It’s new to the MOD DVD circuit from Warner Archive. It has cartoony credits, rock ‘n’ roll hits, super-cute women, a go-go club setting and almost no story. With those first four, however, it doesn’t need much of one. So why does “Girl” have such sour ratings and reviews? In other words, what do people […]
Warner Archive
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Beyond a Reasonable Doubt / While the City Sleeps
Neither has enjoyed as lasting an impact as “Heat” — not to mention Lang’s other masterpieces, from “M” to “Metropolis,” or his string of pulpy Dr. Mabuse features — but are by no means worth ignoring. The two are now available as manufactured-on-demand DVDs from Warner Archive, in remastered editions. As the “Reasonable” hero, Dana Andrews […]
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The Hour of 13
The black-and-white mystery from 1952 is the kind of late-Victorian period piece where you’ll hear lots of lines like, “Where to, guv’nor?” (I’m not certain, but “You look as shocked as if I caught you in a Turkish bath!” might be anachronistic.) As “Hour” unfolds, an eighth policeman has been slain on London’s streets under […]
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Bachelor in Paradise
When Hank Mancini seemingly provided every score. When “salad olives” could be featured on an endcap in a grocery store scene, and they wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb. When a 58-year-old Bob Hope could romantically pursue a 40-year-old Lana Turner, and the age difference didn’t come off creepy. We’re talking “Bachelor in Paradise,” […]
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The Night Digger
Although best-known as the creator of the enduring children’s characters Willy Wonka, Fantastic Mr. Fox and James (he of “and the Giant Peach” fame), writer Roald Dahl more than dipped his toes in darker, more adult works. One of those, “The Night Digger,” was a 1971 British thriller starring his then-wife, Patricia Neal, following her […]
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The Cobweb
Reminiscent of many an Arthur Hailey adaptation, the 1955 film concerns the goings-on of the mental cases who reside in the psychiatric facility known as The Castle, as well as the people who work there — primarily one Dr. Stewart McIver, which you’ll hear as “MacGyver” each and every time it’s spoken. Stewart (Richard Widmark) […]