Beyond
Atlantis (1973/MVD/VCI
Blu-ray w/DVD)/Detour
(1945/PRC/Criterion Blu-ray)/Last
Man (2018/Lionsgate
Blu-ray)/Man From Atlantis
(1977 telefilm/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Quiller
Memorandum (1966)/The
River's Edge (1957/both
Fox/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-rays)
Picture:
B & B-/B/B+/B/B/B Sound: B-/B-/B+/C+/C+/B- Extras:
B/B-/C-/D/B-/B- Films: C+/B/C/C+/B-/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Quiller Memorandum
and River's
Edge Blu-rays
are now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, are limited
to only 3,000 copies each and can be ordered while supplies last,
while The
Man From Atlantis
is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series. All can be ordered from the links below.
Now
for some major genre films and a few near classics among them...
From
the Director of Beast
of Blood
and the Blood
Island Trilogy,
Philippine director Eddie Romero's 1973 B-movie masterpiece Beyond
Atlantis
lands on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of VCI. While it has a high end
budget for a Eddie Romero production, it's definitely far from
Hollywood. Featuring interesting underwater photography, a dash of
exploitation, and a very young Sid Haig, Beyond
Atlantis
is a fun time capsule piece, but doesn't quite live up to its iconic
poster.
The
film stars Patrick Wayne, John Ashley (a Blood
Island/Eddie
Romero collaborator), Leigh Christian, Lenore Stevens, and George
Nader. The plot of the film centers around a group of
adventure/thrill seekers who go to a remote island in search of
buried treasure. However, the inhabitants of the island aren't too
keen on giving up what is rightfully theirs...
Special
Features include...
Full
commentary track by filmmaker, Howard S. Berger and filmmaker Pinoy
film historian, Andrew Leavold
Video
Interviews with John Ashley, Leigh Christian and Sid Haig
Original
Theatrical Trailer
and
Original 30 & 60 second TV Spots
If
you're a fan of this film then you should definitely check out some
of Eddie Romero's other features, namely the Blood
Island Trilogy,
which is available on Blu-ray from Severin Films.
So
many bad copies on home video of Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour
(1945) have been issued, that only an expert could keep track. Made
by the very tiny PRC Studios that only lasted a few years, it is
considered a Film Noir classic written about any time Noir comes up
and taught in classes on the subject worldwide. A sort of lost film
with even respectable companies trying to put out the best copy they
could find,
Criterion has finally landed the definitive restoration of the film
that looks great and sounds about as good, now on Blu-ray and to the
shock of fans who have hoped this might turn up in a great edition.
Tom
Neal is a guy who falls for a gal at a club job where she sings and
he plays piano, but she moves from New York City to Hollywood,
leaving him behind for the moment. After a while, he calls her and
lets her know how much he loves her and will come out ASAP to
Tinseltown to be with her, but his financial situation means
hitchhiking and this becomes a disaster in the long term when he is
picked up by a shyster who lands up dead!
Will
he be held guilty for the man's murder when he died by accident?
Will he get in trouble for something else unexpected? Will the next
person he picks up be as much of a disaster? I she doomed no matter
what he does?
The
film epitomizes the existential dread of Noir characters doomed no
matter what they say, do or try to achieve, reflecting the anxiety of
an insecure life and cold world, including through one of Noir's
most important elements: the voice over. This one is classic enough
and tho0ugh he makes some dumb mistakes, they do not always seem as
problematic because he becomes a personal emotional wreck quickly
enough.
Running
about 70 minutes, this can get campy and even have some scenes that
would be considered howlers unintended, but the film moves along at a
brisk pace and is always interesting to watch. It is all the more
remarkable considering the ultra-low budget and its great casting
whose actors really deliver. Now also a darling classic of
independent filmmaking as well and the epitome of how to do a low
budget film well, Detour
has finally been saved and everyone can appreciate why it has been so
celebrated for over 75 years and counting. Criterion does it again!
Extras
include a booklet with great art design, tech info and an essay by
critic and poet Robert Polito, while the Blu-ray adds Edgar
G. Ulmer: The Man Off-Screen,
a 2004 documentary featuring interviews with filmmakers Roger Corman,
Joe Dante, and Wim Wenders and actor Ann Savage, new interview with
film scholar Noah Isenberg, author of Edgar
G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins
that runs about 22 minutes, a new program about the restoration of
Detour
and a brand new Trailer celebrating the film's reissue.
Hayden
Christensen (who will always be Anakin Skywalker to me) and Harvey
Keitel star in the new sci-fi/action film, The
Last Man
(2018). The bleak action thriller centers around the end of the
world and a vet named Kurt (Christensen) who believes that the world
is coming to an end. Rich with inspiration from other films of the
like such as Blade
Runner
and The
Book of Eli,
the film has some interesting production design, but a screenplay
that's a bit too ambitious for its budget.
The
film also stars Marco Leonardi, Liz Solari, and Fernan Miras.
This
is not terribly shot and definitely has a considerable budget behind
it, though not in the big leagues with a mixed bag in terms of visual
effects. A digital copy is also included.
The
only extra is a trailer for this and other Lionsgate releases.
While
Christensen and Keitel are both trying, the plot here is a bit too
jumbled and derivative of stronger works. In terms of a Blu-ray
presentation, however, the feature looks and sounds fine.
Lee
H. Katzin's Man
From Atlantis
1977 telefilm pilot had high hopes that it would spawn a big hit
series akin to The
Six Million Dollar Man
by way of Roeg's The
Man Who Fell To Earth
(1976) with David Bowie. Patrick Duffy is the title character, the
otherworldly human-looking entity that is finally dealing with those
'surface dwellers' makes sense to issue now (along with Beyond
Atlantis
above) thanks to the huge critical and commercial success of the new
Aquaman feature film (see our 4K coverage elsewhere on this site).
Duffy
was bound for success and landed up on the huge hit nighttime soap
opera series Dallas thanks to this show/franchise unfortunately being
cancelled after one season, but he is good here with hardly any
dialogue, looking much lower weight than most are used to seeing him
(including on the later sitcom hit Step
By Step)
is given the name 'Mark Harris' but the military people who find him,
one of whom he starts to really like.
Victor
Buono is the villain ready to launch nuclear missiles upon the world
from military submarines in what plays like a very low budget version
of the hit James Bond film The
Spy Who Loved Me,
which happens to have been released the same year. Still, having
Buono is a plus for this telefilm and adds to its curio value.
Apparently, the animation house Hanna-Barbera was involved in this
production and Kenner Toys (now part of Hasbro) was ready to do
tie-in toys, but that apparently never happened to any great extent
if at all. Too bad, because if developed well, this could have
caught on and been an interesting hit. Now you can see for yourself.
Warner
Archive has issued this as one of their exclusive Blu-ray releases
and hopefully, they'll get to the rest of the releases. I always
thought the font for the titles and credits melded well with the show
too.
There
are no extras.
Michael
Anderson's The
Quiller Memorandum
(1966) is one of the more interesting spy offerings from studios
rivaling United Artists and their mega success with the James Bond
films, still running today. Along with The
Chairman
and two Derek Flint films, Fox was not going to be left behind by the
trend and backed this smart British production with George Seagal as
the title character, a U.S. spy on loan to British allied spies to
crack a neo-Nazi spy cell in Cold War-divided Berlin. This is a more
serious spy film, trying to be more realistic than the Bond films at
this point, but like other similar outings, has off moments and trips
up at times on details that it should not.
No
less than Alec Guinness, Max Von Sydow and George Sanders make up the
remarkable supporting cast and the underrated Senta Berger gets the
female lead, then you have no less than Harold Pinter writing the
screenplay. Its films like this that made the bond producers pump up
their budgets and wild ideas, because this is very formidable
filmmaking in general and respects the audience unlike many other
action films and thrillers since. Segal holds his own as the lead
and against some of the best actors of all time and this is a film
all serious film fans should see at least once.
Extras
include a nicely illustrated booklet on the film including
informative text and yet another excellent, underrated essay by the
great film scholar Julie Kirgo, while the Blu-ray disc adds an
outstanding feature length audio commentary track by film scholars
Lee Pfeiffer & Eddie Friedfeld, an sonically impressive Isolated
Music Score track and an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Allan
Dwan's The
River's Edge
(1957) was the legendary journeyman director's attempt to continue
the color noir work he did on the underrated Slightly
Scarlet
(a 1956 RKO Technicolor, SuperScope film) at Fox using a limited
budget and some great talent that contractual circumstance made
possible in part. Thus, you have Ray Milland as a smooth talker up
to no good, Anthony Quinn playing against type as a cow rancher whose
wife (Debra Paget) is not always happy with their life, leaving room
for the unknown con artist to move into the situation.
The
problems here are not with money as much as they are with the fact
that the Noir elements do not always work out, the film does not show
us too much new, Milland is repeating himself a bit here, some
situations are a little off and Noir itself was starting to conclude
as a movement. Still, you get some interesting moments enough to see
the film and the early use of CinemaScope is not bad and does not
date a poorly as other films of the time.
I
like the actors, so they do overcome some issues the film has by
their sheer talent and it also shows then-veteran Dwan could still go
a few rounds with the best director around.
Extras
include a nicely illustrated booklet on the film including
informative text and yet another excellent, underrated essay by the
great film scholar Julie Kirgo, while the Blu-ray disc adds
a
feature length audio commentary track by film scholars Alain Silver &
James Ursini, Isolated Music Score track with sound effects and an
Original Theatrical Trailer.
Beyond
Atlantis
hasn't been readily available for years and so this release is a bit
monumental for fans. Presented in 1080p widescreen for the first
time on any format, and sporting a 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio
struck from the original 35mm negative, this is the best this film
has ever looked. Aided by an English: LPCM 2.0 trick that's solid as
well. Also included is a standard definition DVD edition with
similar, yet compressed specs, that still look better than any
previous release of the film.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Detour
comes from a 35mm print source that shockingly come off of the
long-lost negative, so additional work was done and this is the best
the film has looked since the first few decades of release. You can
really see how well this is shot and lit, even when some of the low
budget work looks worse in back projection and the like. The PCM
Mono sound comes form 35mm and even a 16mm source to reconstruct the
sound to be its best and all this painstaking work has paid off.
The
Last Man
is presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio
of 2.40:1 and a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix, the film
looks and sounds fine for the Blu-ray format.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image on Man
From Atlantis
proves yet again how great a 35mm TV production can look from decades
ago when it has been taken care of and was shot well to begin with.
Since this was a pilot for a TV series that lasted a season, the
makers were serious about this looking good and I was impressed by
the color and even some of thew depth and detail. Yes, some visual
effects look dated here to, but other parts hold up well and I hope
this is a continuing trend.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Quiller
far outdoes the old DVD edition with much better clarity, depth and
far better color range. Many scenes in this Panavision 35mm shot
thriller look incredibly vivid and will impress, while the DeLuxe
color holds up as well as it can for its time. Some shots are
process shots or bad optical printing, but that is limited. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is fine for its time,
but shows its age, something the isolated music score surpasses. Too
bad the film is not in stereo or multi-channel sound.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Edge
can show the age of the materials used as expected, but this has been
restored as well as possible and the DeLuxe Color here is also not
bad, if not spectacular. They want to show off color, yet be
realistic enough on the locations that the color does not render them
phony. Soundtracks include DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo and 2.0 Mono lossless mixes, but no
multi-channel tracks, so any 4-track magnetic soundmaster with
traveling dialogue and sound effects must be missing at the moment.
To
order The
Quiller Memorandum
and River's
Edge
limited edition Blu-rays, buy them while supplies last at these
links:
www.screenarchives.com
and
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
...and
to order The
Man From Atlantis
is Warner Archive Blu-ray, go to this link for them and many more
great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.wbshop.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James
Lockhart (Beyond,
Last)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
