FILMS GONE WILD: 10 Blu-Rays and DVDs from Kino Lorber to help get you through the quarantine
Like everyone sequestered, quarantined, staying at home and weighing options to entertain, distract, occupy, etc. with time and specifically time on the sofa that I’m not routinely accustomed to, I have turned to my Blu-Ray and DVD library. In fact, I have enjoyed re-visiting it and having it there for what I have long kept and curated that library TO do: provide me with the best and coolest films and movies and TV shows (in my opinion, of course) at my fingertips.
Now, one of the best sources for the films in my library has been Kino Lorber. The range and reach of the films they have available now makes them my favorite source of Blu-Rays and DVDs to go to. Yes, yes, yes, I have my share of Criterion discs, but there is a whole lot of broccoli movies going on there with few hints of popcorn, for my tastes, while Kino Lorber seems to be much more on my wavelength. We get it, Criterion, your movies are “important”. But most of the time what is “approved” by a handful of cine taste makers on the Upper West Side, is actually pretty snooze-rific as far as I am concerned.
But Kino Lorber has really got a handle on balancing that mix of classics with curiosities and just flat-out fun. AND they are at a price point that makes buying two of three classics or must-sees the equivalent of a single Criterion disc, if you do your shopping right. Cool-ass double feature for the price of one high-brow film for the scholars? Yes, I think I will.
Here is a sampling of 10 Kino Lorber films I have watched in the past couple of weeks that should give you an idea of what I’m talking about:
DUEL IN THE SUN (1946)
Director: King Vidor
https://www.kinolorber.com/film/duelinthesunroadshowversion
This is one of Martin Scorsese’s favorite films. In fact, I will go back every couple of years to his A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies and this film is featured prominently in that video essay. Of course, it’s all about the tragic, ill-fated, and abusive relationship between Jennifer Jones’ “half-breed” beauty Pearl, and Gregory Peck’s seductive bad boy son of a rancher, Lewt. The stellar cast also includes Joseph Cotton, Lionel Barrymore, and Lillian Gish, all at the height of their star power at the service of King Vidor’s direction. The Technicolor gloriousness isn’t just relegated to the sets and background. This is one of those “when moves were movies” films…
COVERGIRL (1984)
Director: Jean-Claude Lord
https://www.kinolorber.com/film/covergirl
This mid-80s glossy nugget one is so outrageously, emphatically, and exceedingly terrible that my wife and I were still referring to it with in-jokes a week after I pulled it out of the Blu-Ray player. In the film, Taxi’s Jeff Conaway plays a flashy wealthy genius entrepreneur who meets combatively cute with an aspiring model and decides he will turn her into the super-est of supermodels. That is until, a diabolical company takeover threatens to bring everyone down from their cocaine and spandex high. All of the actresses playing the models, including the lead, are as interchangeable as they could be, and the only thing lacking more than and semblance of charm or likability from Conaway’s character (pretend that a casting director was told to get a poor man’s Tony Stark and they couldn’t even afford that) is the non-existence of any spark between him and Irena Ferris, the actress playing our “covergirl”. But we don’t care because we’ve got some kind of fashion catwalk show meets a Studio 54 fever dream production to make us feel like everything will be okay for the duration of one more flute of champagne. Oh, 80s coke-fueled, flamboyantly directed movies of excess, we love you!
I WALK ALONE (1947)
Director: Byron Haskin
https://www.kinolorber.com/film/iwalkalone
A hard-bitten noir classic. Burt Lancaster’s Frankie gets out of jail and aims to get his share of promised profits from a nightclub from former criminal running buddy Noll (Kirk Douglas). Of course, Douglas’ double crossing head of the nightclub has got other ideas. Throw in Noll’s ex-girlfriend and noir siren Kay (a signature Lizabeth Scott performance) and you’ve got all the ingredients for the tastiest of shady love triangles. There are movies that you want to watch to revel in the perfect execution of the style and flavor of that type of film and this is one of those. Lancaster and Douglas’ offscreen bromance adds layers to their sparring here and Lizabeth Scott shows why she deserved better than what Hollywood ultimately delivered to her movie star doorstep.
I WANT TO LIVE! (1958)
Director: Robert Wise
https://www.kinolorber.com/film/iwanttolive
This one was nominated for 6 Academy Awards and won Susan Hayward a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of former party girl turned tragic death row inmate Barbara Graham. Its one of those films that defined the idea of an Oscar-bait star turn for generations to come, as Hayward devours the scenery in every set she utters a line in during the film, so voracious is her appetite to keep your focus on her. And to be clear, that’s not a slam. She is riveting, charismatic, and she manages to expose her character’s heart while defiantly insisting she’s above it all – even the eventual visit to the gas chamber. Robert Wise manages to coerce us in the audience to actually have hope for a different ending even though we know – true story that it was – what is at the end of that journey Graham took. That’s powerful work between Wise and Hayward, to pull that off.
LET THE CORPSES TAN (2018)
Directors: Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani
https://www.kinolorber.com/film/letthecorpsestan
Some hard-bitten thugs decide to hide out with their stolen gold bars in some barely standing hovels on the cliffs of the Mediterranean. Also there are an eccentric and very sexual artist and a reclusive writer and his woman. That should be enough to stir the drink, but then a couple motorcycle cops roll up and join the party.. There is sex, there is blood, there are double crosses, hallucinatory flashbacks and more in this thrilling ode to 1070s Italian crime dramas. You will be convinced that someone slipped you some drugs before you hit play on the Blu-Ray/DVD player. In fact, I would suggest that you DON’T actually do that prior to watching this film lest you cause a chemical reaction from that AND the contact high the film inspires to send you into a catatonic state.
THE LONG GOODBYE (1973)
Director: Robert Altman
https://www.kinolorber.com/film/thelonggoodbye
There is a reason that people keep discovering and re-discovering this film each year. Robert Altman and Elliot Gould team up to not just reinvent the Philip Marlow character, they create the closet thing to a parallel universe version of the gumshoe. Gould’s Marlow is a sleepy, but seemingly never surprised private eye thrust into an investigation regarding the disappearance/death of a friend that he last saw when he gave him a late night ride to the Tijuana border. From the first scene where Marlow tries to fool his pet cat into eating a different cat food by taking it out of the can and putting in the old cat food can while the cat isn’t looking to the very final scene where Marlow settles all debts his way, this film isn’t interested in hewing to anyone else’s rhythms or expectations, Of course, things get complicated, as they say. The constellation of suspects and foils include a truly chilling gangster played by director Mark Rydell, a creepy Dr. Feelgood played by Henry Gibson, and a past-his-due-date author played by Sterling Hayden. But this one is really about the left-of-center winding road Altman sends the wry and dry Gould down in order to solve the mystery.
NOTHING SACRED (1937)
Director: William Wellman
https://www.kinolorber.com/film/nothing-sacred-special-restored-edition
I was tempted to recommend this film by simply writing two words: “Carole” and “Lombard”. But here is a bit more: The screwball comedy’s story follows a woman (Lombard) who has allowed people to believe that she is dying of radium poisoning so she can get a free trip to New York City. Frederic March is the newspaper man working the angle for the headlines. The more her conscience works on her and she becomes desperate to escape from the lie, the more the public embraces her, lionizes her and wants to celebrate her tragically beautiful heroism in the face of pending death. It’s dark. It’s funny. It’s charming. It could easily be making fun of the daily Twitter, Facebook, 24-hour scandal news cycle treadmill we live every day now. However, it happens to have the most luminescent of screwball comediennes at the center of it in Lombard. And she can be seen in this one courtesy of a pristine restoration of the film.
TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975)
Director: Dan Curtis
https://www.kinolorber.com/film/trilogy-of-terror-special-edition
I’m sure you are immediately envisioning the Zuni fetish doll and thinking this one is ALL ABOUT the Zuni fetish doll that instantly became one of the most unforgettable and iconic horror monsters when it became the stuff of Karen Black’s character’s nightmares and ours in the 70s. And yes, it still is thrilling and fun to watch the single-minded miniature toothy demon terrorize Black is the third of the three stories in this classic made-for-television anthology. But the re-watch of this one reminded me of the awesomeness of Karen Black as an actress. Specifically, her performance in the opening “Spider and the Fly” story of a sleazy college student that takes advantage of Black’s shy English professor is a dark joy to watch. It’s odd to consider the idea of an Academy Award-nominated actor as being underrated or underappreciated, but an argument could be made in Karen Black’s case. Utterly compelling in four different roles in the three stories, she’s worth the price of admission alone.
THE 3-D NUDIE-CUTIES COLLECTION
https://www.kinolorber.com/film/the-3-d-nudie-cuties-collection
Includes
THE BELLBOY AND THE PLAYGIRLS (1962)
Directors: Fritz Umgetter, Francis Ford Coppola
ADAM AND THE SIX EVES (1962)
Director: John Wells
LOVE FOR SALE (1953)
BEAUTY IN 3RD DIMENSION (1951)
Available to watch in both 2-D and 3-D (if you happen to have your own glasses lying around) this set hearkens back to a time when a lot of grindhouse theater time and energy went into answering the question “How can we create stories or any reasons whatsoever that will provide an excuse to see women’s breasts on the big screen?”, this sampling of films are beyond entertaining for reasons far from what the filmmakers had intended. THE BELLBOY AND THE PLAYGIRLS, co-written and co-directed by a 22-year old Francis Ford Coppola tells the “hilarious” story of a less-than-worldly bellboy with ambitions to be a hotel detective convinced that the lingerie models upstairs are actually prostitutes. It’s hard to upstage the women, but that doesn’t mean our bellboy’s mugging and “comic” antics won’t give it a shot. Now, if he can only uncover the crime and get his proof! ADAM AND THE SIX EVES gives us a treasure hunter encountering six topless beauties in an oasis. His trusty donkey narrates the tales with one joke after another that wouldn’t make the cut at the worst cornpone Catskills routine you ever saw. Add on the short film, LOVE FOR SALE, which features legendary burlesque dancer Bella Starr demonstrating the unfortunate awkwardness of setting up a camera and asking a stripper to “perform” for it, and a set of lobby cards of topless women and you get boobies for the ages with this film collection!
TUFF TURF (1985)
Director: Fritz Kiersch
https://www.kinolorber.com/film/tuff-turf
James Spader stars as the new kid in town who immediately runs afoul of the high school gang by not knowing his place and setting his sights on the gang leader’s girlfriend (played by a post-Disney child star Kim Richards trying super hard to be sexy and dangerous). Spader is so audaciously miscast in the film that every scene and scenario is a joy of wrong proportions. Add a baby Robert Downey Jr. as the new best friend comic relief without the comic part and an escalating series of unbelievable danger and crisis situations and this one is awash in non-stop fun wrongness. But wait, there’s more. The soundtrack itself is cause for pause. Like “please find another radio station before hell’s 80s ear worm gets a hold on me” pause. There are live performances by The Jim Carroll Band (I just hope he got some good smack for agreeing to be in this one.) and Jack Mack and the Heart Attack (The school dance scene featuring them is a delight in “What exactly is going on here?” filmmaking.)
