Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF October 8th, 2018

Buiti binafi!, Another modest week with Blu-ray reviews of packages by BFI, Twilight Time, ViaVision, Artsploitation, Mill Creek Entertainment, Cult Films of films directed by John Ford, Paul Schrader, Jacques Rivette, Sidney Lumet, Henry King, Michael Radford, William Castle, Richard Marquand and others. Our Calendar has extensive updates of films-to-Blu-ray, including films by Vera Chytilová, Robert Altman, Jean Vigo, Basil Dearden, John Schlesinger, Bob Fosse, Richard Donner, Stanley Kubrick, Takeshi Kitano Dario Argento, George A. Romero, Buzz Kulik, Sam Raimi, Paul Schrader, Lasse Hallström, Donald Petrie, Jonathan Demme, Ted Kotcheff and more. We have our Feature Blu-ray is posted for OCTOBER Enjoy!!

LISTING PAGES:

HAGSPloitation, BLAXPloitation, OZPloitation, 'WOMEN IN PRISON' CINEMA, CREATURE-FEATURES (on Blu-ray!), PRE-CODE FILMs (on Blu-ray!), SILENT ERA FILMs (on Blu-ray!), HAMMER Studios (on Blu-ray!) The 100 BEST Neo-Noirs (on Blu-ray!), The GREATEST 100 Westerns (on Blu-ray!), Giallo on Blu-ray!, ESSENTIAL NOIR on Blu-ray!, Shopping Guide for Blu-rays at Amazon.FR (France), Shopping Guide for Blu-rays at Amazon.DE (Germany) and our LATEST ARTICLES: Movies From... the End of the World,  The Beauties of Star Trek (TOS)

Feature Blu-rays chosen for the Month of OCTOBER!

FOLLOW US on TWITTER! (where we post important reviews, contests - prizes, polls, calendar updates - plus much more...)

NOTE: If there are DVD or Blu-ray titles you'd like us to cover - please feel free to recommend!

Gary at 2ze dot com

ONE VOICE (not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey): Top mention this week is BFI's Blu-ray of Paul Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers - a fascinating film with beautiful scenery that benefits from the HD presentation. My favorite film this week is Sidney Lumet's memorable cold-war thriller Fail-Safe and although the ViaVision Blu-ray is Region FREE transfer is not ideal it remains a significant jump beyond the old DVD including a director commentary. Michael Radford's Il Postino get a Blu-ray release from Cult Films and it's 1080P on a dual-layered disc with a high bitrate. It's a brilliant and beautiful drama that deserves to be called a masterpiece. BFI have transferred Jacques Rivette's Paris Nous Appartient to Blu-ray including a new commentary by film scholar Adrian Martin. The film is strongly recommended and captures the mood of paranoia and uncertainty of that Cold War period. Henry King's vengeance western The Bravados with Gregory Peck get a Blu-ray release from Twilight Time looking and sounding marvelous. They have also brought John Ford's The Last Hurrah to Blu-ray. A 'barn-burning political film/character study' starring Spencer Tracy. BFI have put Richard Marquand's Eye of the Needle on Blu-ray. The second worlds war is ultimately reduced to three people - one Donald Sutherland playing a Nazi spy - stranded on a rain-soaked Scottish island. Delicious. Once again, no one is arguing with the ultra-low price of Millcreek's William Castle Double Feature: 13 Ghosts/13 Frightened Girls Blu-ray. Two fun horrors in the director's inimitable style. I admit I liked the post-apocalypse thriller Molly as one young woman’s determined struggle to survive in an inhospitable world. It gets a Blu-ray release from Artsploitation. Cool eye-candy. The Other Side of Midnight, now on twilight Time Blu-ray, is often seen as the epic that wasn't - a soapy, long-winded, romance partially saved by Susan Sarandon. Meh - not uninteresting. On DVD I covered VCI's Boris Karloff Collection - all 4 films and there SD transfers are duds but the review does recommend some other boxsets and films of the iconic horror star.

"The only point in making money is, you can tell some big shot where to go" - Humphrey Bogart

Buy a friend a coffee this month. Make DVDBeaver the friend, and do it monthly. Please?

Il Postino BD - Telling the fictional story of the real-life Nobel laureate poet Pablo Neruda's exile to a tiny island off Italy where, being a high-profile figure, he receives such huge quantities of mail that the local post office must hire an extra postman: Il Postino. Though shy and poorly educated, our postman (Massimo Troisi) is so intrigued by Neruda (Philippe Noiret) that he devises ploys to engage the attention of the great poet. The unlikely duo become friends as Neruda is charmed by the fresh simplicity of the postman whose love for poetry he then uses to woo local beauty, Beatrice (Maria Grazia Cucinotta). Blu-ray Release Date: October 15th, 2018

The Other Side of Midnight BD - Beautiful Noelle Page meets dashing WWII American pilot Larry Douglas in France and falls in love. She expects him to marry her, but instead Larry abandons her. In the United States, successful Catherine Alexander meets Larry Douglas and they marry. But Noelle hasn't forgotten Larry even as she's become a successful actress. She maneuvers to have Larry hired as the private pilot of her wealthy and powerful lover Constantin Demiris so she can seek revenge on him, but instead she and Larry rekindled their passion. Desperate to be together, Larry and Noelle make deadly plans. But soon the lovers face a terrible fate determined by the jealous Demiris using Catherine as his pawn. Blu-ray Release Date: October, 2018

Molly BD - An electrifying and imaginative tale of one young woman’s determined struggle to survive in an inhospitable world. In a barren landscape ravished by war, Molly, a super-powered young woman, roams the violent post-apocalyptic landscape, armed only with a bow and arrow, to confront the dangers around her. When a sadistic ringmaster who run an underground fight club hears of her supernatural abilities he sends his sociopathic marauders to capture her and make her a star attraction in his cage fights to the death. Blu-ray Release Date: October 2nd, 2018

The Last Hurrah BD - The legendary John Ford directs screenwriter Frank S. Nugent’s adaptation of Edwin O’Connor’s novel, the barn-burning political film/character study, The Last Hurrah (1958). The singular Spencer Tracy stars as an old-school Irish-American pol, mayor of “a New England City” that just might be Boston; as he faces a potentially rough fifth campaign, he is observed by his journalist nephew (Jeffrey Hunter), fighting charges of graft and abuse of power even as he is assisted and/or opposed by a gallery of colorful characters. Blu-ray Release Date: October, 2018

Paris Nous Appartient BD - Jacques Rivette, the great cinematic visionary and probably least known of the major French Wave directors, started making his first film in 1957 and completed it slowly over a period of two years, as money allowed. Finally released in 1961, Paris nous appartient brilliantly captured the mood of paranoia and uncertainty of that Cold War period. Featuring cameos from fellow New Wave directors Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, and Jacques Demy; a striking musique concrète score, and Charles Bitsch's stunning black and white photography. BFI Blu-ray Release Date: September 24th, 2018

The Bravados BD - Four men are sentenced to hang in the small town of Rio Arriba, and Jim Douglass (Gregory Peck) is glad to see it happen. Jim believes the men murdered his wife and wants them to suffer. However, things go awry when the convicts escape from jail, kidnapping young Emma (Kathleen Gallant) as they gallop out of town. A search party forms with Jim in the lead, especially intent on catching them. He encounters each villain individually, growing closer to rescuing Emma and exacting his revenge. Blu-ray Release Date: October, 2018

Fail-Safe BD - Henry Fonda portrays the President of the United States in a role he wears like a tailor made suit. Attempts to abort the mission fail and the President is left with no more options... aside from the unthinkable. Communicating with the aptly crippled Secretary of Defense, various military personnel, visiting political scientist Groeteschele (Walter Matthau) and the Russian Premier (through his his translator 'Buck' played by Larry Hagman) a most impossible, totally unacceptable decision is absolutely believably concluded. Stunning is an understatement. Blu-ray Release Date: September 16th, 2016

Eye of the Needle BD - Based on Ken Follett's best-seller, Eye of the Needle (1981) is a moody thriller set during the waning days of World War II and focusing on a ruthless Nazi spy (Donald Sutherland) operating covertly in England. Discovering vital information about the upcoming D-Day invasion, he plots a return to Germany, only to be stranded on an island off the coast of Scotland; there, his icy resolve is disturbed by an unexpected relationship with a woman (Kate Nelligan) living in isolation with her bitter disabled husband (Christopher Cazenove). BFI Blu-ray Release date: September 24th, 2018

The Comfort of Strangers BD - Mary (Natasha Richardson) and Colin (Rupert Everett) attempt to reinvigorate their flagging relationship with a romantic trip to Venice. Soon, though, they find themselves drawn into a complex web of deceit, passion, perversion and sexual intrigue, subtly spun by mysterious Robert (Christopher Walken) who resides nearby in palatial splendour with his wife Caroline (Helen Mirren). Blu-ray Release Date: September 24th, 2018

William Castle Double Feature: 13 Ghosts/13 Frightened Girls BD - 13 Ghosts (1960) - Has a penniless man inheriting a mansion from his late uncle. It turn out that it is inhabited by 12 ghosts which special glasses enable the family to see. It also turns out that Uncle Cyrus left his fortune somewhere in the house. 13 Frightened Girls! (1963) - A bunch of privileged teenagers at a boarding school intersect with a tale of espionage. Silly but fun stuff. Blu-ray Release Date: July 19th, 2016

Boris Karloff Collection - Firstly, Jack Hill and Juan Ibáñez are credited as directors of these last four Boris Karloff films. They are low budget and made in Mexico. They seems to be produced by the same entity and share similarities (see titles above). Despite some of the production values being surprisingly good - as in costumes of the gothic period efforts - there is also over-the-top make-up, gore effects and incongruous sleaze in the films. In short - they are very poor and Karloff is in them mostly in brief sequences. DVD Release Date: September 11th, 2018
 

Next 2 weeks on the Calendar