Awesome Kino Lorber Blu-Rays and DVDs to add to your library – the sequel

I had so much fun with the roundup of “tasty” Kino Lorber Blu-Rays and DVDs I did earlier this year that I decided to do a sequel. And let’s face it, there is stocking stuffer consideration to be had as well. Right?

As a reminder, I still maintain and regularly add to the library of films in my house (GO PHYSICAL MEDIA!). I like having them available, I like the extras that are frequently included, and I don’t trust that all of that will be around if its maintained on a drive or in a cloud… somewhere. I have utilized a DVD for research as I did recently with the films BILLY JACK and IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA for a script I am writing. (Bet you’re curious now about whatever the hell that thing might be about, right?!) and I recently have been keeping my 89-year-old mother entertained during movie nights by pulling titles that are up her particular alley That list includes everything from SWING TIME to THE HUNT to WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (Okay, that may inadvertently explain some things about me now that I think about it…) That will be the subject of a future column, but she loves the classics that she saw when she was young, slapstick, and she LOVES the revenge-style action films (Lots of killing of bad guys and sassy good guys, please!).

Yes, I watch stuff online frequently as well. However, my library includes beloved favorites – MY beloved favorites, and what I see as must-haves for a film library. Should the zombie apocalypse come, which I’m assuming will actually be worse that the COVID/bad police protests, MAGA militia coups apocalypse, then my home should still be a movie haven.

As discussed the first time I did this column highlighting some choice Kino Lorber nuggets, I LOVE their combo of classics versus “You gotta see this shit!” to gems they have rightfully given a home to and made available for people like us to discover. I will routinely call a friend after watching a title (including a couple on this list) to excitedly talk about it. That’s what movie watching should inspire, right? That kind of excitement and thrill – so much so that you just need to talk about it with someone?!

Well, Kino Lorber delivers that with so many titles. In fact, before I become Sergeant at Arms for their fan club, this may turn into a series of columns of cool shit you can find in Kino Lorber-land. But enough of the blah, blah, blah, here are a dozen cool ones to consider..

CONVOY (1978)

Director: Sam Peckinpah

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/convoy

Based on C.W. McCall’s iconic song (which I know is already in your head), this is a film that exemplifies late 70s pop culture silliness. Directed by Sam Peckinpah, who delivers big ’ole truck crashes and bare-knuckled brawls true to form and a cast of names that are just goofy fun to watch in action including stars Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw (with her tight 70s white girl afro), and Ernest Borgnine, and supported by Burt Young, Franklyn Ajaye, Seymour Cassel, Madge Sinclair, and Cassie Yates.

COTTON COMES TO HARLEM (1970)

Director: Ossie Davis

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/cottoncomestoharlem

An influential Soul Cinema classic that also happens to be unbridled fun from start to finish. Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques are two detectives investigating a crooked Reverend they know to be scamming the faithful. But then $87,000 goes missing – stashed in a bail of cotton, and suddenly the mafia, the police, black militants and street thugs are all in the crazy mix. A pre-Sanford and Son Redd Foxx, as well as Cleavon Little, J.D. Cannon, John Anderson and Eugene Roche give entertaining turns in this signature film, one of the few that Ozzie Davis directed.

FASCINATION (1979)

Director: Jean Rollin

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/fascination

If you are a fan of Jean Rollin or just curious about his sub-genre of 70s-style kinky art horror films, then Kino Lorber is the place for you! They’ve got several titles, but I wanted to start with this one. Just your usual tale of a slick-talking thief who eludes the murderous gang he planned on double crossing by hiding out in a fancy abandoned estate. Well, abandoned if you don’t count the two beautiful women prepping for that night’s girl-party with their fellow blood drinking fetishists. That’s right, they aren’t vampires, they just dig getting their blood drinking on during one crazy night a year. And guess who the special guest is going to be this time?! This has everything you could possibly want in a dubbed soft core horror film: 70s style sexy time (lots of breasts and writhing), jealousies and double crosses leading each of the principals to have a sex scene with each other and a couple of them to kill one another all supporting a very vague plot leading to an equally vague ending. Sign me up for more Jean Rollin please!

THE CHILDREN’S HOUR (1961)

Director: William Wyler

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/thechildrenshour

Based on the classic Lillian Hellman play, I think this one is a time capsule masterpiece in old school gay/lesbian tragedy. In case you aren’t familiar, Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine are headmistresses at a girl’s school who have their entire world crash down thanks to a lying student who starts a rumor of their dalliance to cover her own misdeeds. Naturally, the entire town turns against them and takes all of the students away from the influence of their “unnatural” relationship. Even Hepburn’s character’s fiancé (played straight up by James Garner) eventually succumbs to the horror of the suspicion of lady love. And if you are familiar with this subgenre of tragedy, you know it’s likely someone ain’t gonna make it to the final curtain. Bottom line: You’ve got three stars at the top of their game, being directed by William Wyler. Sold!

THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1943)

Director: William Wellman

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/Theoxbowncident

William Wellman’s Academy Award nominee is a perfect example of a film that will always seem timely, simply because so many people suck. Henry Fonda accompanied by a Henry Morgan light years away from both Dragnet and M*A*S*H, ride into a town frustrated by all the cattle rustlers the place is rife with and almost immediately get roped into a posse aimed at getting the men who have apparently killed a local rancher. The mob of cowboys soon capture two men (Dana Andrews and Anthony Quinn) completely sure they did it and anxious as hell to string ‘em up right there. The fact that no one actually has any proof they did the crime doesn’t matter. It’s frontier justice and as long as you aren’t the one with the noose going around your neck, then the mob’s verdict is just fine. Until it isn’t.

THE KNACK…AND HOW TO GET IT (1965)

Director: Richard Lester

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/knackandhowtogetitthe

This is the first of a couple mid/late 60s classics I enjoyed getting into. Directed by Richard Lester, the story of a socially awkward young man’s frustration that he can’t be the Don Juan his boarder is, overflows with style from slapstick to 60s mod to avant-garde. It is most definitely a film of its time. Of course, that’s more than somewhat problematic when it comes to the male-female dynamic and casual misogyny displayed and tossed about, but it still has its charm and that Richard Lester style. Bonus: the film includes un-credited cameos by Jane Birkin, Jacqueline Bisset, and Charlotte Rampling. I mean, when those are your “extras”…? Just sayin’.

GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE (1968)

Director: Jack Cardiff

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/thegirlonamotorcycle

Who is more dreamy? Marianne Faithful or Alain Delon? It’s kind of a tossup frankly, in this film about a bored housewife (Faithful) who embarks on an affair with an elusive lover (Delon) visiting him by riding the motorcycle which was his gift to her. This is that particular swinging 60s brand of groovy film and photography (directed by noted cinematographer Jack Cardiff) and free-love sensuality. You might laugh out loud as Faithful pretty much orgasms over and over again while riding her motorcycle, but let’s face it – there is a reason you’re watching this film. And it’s all about Marianne Faithful in a black leather body suit with nothing on underneath it riding her motorcycle to see Alain Delon so she can strip that thing off again.

BODIES, REST & MOTION (1993)

Director: Michael Steinberg

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/bodies-rest-motion

It’s kinda weird to think of a 90s movie as a time capsule piece, but wow, this one grabs you with a period of time when Bridget Fonda and Phoebe Cates were the epitome of Next Gen movie IT-girls, Eric Stoltz was the Indie film empathy poster boy, and Tim Roth was just…dangerous. A film about the intersection of relationships during a couple hot Arizona evenings between exes soon-to-be exes, best friends, and a romantic painter is about as 90s as it can get, right? Throw in a cameo appearance by Bridget’s uncle Peter, and a very young and ethereal Alicia Witt, and this one deserves to be given another look so we can luxuriate in what it was all about so many years ago.

TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN (1969)

Director: Woody Allen

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/takethemoneyandrun

One of the early “funny ones”. In fact, it’s the first one that kicked off his filmmaking career in spectacularly hilarious fashion. Allen stars as a struggling musician, who makes an errant career out of being a criminal. A gun carved out of soap that foams out of existence thanks to his desperately sweaty hand, and difficulty with the penmanship on a stickup note are just a couple of the classic gags. It’s just a giggle-ridden joy from start to finish and something those aliens from STARDUST MEMORIES really wanted him to focus on with his films later in life. If we only had the events of our lives narrated like Allen’s character does in this film, we could at least enjoy our fuckups a little bit, I believe.

HELL’S HIGHWAY – THE TRUE STORY OF HIGHWAY SAFETY FILMS (2002)

Director: Bret Wood

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/hellshighwayplussignal30highwaysofagonyoptionstolive

This. This. This. Right here is a perfect example of one of the coolest things about Kino Lorber’s DVD/Blu Ray lineup. A documentary about the driver education films that were “sanctioned” horror films for public consumption, and the stuff of legend for decades for showing us the unthinkable (at that time). Produced between 1959 and 1979 by a group of volunteers in Mansfield, Ohio, these films “promoted safety” by presenting color footage of careless driving’s dark consequences: blood-stained wreckage, injured bodies, fresh corpses. The films included on the DVD are everything you would likely imagine them to be, but the unexpected fun with HELL’S HIGHWAY are the interviews with the men responsible for them. Wearing short sleeved dress shirts (likely purchased from the Sears “business collection”), they are almost scarily nondescript, unassuming, and matter-of-fact about what they did in making these celebrated gore and shock fests. As they say in the Midwest, “God bless ‘em.”

COMING HOME (1978)

Director: Hal Ashby

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/cominghome

I was tempted to just say this about what’s awesome about COMING HOME: Hal. And Ashby. But there is a lot to go on and on about when it comes to this film. I mean, you have Academy Award performances by Jane Fonda as a military man’s wife finding herself for the first time and Jon Voight as a paraplegic vet still fighting through his rage, who really deliver the movie star magic and power you hope for (although re-watching this might make you mourn what Voight has become since he went off the rails and landed in conservative crazy town), and Bruce Dern and Robert Carradine also kill it in a devastating and deeply touching look at post-Vietnam America. It’s such a typically nuanced, emotional, and smart Hal Ashby film. Just glorious.

THE OSCAR (1966)

Director: Russell Rouse

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/the-oscar

This film is a campfest to end all campfests. It’s ALL ABOUT EVE with an impossibly square jawed Stephen Boyd who hasn’t just stepped on people on his way to a possible Oscar win, but he sneered as he kicked them a few times too. Now, as they wait to hear the big announcement, his friend Hymie (no kidding), played by Tony Bennett, who gets an “introducing” credit in the film as if this would launch him on a big acting a career (also no kidding) reminisces about their life together and his ruthless struggle to the top. Get a load of who else is in this cast: Elke Sommer, Tony Bennett, Edie Adams, Ernest Borgnine, Milton Berle, Eleanor Parker, Joseph Cotten, Jill St. John, Ed Begley, Walter Brennan and Broderick Crawford. And there are cameos by Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Edith Head, Merle Oberon, Nancy Sinatra, Joan Crawford and Hedda Hopper. Watching this film demands an overflowing bowl of popcorn, and maybe some tasty cocktails (to go with the snark) wouldn’t hurt either. Wow.