5ive/Getting Straight/Gumshoe/Our Man In Havana/Vibes (Sony Martini Movies/DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Films: C+/C+/C+/B-/D
In a mix
of good and one very bad film, the second wave of DVD feature films Sony is
dubbing Martini Movies is a great way to get unusual Columbia Pictures gems and
other films of note out on DVD and seen by the public, whether re-seen for the
first time in eons or for the first time.
For this wave, just about all are welcome…
5ive (1951) is written and directed by
the then-prolific and still underrated Arch Oboler (also know for his many
radio drama scripts) as slowly but surely, five people who have somehow
survived a nuclear holocaust find each other.
It is amazing they do not suffer more radiation damage, but character
actors William Phipps, James Anderson, Susan Douglas, Charles Lampkin and Earl
Lee are convincing and more than up to the task of pulling this off. It is in good black and white and runs just
right at 91 minutes.
Getting Straight (1970) is part of a cycle of
counterculture dramas the major studios either made or picked up after the
phenomenal success of Columbia’s own Easy
Rider (for which this film shares the same Director of Photography, the
great Laszlo Kovacs) and opens with a song that sounds very much like Simon
& Garfunkel and “The Sounds Of
Silence” (ala The Graduate) but
is not, but it is screaming youth movement.
Elliott Gould (in overdrive here and hot off of hits like M*A*S*H) plays a teacher who is not
certain as to whether he is happy or not as his place of higher education
employment is about to explode in riots.
Candice Bergen plays a love interest and the supporting cast includes
Jeff Corey, Cecil Kellaway, John Rubinstein, Max Julien, Billie Bird and a then-unknown Harrison
Ford. A time capsule that has aged in
odd ways, Director Richard Rush had directed the cult counterculture film Psych-Out, would go onto direct the
cult fave The Stunt Man and flat
Bruce Willis thriller Color Of Night. It is worth a look, if not the best example
of a film of its type.
Gumshoe (1971) was only Steven (The Grifters, The Queen) Frears’ second feature film and part of an underrated
cycle of deconstructive films about detectives (the hard boiled type or
outright sleuth type) that was happening at the turn of the decade. In this case, Albert Finney is a stand-up
comic/bingo caller who finds himself in a Humprey Bogart situation (pre and
post Noir) caught up in intrigue and the like.
It is a comedy, but also a smart reflection (written by actor and
sometimes writer Neville Smith) that is not always successful, but worth a look
and the bigger a fan you are of this type of fiction, the better the film
works. Featuring some of the best
cinematography in the career of Director of Photography Chris Menges (Notes On A Scandal, The Reader, The Mission), a music score by no less than Andrew Lloyd Webber
(one of his rare non-Musical/vocal outings) and a strong supporting cast in Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay, Janice
Rule, George Innes and Carolyn Seymour among others, you’ll want to go read a
stack of like books and watch the original films.
Our Man In Havana (1959) is the gem in the bunch, aging
better than worse and being (along with many Hitchcock films) has Director
Carol Reed revisiting Third Man
(down to adapting another Graham Greene novel) territory in Cuba (literally
just after their “revolution” in a story taking place just before it) in a
forerunner of the James Bond series.
However, it is more of a somewhat bureaucratic, thinking thriller with
Alec Guiness taking a break form his comedy cycle as he becomes the title man
for the British as the Cold War is at its iciest. Shot in CinemaScope and black & white by
the great Oswald Morris, B.S.C. (whose later such work includes The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and
stepping in to save the Bond film The
Man With The Golden Gun) looks good and is well-edited by Bert Bates. The cats is also a big plus, including Ernie
Kovacs, Burl Ives in one of his better non-music turns, Noel Coward, Maureen
O’Hara, Ralph Richardson and Jo Morrow.
Vibes (1988) is the real dud here,
wasting Cyndi Lauper (and her career, along with her equally unfortunate
flirtation with commercial wrestling) as well as Peter Falk (in what is easily
his worst film) and Jeff Goldblum (his worst among several duds). Lauper and Goldblum are psychics hired by
Faulk to find a fortune half a world away, but this is no Indiana Jones, is really bad and was the kind of instant
bomb that almost sunk Columbia at the time.
Sony bought the studio and had to stop disasters like this. The director is ken Kwapis, also known for Sesame Street – Follow That Bird!
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 image on all but Havana
(2.35 X 1) and 5ive (1.33 X 1) image
look about the same, with some detail limits in each and Vibes looks and sounds the worst.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 on all the films (Vibes Dolby A-type Stereo is weak, has lame surrounds and is
actually less stable than the older films) all even out in quality, despite
some age differences and all (save Vibes)
were monophonic theatrical releases. Extras
include two Martini trailers on all the discs and original trailers for all the
films released, except Straight,
which is missing it’s for some reason.
- Nicholas Sheffo
