that is still with us today and more than holds up and influences cinema to this day. Impressive!


The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer on High Noon shows the age of the materials used for the opening credits and in a few other spots, but this too is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film with major improvements of over depth, detail, jetter blacks, more ivory whites and just how good the film was as originally shot. Even with an older Blu-ray issued, this is the best the film has ever looked outside of the best 35mm prints.


The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer on Dangerous sometimes shows the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film, including the Warner DVD we covered years ago as this is a brand new HD master from the original 35mm camera materials. The result has demo shots and shows a side of Noir hat has been hidden, even buried in the RKO archives for too long. See it and be impressed!


The 1080p 1.66 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer on Patterns can definitely show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film on DVD, including the old Roan Group release (later reissued by Troma when they bought that catalog, then did little with it). Being an orphan film, the 35mm materials are not in great shape and little money was available to restore it, but this is the best I've seen as a film fan, so as a big Serling fan who loved the Twilight Zone Blu-ray releases, this belongs on the shelf next to all 5 seasons of that all-time classic.


The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Rain comes from a good print with good color, but is a soft older transfer with little flaws throughout and the film was originally issued in dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor 35mm prints. I like the look of the film and some shots still look good.



Being these films are so old, all the sound films are theatrical monophonic releases, while Captive has a much more recently recorded score, so its here in DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo and is fine if you land up liking it. I thought it was well recorded and not bad, but it did not stay with me either.


The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes on Boxcar, High Noon, Dangerous and Patterns to a lesser extent, certainly improve on their older, lossy Dolby Digital DVD presentations, offering warmer clearer sound. Of course, they are all limited by the original source materials and recording technology of the time, but they all sound as good as they ever have. The same can be said for the fine PCM 2.0 Mono on Cat People, cleaned up from what is ann original 35mm soundtrack negative (read optical sound) that adds detail and suspense you've never heard before from the film.


That leaves the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Rain People a generation down, making some dialogue hard to hear, so be careful of overly high playback levels and volume switching. Its passable otherwise.



You can order the Boxcar Bertha limited edition Blu-ray while supplies last, along with other great exclusives, at these links:


www.screenarchives.com


and


http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/



and to order either the On Dangerous Ground Blu-ray and/or The Rain People DVD, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:


http://www.wbshop.com/



- Nicholas Sheffo


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com