Midnight Run (1988)

Martin Brest's 1988 road comedy that is a showcase of excellent performances, sharp writing and snappy editing gets a Blu-ray release courtesy of Second Sight Films.

Ex-cop turned bounty hunter Jack Walsh (Robert de Niro) is employed by bail-bondsman Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano with extra sleaze) to hunt down bail-jumping accountant Jonathan 'the Duke' Mardukas (Charles Grodin), so he can testify against the Chicago mob boss (Dennis Farina) who employed him. Unfortunately the Mafia are after Mardukas too, along with the FBI (led by Yaphet Kotto's Alonzo Mosely) and De Niro's old bounty-hunting rival Marvin Dorfler (John Ashton). With Mardukas afraid of flying, the only way Walsh can hope to get him back to Los Angeles in time is by road, rail, and anything land transport he can think of.

It would be tempting to put 'hilarity ensues' at the end of that paragraph above, but to do so would be unfair on a film that is a shining example of how to make a top-notch, well-crafted, entertaining mainstream movie. Made by director Martin Brest after he struck the big time with BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984) there's virtually nothing to dislike about MIDNIGHT RUN. The two hour-plus running time flies by in the company of the two leads, ably supported by a cast of character actors who all do their bit to make this a road movie comedy that's well above average.

George Gallo's script gets everything right, with snappy dialogue, and a plot that twists and turns with several different character threads but it never becomes confusing. It's interesting that De Niro, fresh from appearing in de Palma's THE UNTOUCHABLES, was keen to make a comedy as his next project, and he really is ideal in this. He is matched by Charles Grodin who provides an excellent counterpoint to de Niro's Jack Walsh and the chemistry between the two is a joy to behold.

Second Sight's Blu-ray comes packed with special features, including new interviews with Grodin, Pantoliano, John Ashton, George Gallo and an audio interview with Yaphet Kotto. You also get the original short promo film 'Making Midnight Run' which is looking a little bit rough as presumably it was taken from a VHS master.

            A shining example of mainstream movie entertainment, MIDNIGHT RUN is definitely worth a look of you're in the mood for a fine, well made comedy road movie.

Second Sight are releasing MIDNIGHT RUN on Region B Blu-ray on 20th April 2015

The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Alexander Mackendrick’s brutally cynical look at the life of New York Broadway columnists gets a new Region B Blu-ray release courtesy of Arrow Films.

Press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) has a problem. His job involves leaking tidbits of useful information about his clients to Broadway newspaper columnists in the hope they will mention them. He is in awe of J J Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster), the most popular, terrifying and probably insane of them all. Hunsecker has requested Falco to break up the burgeoning relationship between Hunsecker’s sister Susan (Susan Harrison) and band guitarist Steve Dallas (Martin Milner). 

         But, Hunsecker has stressed, at no point must his sister suspect he has had anything to do with it as he does not wish to damage his somewhat unhealthy-seeming relationship with her. What follows is a complex game of sleazy deceits as Falco tries to achieve his aim, get in further with Hunsecker, and so ascend the greasy pole of what he believes to be success.

Director Alexander Mackendrick started off at Ealing studios, directing such well-loved classics as WHISKEY GALORE (1949), THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (1951), and perhaps most famous of all, the glorious THE LADYKILLERS (1955). SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS is not like any of these, in fact you’d never think this tale of callousness and manipulation was by the same man. The screenplay is by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman and as you might expect is filled with pithy one-liners that are delivered expertly by two leads who have quite possibly never been better. 

         Curtis especially, despite his character’s infinite dislikeability, has you in the palm of his hand as you follow him around New York. Burt Lancaster is fascinating as the brilliant, complex, and obviously highly troubled Hunsecker, all contained madness and straining rage. The black and white photography is by veteran James Wong Howe and it looks the best it ever could in this Blu-ray transfer. Finally, Elmer Bernstein’s music is the sleazy jazz icing on this particular cake, with the kind of brass arrangements that makes you feel the need to open a window or take a bath once the film is over.

Arrow’s Blu-ray of SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS comes with a number of extras. We get an appreciation and a selected scene commentary by critic and film historian Philip Kemp, and the 1986 STV documentary on Mackendrick - ‘The Man Who Walked Away’. There’s also a trailer, reversible sleeve and a booklet with new writing on the film as well as Mackendrick’s analysis of different script drafts. There are a couple of different extras on the Criterion Region A disc, but the Arrow version looks just as good and is coming out a fair bit cheaper for UK buyers. 

Arrow Films are bringing out Alexander Mackendrick's THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS on Region B Blu-ray on Monday 30th March

Sherlock Holmes (1965)

I would never admit to being an expert on Sherlock Holmes. After all, there are far too many of those out there already, self-professed and otherwise. But I have always enjoyed the adventures of Conan-Doyle’s creation. I watched all the Basil Rathbone Universal series when I was a lad, loved Peter Cushing in the role, and have thoroughly enjoyed the latest modern version starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Oh, and I also happen to have read all the stories.

I have to confess, however, that I had never heard of the series under consideration here until the BFI flagged it up for review, so I’m guessing there will be a fair few Holmes fans who will also be unfamiliar with it. To put it into context, in 1964 the BBC filmed a one-off hour-long adaptation of the short story The Speckled Band, starring Douglas Wilmer as Holmes and Nigel Stock as Dr Watson. This was well-enough received that a full series followed a year later, and that’s what we have here - all eleven surviving episodes of that show, plus two reconstructions similar to the excellent work done on the BFI’s OUT OF THE UNKNOWN box set, spread over four DVDs.

The selection of stories to be adapted is interesting, and it's actually quite refreshing to come across a Holmes series that doesn’t do the usual old standbys. There’s no Hound of the Baskervilles in here, but we do get a version of The Six Napoleons (filmed in the Universal series as the marvellous pseudo-horror SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE PEARL OF DEATH) and some excellent Cornish horror featuring guest star Patrick Troughton in The Devil’s Foot. Otherwise it’s a collection of lesser-known Holmes stories which actually just makes this release all the more worthwhile. 

But are the episodes themselves any good? Well bearing in mind they are of the grainy, stagey, slightly camera-wobbly era of British television, they’re actually very good indeed. The Speckled Band feels like an early 1930s horror film with some good sets and a fine atmosphere, and this series is perhaps most going to suit you if you’re a fan of the Rathbone Universals rather than later colour adaptations. Some good location work helps add to the atmosphere as well.

And what of the leads? Wilmer actually makes an excellent Holmes in the classical mode, and Nigel Stock is far more Andre Morell than Nigel Bruce in his portrayal of Watson. As with many of the shows of this era, fans of British TV and cinema will enjoy playing spot the guest cast member, and overall I have nothing but good things to say about how enjoyable this particular series of SHERLOCK HOLMES is for the right kind of fan.

Extras include commentary tracks by director Peter Sasdy (The Illustrious Client) and Peter Cregeen (The Abbey Grange), as well as actors David Andrews and Trevor Martin (The Red-Headed League). Best of all, 95 year old Douglas Wilmer, still going strong, provides commentaries for the Devil’s Foot and Charles Augustus Milverton episodes. There’s also a Spanish audio version of The Speckled Band and an alternative title sequence for The Illustrious Client which incorporates images of the mighty Peter Wyngarde, as per his guest star contract. There’s also an excellent booklet with notes on the restoration, a career profile of Douglas Wilmer, and more. Another absolute classic television winner from the BFI.

The BFI are releasing the BBC's 1964-1965 series of SHERLOCK HOLMES in a 4 DVD set on the 30th March 2015

Rollerball (1975)

"Ham-fisted, lumbering and interminable. But it does look nice on Blu-ray."

The decade of cinema pre STAR WARS (1977) offered us some of the most iconic and memorable science fiction ever filmed. Movies like Franklin Schaffner’s PLANET OF THE APES (1967), Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1967), Cornel Wilde’s NO BLADE OF GRASS (1970) and Kubrick again with A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) did just what the best science fiction literature managed to do: they used the medium in ways we never thought possible, and as a result changed the way we viewed and reacted to the world around us. 

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Norman Jewison’s ROLLERBALL came along a bit later in 1975, in the wake of briskly creative SF pictures like Michael Crichton’s WESTWORLD (1973), overly pompous but still interesting movies like John Boorman’s ZARDOZ (1973) and remarkable literary adaptations like L Q Jones’ A BOY & HIS DOG (1975). ROLLERBALL has aspirations to be like many of the above and, indeed, is obviously influenced by some of them. Sadly, its nowhere near in the same league, despite a memorable central performance and an interesting idea.

Things finally hot up at the climax 

In an unspecified future where the mysterious corporations control everything, the most popular entertainment provided to the masses is a violent game called rollerball. This involves two teams competing on roller skates and motor bikes on a banked track for a steel sphere they have to pop into a receptacle, for which they gain points. It also seems to involve bashing the hell out of your opponent team members, although exactly how much you can do that isn’t made clear, but that doesn’t matter because the rules get changed later on when it seems you can hurt them a lot more and eventually kill everyone in sight. 

Innocent victims of the porno androids

The best at this game is Jonathan E (James Caan) who has become so popular as part of the Houston team that the corporations want him to retire. Jonathan doesn’t want to. They change the rules of the game to make it more dangerous for him. He keeps playing. Eventually he plays a game of rollerball where everyone ends up dead but him. I think the take home message is intended to be that individualism is a good thing, but I’m still not sure from the final freeze frame if we’re not just meant to think sport creates lunatics.

Probably the best kind of chair in which to weather the slow bits

There’s a lot wrong with ROLLERBALL, but I’ll concentrate on what it does right first. The game itself is an interesting invention, and the sequences (which feel as if they were directed by someone else entirely) do look properly dangerous at times. Caan is pretty good as the sportsman who can’t understand why he can’t keep doing the thing he’s good at, but it’s when he goes on a Quest To Find The Truth that it all goes very wobbly indeed, not least because of Ralph Richardson’s comedy turn as a librarian in Geneva that feels as if it’s been ported in from another film. There is a prolonged party scene at one point that’s supposed to be decadent but just feels like the opening of some bizarre android porno. And why do they start shooting trees? There’s a pleasing 2001 vibe to some of the scenes but on the whole everything is just too slow and ponderous. 

"To be honest I'm not that worried as I shall be playing God in TIME BANDITS in a few years' time"

ROLLERBALL desperately wants to be an SF Film With A Message. Unfortunately for it there is plenty of SF out there from the same era that does the job so much better. If you want a Bread and Circuses-style social commentary, watch Nigel Kneale’s YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS (1968). If it’s a science fiction satire using dangerous sports you want then Paul Bartel’s DEATH RACE 2000 (1975) does the job very nicely. Compared to these Norman Jewison’s ROLLERBALL feels ham-fisted, lumbering, and interminable. But it does look nice on Blu-ray. 

Here we go again. And again. And again.

If you’re a fan of ROLLERBALL Arrow’s Blu-ray comes with plenty of extras, many of them ported over from previous DVD releases. These include separate audio commentaries from director Jewison and writer William Harrison, a brand new interview with star James Caan, Craig R Baxley talking about the motorcycle work, a making of as well as a separate piece about shooting the film in Munich, on set footage and interviews, a trailer, TV spots and more.

Arrow Films released Norman Jewison's ROLLERBALL on Region B Blu-ray on 23rd March 2015

Broadchurch Series One and Two (2013 & 2015)

Television crime dramas have always been hugely popular, and over the last few years, those with an insatiable appetite for the darker end of the genre have been treated to series not just from the UK, but from Scandinavia as well. 

The original series of BROADCHURCH was broadcast in 2013. Adhering to many of the established tropes of the genre, it succeeded where many had failed by having believable characters, excellent performances, interesting locations, and above all a clever, well-written script that was almost a masterclass in how to include red herrings and not make them seem like padding.

The body of an eleven year old boy is found on a beach in West Dorset. David Tennant is Alec Hardy, the Policeman With A Past From Elsewhere who is assigned to investigate. The script has also given Hardy a medical condition but again, this is all clever enough that we don’t feel his character has been too battered by a script hungry for melodrama. Olivia Colman is Ellie Miller, passed over for promotion in favour of Hardy, and assigned as his sidekick. Hardy has come from elsewhere, but Colman is local, and is an integral part of this small community that is about to be torn apart by the revelations which follow.

I’m not going to say any more about BROADCHURCH series one as you really should watch it if you haven’t already. The odd couple detective pairing works well and never feels forced. The eight episodes fly by, and the ending is utterly gut wrenching, even for this kind of drama. Again, full marks for all concerned for not allowing the denouement to turn into absurdist melodrama but instead something far more believable and therefore far more affecting. The ending also allows for a second series, announced before the credits have even run on the final episode.

BROADCHURCH SERIES 2 is something of a different beast, but at least it's an ambitious one. The easy way would have been to have Tennant and Colman investigating an entirely new case. Instead, the second series continues straight on from where the first one ended, set in the same community and with much of the same cast returning. Again, it’s difficult to talk too much about it if you haven’t seen the first series, but basically we continue with the two plot strands - that of the Broadchurch murder and Hardy’s previous case in Sandbrook that went horribly wrong. The problems arise because in order to keep these threads interesting, everything becomes rather more unbelievable than what we’ve been primed to expect from series one. It’s still a good ride, and the cast are always watchable, especially Tennant and Colman, with sterling support from Jodie Whittaker, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Andrew Buchan, and this time we get Charlotte Rampling as well!

There are far more extras on Acorn Media’s release of BROADCHURCH SERIES TWO discs than series one. These include over forty minutes of deleted scenes, making of featurettes, pieces on the stars and writer Chris Chibnall, and interviews with Jode Whittaker, Andrew Buchan, Eve Myles, Charlotte Rampling, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Chris Chibnall and producer Richard Stokes. It’s an excellent package - just don’t expect quite the high quality of Series One and you can still have a good time with it.

Oh, and BROADCHURCH SERIES THREE has been announced, so let’s hope series two is just a bridging gap in the best crime series television has seen in ages. 

BROADCHURCH SERIES TWO has just been released on Region 2 DVD and Region B Blu-ray by Acorn Media. SERIES ONE is still available. 

Network (1976)

Paddy Chayevsky’s searing satire on television news (directed by Sidney Lumet) gets a new region B Blu-ray release courtesy of Arrow Films. 

When newscaster Howard Beale (Peter Finch) is told he’s to be laid off as a result of poor ratings, he takes to the airwaves and announces on the next edition of his news programme that he’s going to kill himself live on air in a week’s time. Reaction is predictable - the network is outraged and the ratings go up. Realising that Harold might be the company’s ticket out of impending bankruptcy, newly installed company hatchet man Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) allows rising star of TV programming Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) to put together an ‘entertainment news programme’ with Harold as the main attraction, surrounded by a psychic, a vox pops section and others. Old-fashioned head of news Max Schumacher (William Holden) isn’t happy and so he’s sacked, then reinstated when they realise the company can’t work without him. Soon he has other problems to deal with as he leaves his wife of twenty five years to start an affair with Diana.

Beale, meanwhile, has become the voice of the nation, his catchphrase ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore’ being shouted from rooftops and brownstone windows by an ever-increasing audience. But Beale is far from a media puppet, and his actions threaten to lead to the network’s downfall.

Probably the best thing Nigel Kneale never wrote, Chayevsky’s NETWORK is a blisteringly angry invective about what television could become. The fact that we now know it’s ended up even worse just makes the movie all the more relevant for our media-driven times. There’s virtually nothing wrong with NETWORK. The voice over that pops up at intervals when there’s a time shift or a scene needs setting feels a little awkward, but compared to all the genius that’s on display here it’s the tiniest of complaints. Lumet’s direction is nicely understated on the whole, allowing the actors to carry the film. One memorable exception is a scene which cuts between a close-up on Finch and evil corporation boss Ned Beatty, seemingly unreachable and godlike at the far end of a row of desk lamps in the company boardroom.

And where to start with the acting? How often do we ever get to see such exemplary ensemble pieces on the big screen? William Holden, older, wiser, sympathetic and about to be beaten down by a system he no longer understands? Robert Duvall, all manic screaming, equally terrifying and funny but also horribly believable, Faye Dunaway as the TV executive who admits she’s good at nothing except working in television, the quintessential Chayevsky Nothing Person. And then there’s Finch, memorably insane in a performance fuelled with such energy he almost jumps off the screen.

Arrow presents NETWORK in an excellent transfer with an uncompressed mono PCM audio track. Extras include Sidney Lumet’s entry in the series The Directors, a trailer, and Tune in Next Tuesday, a visual essay by Dave Itzkoff, who wrote the book ‘Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies. It runs for 47 minutes and is excellent, more than making up for the lack of a commentary track. You also get the usual Arrow reversible sleeve and a booklet with new writing on the movie. 

Paddy Chayevsky's NETWORK is released on region B Blu-ray from Arrow Films today, Monday 23rd March 2015

The Black Torment (1964)

"British Gothic does Italian Gothic trying to be Hammer Gothic and ends up Potty Gothic. From the director of CORRUPTION" 

Robert Hartford-Davis. Now there’s a name to conjure with from the annals of British exploitation cinema. A director who created an unrivalled body of work, working in many genres but always managing to be different and somehow...peculiar. When he tried comedy we got the strange THE SANDWICH MAN (1966), and his musical GONKS GO BEAT (1965) is bizarre in the extreme. Perhaps it’s not surprising that such a quirky director made more horror films than anything else, but even there the results were nothing like straightforward. A ‘sexy thriller’ based on LES YEUX SANS VISAGE became Peter Cushing sawing off a prostitute’s head in CORRUPTION, and his satire on the more extreme aspects of certain religions turned into Tony Beckley hanging women on meathooks, while Patrick Magee did even more eye rolling than usual, in THE FIEND. In a supreme act of oddness, he even took his name off what is arguably his best picture, a psychedelic sexed up version of Simon Raven’s novel Doctors Wear Scarlet that went out under the superb title INCENSE FOR THE DAMNED (1970).

Edina Ronay reconsiders a possible career in the world of fashion

And so we come to THE BLACK TORMENT, recently released by Odeon Entertainment on Blu-ray (the DVD came out a while ago). It’s an early Hartford-Davis, but the personal stamp is definitely there. Many of his frequent collaborators are also along for the ride, including screenwriters Donald and Derek Ford (CORRUPTION, LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST), director of photography Peter THE ASPHYX Newbrook, and composer Robert - later Bobby - Richards. 

He's at it again! Somebody stop him!

In rural HammerLand, Sir Richard Fordyke (John Turner) returns to Fordyke Manor with his new bride Elizabeth (Heather Sears from Hammer’s PHANTOM OF THE OPERA). But all is not well. In a pre-credits sequence, someone with no respect for female pulchritude has chased busty Edina Ronay through a forest and strangled her. It turns out she is not the only young lady to have suffered at the hands of a rapist and murderer at loose in the area. It is claimed that Richard himself has been seen lurking in the bushes, even though he claims to have been in London. Is he going mad? Is someone else trying to drive him mad? Will there be a climax featuring every cliched gothic trope going, including a ghostly woman in white, a headless corpse in a wheelchair, and an action-packed sword fight climaxing in a fall from a window and a spectacular impaling? Oh yes indeedy!

Gothic potty

Tony Tenser and Michael GET CARTER Klinger were the producers of THE BLACK TORMENT, and they obviously desperately wanted to be a Hammer film, but because of Robert Hartford-Davis it just isn’t. Instead, it comes across as a more sedate, colourful Gainsborough-type picture punctuated with sleazy murders and culminating in plenty of delirious daftness. Imagine THE WICKED LADY crossed with FRIDAY THE 13TH and you’re getting there. In fact, rather than a Hammer film, THE BLACK TORMENT feels like a British version of an Italian version of a Hammer film, but that just makes it all the more entertaining and really rather unique.

Too much Gothic is never enough in this film

Odeon’s transfer of THE BLACK TORMENT onto Blu-ray is jaw-dropping. I have never seen this film looking so good, and what was intended to be a rudimentary skim through a film I’m familiar with turned into a full viewing simply because I was so impressed with the quality of the image, full of richness of colour in what has always looked a very washed out film indeed. 

Extras are minimal. The Hartford-Davis interview on the Region 1 Redemption disc hasn’t been carried over, but we do get over 30 minutes of new interview material with cast members Annette Whiteley and Roger Graham which is actually better as they have behind the scenes stories to tell us.

THE BLACK TORMENT is a very minor British horror film, and a fairly minor entry on the CV of an often barking mad British horror director. I never thought I would end up recommending it so strongly, but this print is gorgeous, and the climax of the film so completely ‘Gothic Potty’ that everyone should go and watch it now. 

Odeon Entertainment released the Gothic Pottiness that is Robert Hartford-Davis' THE BLACK TORMENT on Region B Blu-ray on 2nd February 2015. It's also available on DVD.