VOL. 112
BLINDFOLD (1966) - PORTRAIT ON BLACK (1960) - MADAME X (1966) - ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT (1942) - MARS ATTACKS! (1996)
BLINDFOLD (1966)
Blu-ray
Label: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 102 Minutes 13 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Philip Dunne
Cast: Rock Hudson, Claudia Cardinale, Jack Warden
In the rom-com spy-thriller Blindfold (1966) Dr. Bartholomew Snow (Rock Hudson, Lover Come Back) is a NYC-based psycho-therapist recruited by General 'Call me George!' Pratt (Jack Warden, Used Cars) to treat a former patient, Arthur Vincenti (Alejandro Rey, The Swarm), a top-secret scientist who has had a nervous breakdown. To treat the man Snow is blindfolded and flew across the country and driven to a remote Bayou swamp locations to treat the man over the course of several days. Back in New York we get a meet-cute with Snow and ballet dancer Vicky (Claudia Cardinale, The Day of the Owl) who turns out to be Arthur's concerned sister, who is convinced that her brother is in danger, and has arranged to run-in tot he doc, meanwhile Snow is also beset upon by a stuttering CIA spook James Fitzpatrick (Guy Stockwell, Santa Sangre) who tells him that Arthur is really being held captive by nefarious forces and that Snow is being mislead by Pratt. Not knowing what to believe Snow and Vicky team-up to find her brother. The location is secret and Snow was blindfolded when he went there previously, but through his keen sense of hearing and natural detective tendences, he is able to trace his steps through auditory clues, which was later homage in the early 90's all-star spy-thriller Sneakers. This is a pretty light-weight spy-thriller, Hudson of course is quite charming throughout, and Cardinale is quite a looker and a sparkplug of a character, and then we have warden and Stockwell as dueling spy-chiefs, and Jack Warden is always a hoot, so it's fun stuff to be sure, but the spy thrills are a bit sapped by the rom-com and comedy leanings, but I still quite enjoyed it. Other familiar faces that show-up are Brad Dexter (Winter Kills) as Detective Harrigan, Anne Seymour (Big Top Pee-Wee) as Snow's secretary Smitty, Ned Glass (Blackbeard's Ghost) as Lippy, and Hari Rhodes (Shock Corridor) who is part of Pratt's top-secret team. This Blu-ray from Sony looks to be the same dated HD master we saw from Kino back in 2019, it looks fine but is not as refined as a new scan would offer. We also get uncompressed audio which sounds just fine, with optional English subtitles, but there are zero extras, just a static menu with subtitle options.
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PORTRAIT ON BLACK (1960)
Blu-ray
Label: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 112 Minutes 42 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.00:1)
Director: Michael Gordon
Cast: Lana Turner, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Sandra Dee, John Saxon
Thriller Portrait In Black (1960) is directed Michael Gordon (Pillow Talk), and stars screen-legends Lana Turner (Witch's Brew) and Anthony Quinn (Guns for San Sebastian) as Sheila Cabot and Dr. David Rivera, lovers who conspire to murder her cruel shipping magnate husband Matthew S. Cabot (Lloyd Nolan, Abandon Ship!). With Mr. Cabot the lovers find that murder is not so easy to get away with, Mrs. Cabot receives an anonymous notes that congratulates her on the murder, and things fall apart quickly thereafter. Cabot's daughter Cathy (Sandra Dee, The Dunwich Horror) and his lawyer Howard Mason (Richard Basehart, Island of Dr. Moreau), both prove meddlesome, as does tugboat captain Blake Richards (John Saxon, A Nightmare on Elm Street), Cathy's not-so-secret lover. The cast is rounded out by
Ray Walston (Popcorn) as a diplicitous chauffer Cobb, and Anna May Wong (Island of Lost Men) as Tawny, the Cabot's housekeeper who sees and hears everything, plus Virginia Grey (House of Horrors) as secretary Miss Lee, Cabot's secretary. This Blu-ray from Sony looks to be the same dated HD master we saw from Kino back in 2019, and has the same source related issues, image stability and some color fluctuations, most notably. We also get uncompressed audio with optional English subtitles, but there are zero extras, just a static menu with subtitle options. Not carried over from the Kino release are the excellent audio commentary with the late Lee Gambin and Emma Westwood and the trailer, so hang onto that edition if you have it, and if you're an extras-junkie seek that edition out.
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MADAME X (1966)
Blu-ray
Label: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 100 Minutes 13 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optuonal English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: David Lowell Rich
Cast: Lana Turner, John Forsythe, Ricardo Montalban, Burgess Meredith, Constance Bennett
Madame X (1966) is directed by David Lowell Rich (TV movie Satan's School for Girls) is centered around Holly Anderson (Lana Turner, Portrait In Black) the lonely wife of career diplomat Clay Anderson (John Forsythe, The Trouble with Harry), who is often out of the country on assignment. DIt's during an extended six week absence that the neglected Holly finds comfort in playboy bachelor Phil Benton (Ricardo Montalbán, Border Incident), and they develop a romantic relationship. Upon Clay's return she regrets the affair and attempts to break it off with Phil, but when he takes it badly he accidentally falls to his death down a flight of stairs, breaking his neck. Her suspicious mother-in-law Estella (Constance Bennett, It Should Happen To You) is made aware of the death by a private investigator had keeping tabs on her, and offers to keep her involvement in the death secret, but only of she leaves her politician husband and their young son Clay (Teddy Quinn) forever, secreting her out of the country and faking her death in a yacht accident. Holly falls into a decades long spiral of alcoholism and depravity, until low-life extortionist Dan Sullivan (Burgess Meredith, Magic) who learns of her secret identity and takes her to New York to extort her former husband who is now on the verge of a presidential nomination. In a twist oof fate when she murders Sullivan to keep her secret she is defended by her own son Clay (the adult son played by Keir Dullea, Black Christmas) who is not aware of who she really is while the court drama plays out. Lana Turner is excellent, the old age make-ups to achieve her aged look is pretty solid, and the inner struggle to maintain her anonymity and not let her son and former husband find out who she is or how low she has sunk it pretty arresting melodrama. This is most-likely the same HD master issued on Blu-ray back in 2019 from Kino, it's solid presentation with uncompressed audio, but lacks the commentary and trailer than accompanied that release, but the picture quality and audio s terrific. .
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ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT (1942)
Blu-ray
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 107 Minutes 44 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-ono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1)
Director: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Kaaren Verne, and Jackie Gleason
All Through the Night (1942) is directed by Vincent Sherman (The Damned Don't Cry), and concerns NYC gambler Alfred "Gloves" Donahue (Humphrey Bogart, The Return of Doctor X) who becomes an unlikely patriot when he and his gang get involved in a Nazi-saboteur plot after someone murders his favorite neighborhood cheesecake maker. It turns out that Nazi fifth columnists have infiltrated NYC, among them the saboteur-leader, the nefarious antiquities dealer Ebing (Conrad Veidt, The Student of Prague) and his creepy, murderous sidekick Pepi (Peter Lorre, Mad Love), and somehow nightclub singer Leda Hamilton (Karen Verne, Madame X) is involved, too. When the Nazi's murder local club owner it's gloves who gets fingered for the murder, with he having to avoid the cops while trying to puta stop to the Nazi saboteur's plans to blow up a newly minted US warship. At the time that this Nazi-spy comedy-thriller went into production the US was still not involved in the war, by the time it hit the cinemas Pear Harbor had happened and we were fully committed tot he war, so this is an interesting flick in that respect. It's also quite a comedic gangsters versus Nazis flick with loads of quick-witted dialogue and preposterously scenarios that keep the plot moving. Among Gloves' gang we have Barney (Frank McHugh, One Way Passage), Starchy (Jackie Gleason, TV's The Honeymooners) and Sunshine (William Demarest, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), and a fun turn from Jane Darrow (3 Godfathers) as Gloves mother 'Ma' Donahue. This is a real gem of a spy-thriller with fast-talking humor, some terrific car chases, and Gloves and Sunshine infiltrating a secret Nazi meeting disguised as a couple of explosives experts. This new restoration from Warner Archive looks and sounds aces, plus they port over all the extras from the previous DVD including an audio commentary, featurette about characters actors, trailer, WB comedy short, WB cartoon, and a 1942 newsreel. This is a Bogart gangster/spy-thriller gem well-worth seeking out, it moves fast and is both a fun comedy and an effective spy-thriller with plenty of thrills and some Nazi menace.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary Commentary with Director Vincent Sherman and Bogart biographer Eric Lax
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2:46)
- Featurette: Call the Usual Suspects (22:42)
- WB Comedy Short 'So You Want To Give Up Smoking' (10:51)
- 1942 Newsreel (1:59)
- WB Cartoon "Light Fantastic" (6:30)
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4K Ultra HD + Digital
Label: WBDHE
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 105 Minutes 44 Seconds
Audio: English Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1) DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 2160p 4K Ultra HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Lukas Haas, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, Lisa Marie, Sylvia Sidney
Warner Bros. celebrate the 30th anniversary of Tim Burton's wacky-retro alien invasion flick Mars Attacks! with a new 4K UHD. This star-studded spoof has a crazy fun cast including Jack Nicholson (The Shining), Glenn Close (The World According To Garp), and Natalie Portman (Annihilation) as the POTUS and the first-family, Nicholson again as casino owner married to new-ager wife played by Annette Benning (American Beauty), Pierce Brosnan (Nomads) as scientist, Rod Steiger (The Illustrated Man) as a military general representing the military industrial complex with gusto, while Paul Winfield (Blue City) plays another more liberal-minded and somewhat hapless general who sort of feels like a dig at the real-life Collin Powell, plus Martin Short (Innerspace) as a particularly horny White House press secretary, Sarah Jessica Parker (Flight of the Navigator) and Michael J. Fox (Teen Wolf) as news correspondents, crooner Tom Jones as himself, bad-ass Jim Brown (Three The Hard Way) as a former boxer turned Casino employee who is just trying to get back to his kids and ex-wife (Pam Grier, Foxy Brown) in D.C., and a family of trailer park denizens played by Joe Don Baker (Joysticks) and O-Lan Jones (Shelf Life), who are parents to donut-slinger Lukas Haas (Lady In White) and weekend warrior Jack Black (Tenacious D), and their grandmother delightfully demented Sylvia Sidney (Beetlejuice), whose love of yodeling crooner Slim Whitman saves the world. It's a really wild cast that brought to mind how half of Hollywood would show up in those 70's disaster flicks. Of course the movie is based on the Topp's Trading Cards series from the early 60's and they go all out with cool retro-looking alien designs and saucer-like alien spaceships with an array of laser guns and zappers that really go for that old-school 50's science fiction vibe, the result is very silly, but I love it, it's certainly not a movie you want to think about too hard, you just sort have to go with it, and you're either into it, or you probably hate it, I've met very few who fall into the middle on this one. How's it look on 4K UHD with Dolby Vision? Pretty dang great. The Dolby Vision color-grade looks terrific, the vibrant assortment of colors look fantastic, and while there are no notes I could find that tell how this was derived the live-action sequences look crisp and sharp with nicely resolved grain levels, even the CGI and miniature compositions looks pretty great, easily advancing over the previous Blu-ray editions which looked softer and less textures. The Dolby Atmos track also soars, this has a fun sound stage, especially during the full-on alien-attack sequences, the sounds alien zappers and destruction has never sounded better, nor has Danny Elfman's theremin infused score, which is full of brassy bombast and a couple of quieter eerie moments like when the Martian girl infiltrates the lax security at the White House. This release includes a Slipcover and a Digital Copy of the film as well. Extras include a couple of brand new featurettes with screenwriters Jonathan Gems and Peter Suschitzky, editor Chris Lebenzon, miniature DOP Patrick Sweeney, associate producer Mark S. Miller, production designer Wynn Thomas, and sound designer Randy Thom, as well as visual effects supervisors Michael Fink, David Andrews, and James Mitchell. They do not carry-over the isolated score option from the DVD, which also was not carried over onto the Blu-ray, sadly, but I still give this a high recommend for fans like me who have been waiting along time for this upgrade. I don't love the new artwork for this release though, it feels appropriately retro but sloppy and uninspired, which is a shame when the original illustrated movie poster used for the Blu-ray would have been terrific.
Special Features:
- NEW! Looking Back on Mars Attacks! (7:26) - Filmmakers swap stories about working with Tim Burton on one of the 1990s’ wackiest alien-invasion films.
- NEW! Ack! Ack! Aesthetic (10:50)- Filmmakers explore the distinctive style of Mars Attacks! and reveal how then-cutting-edge CGI shaped its iconic look.
ACK! ACK!
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