Directed by Richard Thorpe (The Honeymoon Machine), the new Warner Archive release is one of many retellings of the King Arthur legend, complete with the sword Excalibur and the Holy Grail. It’s neither the worst nor the best movie to tackle such rich subject matter, but for whatever reason, this production strips out all instances […]
Warner Archive
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Flareup
Utterly kaleidoscopic credits to a most swinging Les Baxter score give way to the story of Vegas belle Michelle (Welch). One sunny, carefree afternoon, she’s drinking tea and making shopping plans with pals Iris (soap actress Pat Delaney) and Nikki (Oklahoma-born Sandra Giles). Plans are broken when Alan (Luke Askew, Easy Rider), the jealous loser […]
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The House Across the Street / Homicide
House is the better of the two, opening on the suburbian utopia of Hopkins Street on the morning of April 20. It’s a placid existence, complete with home delivery from the milkman. But when a phony postal worker knocks off a would-be trial witness on the watch of a rookie cop, there goes the neighborhood. […]
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While the Patient Slept
The MOD DVD has the Federie clan gathering again on a dark and stormy night at the behest of patriarch Richard (Walter Walker, Dangerous) “to watch me die.” But first, he has something to say to everyone. Before he can, however, it’s R.I.P. via gunshot — oh, not for Richard, but one of his sons […]
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The Case of the Black Parrot
Aboard an ocean liner depicted by really rough stock footage, intrepid journalist Jim Moore (William Lundigan, The Sea Hawk) and his ukulele-strumming cameraman/war buddy, Tripod (Eddie Foy Jr., The Pajama Game), are on a doozy of an assignment when they’re told about an impending strike of The Black Parrot, Europe’s master criminal. Explains old rich […]
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Grand Central Murder
She receives just such a threatening call from an ex (“Death and me are just around the corner,” he warns, “don’t keep us waiting”), so she locks herself in a private train car at Grand Central Station, saying, “He’ll never find me there.” Famous last words. And among the first uttered in Grand Central Murder, […]
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The Cats / Hate for Hate
Proof is in two 1960s obscurities making their MOD DVD debut from Warner Archive, both from Italy: The Cats, which is not about cats, and Hate for Hate, which I did not. One of the most memorable lines in 1968’s The Cats — aka The Bastard — is delivered by Rita Hayworth, whose hot-mess-of-a-mother character […]
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The Split / The Slams
Proof positive comes in DVD debuts of The Split and The Slams, both from Warner Archive. More popular entries exist on his filmography, but these two are important all the same, for putting a black man front and center, above the title, in pictures meant for mass consumption. Both also sound alike in title and […]
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The Steel Trap
Jim Osborne (Joseph Cotten, Citizen Kane) is an all-American, suit-and-tie family man who commutes to work, where he’s the assistant manager of a bank. To get into the vault, he and his fellow execs take turns entering safe codes as a safety measure … but he’s smart enough to memorize the others’ numbers. That’s because […]
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Period of Adjustment / Tall Story
She plays Isabel, a nurse from Sweetwater, Texas, who impulsively quits her job because she’s just as impulsively married one of her patients, George (Jim Hutton), a Korean War vet with a serious case of the shakes. Their union is off to a less-than-stellar start; Isabel erupts in tears leaving the church because he’s driving […]