Blu-ray Review: THE KILLERS (1964)

THE KILLERS (1964) 

Label: Arrow Films

Region Code: B
Rating: 18 Certificate
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio: English 2.0 LPCM Mono with Optional English  SDH Subtitles 
Video: 1080p  Fullscreen (1.33:1) and Widescreen (1.85:1)
Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes, Clu Gulager, Claude Akins, Norman Fell, Ronald Reagan
Director: Don Siegel

A pair of hired guns walk into a school for the deaf and blind and rough-up the receptionist before walking into a classroom and gunning down the shop teacher Johnny North (John Cassavetes, Rosemary's Baby) in a spray of gunfire. Afterward the hitmen Charlie (Lee Marvin, The Big Red One) Lee (Clu Gulager, Vic) reflect on the lucrative job and begin to wonder about the peculiarities of the hit. Why did it pay so well and why did Johnny not even attempt to run - it just seems a bit odd.  The assassins decide there must be more to it and set about to uncover what turns out to be a twisted web deceit involving mob boss Jack Browning (Ronald Reagan) and his double-crossing dame Sheila (Angie Dickinson, Dressed To Kill) plus a million dollars in cold cash from a heist.

Directed by Don Siegel (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) The Killers is a gritty noir-styled thriller starring the bad-ass Lee Marvin as a stone-cold assassin joined by his younger partner played by b-movie legend Clu Gulager (Return of the Living Dead). Marvin is his usual tough as nails self while Gulager is fun as the health-obsessed scene stealer. They're a great duo and watching them it's not hard to image Quentin Tarantino watching this and dreaming up Vincent and Jules from Pulp Fiction. It was a blast to see ex-president Ronald Reagan as a women-slapping baddie here in his last onscreen role before entering politics and Angie Dickinson as his double-crossing dame is pretty cute. Add John Cassevetes to any production and he just classes it up, we get nothing less with race car driver Johnny North, a skilled driver who falls for the wrong girl and winds-up in an awful mess. 

Aside from the leads we have a few side characters along for the ride, there's Johnny's longtime mechanic (Claude Akins, Rio Bravo) and mobster Mickey Farmer played by character actor Norman Fell (Bullitt)  whom I mostly associate as Mr. Roper from TV sitcom Three's Company. Mickey is memorably interrogated by the pair of assassins while taking a sphitz at the health club. A great watch with a strong cast of characters and performers, hard to believe this was filmed as a TV movie, some of the violence is pretty shocking even today. 

Blu-ray: The Killers (1964) looks gorgeous in 1080 from Arrow Video with a new HD transfer courtesy of Universal Pictures. We have the option of viewing the film in it's original TV aspect ratio or the cinematic widescreen (1.85:1) option. The television version offers more image on both the top and bottom as it was cropped for projection in the theaters, originally filmed as the first-ever made-for-TV film it eventually ended up in cinema when it proved to be too violent for prime time. A nice layer of film grain with some fine texturing, the colors are strong and black levels are decent. We can see some very minor print damage but this is a very pleasant HD presentation. 

Audio chores are handled by an English 2.0 LPCM Mono track with Optional English  SDH Subtitles. The mono presentation is pretty flat but the very cool score provided by Henry Mancini and John Williams sounds just great, a wonderful brassy score with a lot of bongo drums. 

A nice selection of extras from Arrow including an interview with New York Times bestselling writer Marc Eliot, author of ‘Ronald Reagan: The Hollywood Years who  talks about Reagan the actor and his place in Hollywood and how the ex-President felt about playing a baddie in his last onscreen role. I thoroughly enjoyed the interview with Dwayne Epstein, author of ‘Lee Marvin: Point Blank’ who speaks about  Marvin's time on set and his place in Hollywood during the filming plus some great anecdotes about pranks he pulled and his consumption of vodka on set. The last of a trio of video extras is a vintage interview with the director from 1984 discussing his style of film making. Lastly we have a 40 pg. booklet, reversible artwork and a gallery of rare behind-the-scenes images. 

A nice set of interviews that give some interesting insights into the making of the film - surprised there wasn't an interview with co-star Clu Gulager or Angie Dickinson - would have greatly appreciated input from actors who are still alive and kicking.This is a region-B locked Blu-ray. 

Special Features:
- Reagan Kills: interview with New York Times bestselling writer Marc Eliot, author of ‘Ronald Reagan: The Hollywood Years’ (20:45)
- Screen Killer: interview with Dwayne Epstein, author of ‘Lee Marvin: Point Blank’ (30:45)
- Archive interview with Don Siegel (1984) from the French television series ‘Cinéma Cinémas’ (10:36)
- Gallery of rare behind-the-scenes images
- Reversible sleeve featuring the original poster and new artwork by Nathanael Marsh
- 40 pg. Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mike Sutton, extracts from Don Siegel’s autobiography and contemporary reviews, illustrated with original lobby cards

Verdict: The Killers (1964) is a top notch noir-styled thriller with a great cast that moves along

swiftly with some hard-boiled crime elements, plenty of double-crossing and great shocker of an ending. Worth a watch and glad to finally get this one under my belt, an unexpected treat. 3.5 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: THE FURY (Arrow Video)

THE FURY (1978) 

Label: Arrow Video 

Release Date: October 28th 2013

Region Code: B 

Rating: 15 Certificate 

Duration: 118 Minutes

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1)

Audio: LPCM 2.0, 4.0 DTS-HD Master Audio with Optional English Subtitles

Cast: Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Amy Irving, Andrew Stevens, Charles Durning, Dennis Franz, 

Director: Brian DePalma

Synopsis: John Cassavetes gives his most sinister performance since Rosemary’s Baby as a man who kidnaps the telepathic son of his colleague (Kirk Douglas), aiming to turn him and similarly gifted individuals into human weapons. Meanwhile, Gillian (Amy Irving), is worried enough about the destructive potential of her own powers to agree to be institutionalized - but is the Paragon Institute all that it’s cracked up to be?

Following the success of supernatural prom-scare Carrie (1973) Brian De Palma continued his exploration of the supernatural with the spy-supernatural thriller mash-up The Fury (1978), it's definitely a weird ride that begins with Robin Sandza (Andrew Stevens, The Terror Within) having a conversation about the direction of his life on a Middle Eastern resort beach with his CIA agent father Peter, played by Kirk Douglas (Paths of Glory) when terrorist storm the beach in a hail of machine gunfire. The target of the attack is Peter, Kirk Douglass even at 62 years of age was looking pretty damn fit while rocking a pair of short shorts while taking out terrorists with an AK-47. It's a thrilling start to the film, action-packed and loaded with De Palma's signature moving camera, we're off to a great start.

During the attack Peter's son is protected from harm by Sandza's CIA friend Childress (John Cassavetes, Rosemary's Baby) who it turns out is not such a great friend after all, he set-up the attack in order to remove Peter and recruit Robin for a CIA-funded telekinetic murder squad. Believing his father dead Robin turns cold and disillusioned by the tragic event. Childress along with the help of seductive mentor, Dr. Susan Charles (Fiona Lewis), dope-up and brain-wash their new psychic assassin, but the process further unhinges Robin who becomes an increasingly powerful and soulless weapon.

Meanwhile, Peter who actually survived the attack is searching for his son while evading clandestine CIA agents, this plot thread leads to some weird, humorous scenarios with Peter dropping in through the window of an apartment building and holding a family a gunpoint while he disguises himself with shoe polish and a fresh set of clothes. When the CIA track his whereabouts he escapes the apartment in an age defying Bourne Identity-esque series of gymnastic escapades,  then he hijacks two off-duty police officers, one of whom is played by De Palma regular Dennis Franz (Blow Out) as Peter leads them on a wild ride through a fog drenched construction site.

Eventually Sandza tracks his son down to the Paragon Institute with the help of his girlfriend Hester (Carrie Snodgrass, Pale Rider) and the sweet, young psychic recruit Gillian (Amy Irving, Carrie). The psychic warfare prep-college is being run by Dr. Mckeever (Charles Durning, Dark Night of the Scarecrow) who always delivers a great villain when onscreen, good stuff. However, when Peter attempts to spring his psychotic son from the institute the results are expectantly tragic and psycho-kinetically explosive.


The film is a bit of a clunky mash-up, t times the spy-thriller and supernatural elements don't exactly mesh perfectly, when the two meet head-on during the finale it's fun stuff if a bit odd. The Fury is an interesting watch with some great moments, during the finale when Robin's eyes are burning iridescent blue and the psychokinetic mayhem is full-tilt it's fun stuff. Douglas is entertaining as the betrayed agent in pursuit of his son, and Cassavetes as the cold, calculating villain is fantastic, his presences is just something you can't take your eyes off. As ever Amy Irving is delightful as the naive and sympathetic telepath Gillian, a young woman recruited by the Paragon Institute, she really pulls you in, which is great because Andrew Stevens doesn't exactly make you feel anything for his character, turning in the most non-effectual performance of the film.  At nearly two hours the film struggles a bit to keep a decent pace despite De Palma's enjoyable visuals, the interesting bits just don't add up to form a cohesive story.


I think the film's biggest flaw is the script, it's incoherent at times, but De Palma's tense directing style and some strong performances keeps the weirdness flowing along while keeping head scratching to a minimum, it keeps you off balance just enough to go with it. If you think too much about what you're seeing here O think it would be detrimental to your viewing, trust me.

There are some nice effects and gore peppered throughout, including a great Scanners-esque finale, the film shares quite a bit with Cronenberg's classic, but falls a bit short on it's promise. We get the usual array of De Palma cinema magic, a great scene of Gillian escaping from the Paragon Institute plays out in beautiful slow-motion, nearly silent, the escape is successful but not without collateral damage, a victim's life ends on the shattered windshield of an out-of-control car, it's pure De Palma awesomeness. While it's not a perfect film this is supernatural spy-thriller has some nice horror elements and is worth a watch even if it struggles to maintain coherency from time to time.

Blu-ray: Earlier this year we saw a region-free Blu-ray of Brian De Palma's The Fury (1978) from US distributor Twilight Time that suffered from rampant film grain in the darker scenes, it was murky and the contrast was not great. Arrow Video have sourced a brand-new transfer from the original camera negative with an AVC encode on 1080p Blu-ray, and it's quite impressive when stacked-up against the Twilight Time Blu-ray with more robust colors and more natural skin tones, improved depth and clarity, it's quite impressive, fans are gonna be pleased.

Audio options include both the English 4.0 DTS-HD Master Audio and LPCM English 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles. I preferred the 4.0 with it's pleasing dynamic range, dialogue and effects are nicely balanced, plus it opens up the sound stage nicely. Dialogue is crisp and John Williams fantastic Bernard Herman-esque score sounds superb, compared to the TT Blu-ray the audio here is more intense,  we also have an isolated score and effects track to enjoy.

As with all of the recent Brian De Palma Blu-rays from Arrow we have a nice selection of Fiction Factory produced extras beginning with Blood on the Lens (27:00) an interview with Cinematographer Richard H. Klinehe speaks fondly of his only film with De Palma, remembering his experience on the set, setting-up shots, De Palma meticulous nature and commenting on the gorgeous cast, John Williams score and going into details about the specific scenes like the carnival sequence and the levitation scene.

Up next is Spinning Tale (13:38) with star Fiona Lewis who remembers the film as being ahead of it's time  and bearing the distinct De Palma stamp. She speaks briefly about her time on Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers and A Day at the Beach with Peter Sellers and not wanting to do the film after reading the script until she met with De Palma, who impressed her.  She offers some great recollections of working with John Cassevetes who was cold and dry witted, working with Andrew Stevens and being battered over the course of 24 takes of being thrown to the ground repeatedly.

The most in-depth and rounded of the features would be The Fury - A Location Journal: An interview with Sam Irvin (49:49), who at the time of the film was intern and correspondent for Cinefantastique magazine. His recounting of his De Palma fandom and time on set working with the director and interviewing the cast is fantastic and offered a lot of behind-the-scenes info ranging from stealing the estate location from the Omen II production,the make-up effects, cut scenes, and differences between the book and film. Irvin is an unabashed De Palma groupie and was totally in love with Fiona Lewis, he would go onto direct and produce quite a few films of his own including Elvira's Haunted Hills and Gods and Monsters, the entire feature is quite a love-letter to De Palma and his film.

Also included is Sam Irvin's Brian De Palma-esque short film Double Negative (17:58) a noir crime thriller about the film industry, fun stuff. There are also vintage interviews from the 1978 promotional tour, featuring Brian De Palma (6:03), producer Frank Yablans (6:52) and stars Carrie Snodgress (5:06) and Amy Irving (4:45), a collection of behind-the-scenes stills, and the theatrical trailer.

Reversible Artwork 

Not included with my review disc from Arrow but with the retail version are a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw plus a booklet featuring new writing on the film by Chris Dumas, author of Un-American Psycho: Brian De Palma and the Political Invisible, as well as a re-print of a contemporary interview with Brian De Palma, and a brand new interview with screenwriter John Farris on the writing of the film, his and De Palma’s unrealised adaptation of Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man and more, illustrated with original stills and posters.

This is a fantastic edition of a film that's received short shrift with previous DVD and Blu-ray incarnations, Arrow's Blu-ray have rectified that with a superb AV presentation with some interesting and in-depth supplement material, if you have not gone region-FREE here's yet another reason from Arrow Video to do so NOW!

Special Features:

- Brand new digital transfer of the film from the original camera negative
- Optional uncompressed mono 2.0 PCM and 4.0 DTS-HD Master Audio audio
- Isolated John Williams score
-Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Blood on the Lens: An interview with Cinematographer Richard H. Kline (27:00)
- Spinning Tales: Fiona Lewis on starring in The Fury (13:38)
- The Fury - A Location Journal: An interview with Sam Irvin, intern on The Fury, author of the film’s shooting diary and then correspondent for Cinefantastique magazine (49:49)
- Original archive interviews from the 1978 promotional tour, featuring Brian De Palma (6:03), producer Frank Yablans (6:52) and stars Carrie Snodgress (5:06) and Amy Irving (4:45)
- Double Negative: A short film tribute to Brian De Palma by Sam Irvin, starring William Finley (17:58)
- Gallery of behind-the-scenes production images
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw
- Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Chris Dumas, author of Un-American Psycho: Brian De Palma and the Political Invisible, as well as a re-print of a contemporary interview with Brian De Palma, and a brand new interview with screenwriter John Farris on the writing of the film, his and De Palma’s unrealised adaptation of Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man and more, illustrated with original stills and posters.

Verdict:  Having just reviewed The Fury (1978) a few months ago I then stated it was not a top-tier De Palma but an interesting supernatural actioner mash-up, watching it again I was a bit more into it this time out, it's fun to see De Palma explore the supernatural themes of Carrie (1976), watching the new extras probably enhanced my viewing quite a bit, this gets a recommend. 3.5 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: THE FURY (1978)

THE FURY (1978) 

The Limited Edition Series 

Label: Twilight Time DVD

Region Code: Region FREE

Rating: R

Duration: 118 Minutes

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1)

Audio: English 4.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio with Optional English Subtitles

Cast: Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Amy Irving, Andrew Stevens, Charles Durning, Dennis Franz, 

Director: Brian DePalma

Following the success of 1973's supernatural prom-scare Carrie Brian DePalma continued his exploration of the supernatural with this spy-thriller mash-up, definitely a weird ride that begins with Robin Sandza (Andrew Stevens, The Terror Within) having a conversation about the direction of his life on a Middle Eastern resort beach with his CIA agent father Peter (Kirk Douglas, Paths of Glory) when terrorist storm the beach in a hail of gunfire, the target is Peter, Douglass even at 62 years of age was looking fit as a fiddle and rocking a pair of white shorty shorts while taking out terrorists and arming himself with an AK-47. It's a thrilling start to the film, action-packed and loaded with DePalma's signature moving camera.

During the attack Peter's son is protected from harm by Sandza's CIA friend Childress (John Cassavetes, Rosemary's Baby) who it turns out set-up the attack in order to take-out Peter and obtain Robin for a CIA-funded telekinetic murder squad, that bastard. Robin, believing his father dead, turns cold and disillusioned by the tragic event. The Agency with the help of seductive mentor, Dr. Susan Charles (Fiona Lewis), dope-up and brain-wash the psychic assassin, the process further unhinges Robin who becomes a powerful and soulless weapon. 

Meanwhile, Peter who actually survived the staged attack is now searching for his son while evading clandestine CIA agents, this plot thread leads to some weird, humorous scenarios with Peter dropping in through a window and holding a family a gunpoint while he disguises himself with shoe polish and a fresh set of clothes. When the CIA track his whereabouts he escapes the apartment in an age defying Bourne Identity-esque series of gymnastic feats. Fresh from this agile escape Peter hijacks two on-duty police officers, one of whom is played by DePalma regular Dennis Franz (Blow Out) as Peter leads them on a wild ride through a fog-laden construction site while escaping a CIA tail. 

Eventually Sandza tracks his son down to the Paragon Institute with the help of his girlfriend Hester (Carrie Snodgrass, Pale Rider) and a young psychic recruit Gillian (Amy Irving, Carrie). The psychic warfare prep-college is being run by Dr. Mckeever (Charles Durning, Dark Night of the Scarecrow) who always delivers a great villain when onscreen, good stuff. However, when Peter attempts to spring his psychotic son from the institute the results are expectantly tragic and psycho-kinetically explosive. 

The film is a bit of a clunky mash-up, the  spy-thriller and supernatural elements don't exactly mesh quite perfectly, when the two meet head-on during the finale it's fun stuff if a bit odd. The Fury is an interesting watch with some great moments, during the finale when Robin's eyes are burning irradesent blue and the psychokinetic mayhem is full-tilt it's fun stuff. Douglas is quite entertaining as the betrayed agent in pursuit of his son, and Cassavetes is an calculating and intense villain, he's one of those presences you just can't take your eyes off. As ever Amy Irving is delightful as the naive and sympathetic Gillian, a young woman recruited by the Paragon Institute, really pulls you in, which is great because Andrew Stevens doesn't exactly ever make yo feel anything for his character, turning in the most non-effectual performance of the film.  At nearly two hours the film struggles a bit to keep a decent pace despite DePalma's enjoyable visuals, the interesting bits just don't add up to form a cohesive story. 

I think the film's biggest flaw is the script, it's incoherent at times, but DePalma's tense directing style and some strong performances keeps the weirdness flowing along without much scratching, it keeps you off balance just enough to go with it, thinking about it too much would be detrimental to your viewing experience, trust me. 

There's some nice effects and gore peppered throughout, including a great Scanners-esque finale, the film shares quite a bit with Cronenberg's classic, but falls a bit short on it's promise. We get the usual array of DePalma cinema magic, a great scene of Gillian escaping from the Paragon Institute plays out in beautiful slow-motion, nearly silent, the escape is successful but not without collateral damage, a victim's life ends on the shattered windshield of an out-of-control car, it's pure DePalma awesomeness. While it's not a perfect film this is supernatural spy-thriller has some nice horror elements and is worth a watch even if it struggles to maintain coherency from time to time. 

Blu-ray: Brian DePalma's The Fury (1978) comes to Blu-ray for the first time from Twilight Time with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer presented in widescreen (1.85:1). Having just recently thrown on the Fox DVD for a view when this Blu-ray was announced I am pleased to say it's an improvement. Colors are nicely saturated plus fine detail and sharpness are improved. One thing you will definitely notice an abundance of film grain throughout, not just a fine silted layer either, this is robust stuff. The black levels suffer a bit, definitely handling them better than the DVD but they're pretty murky and infused with grain and contrast issues. The source print is not exactly pristine either, there are minor instances of print damage with scratches, white specks, there doesn't appear to have been much of any restoration afforded the film to my eyes past a clean-up. Not to say the presentation is not generally pleasing to the eyes, the 1080p upgrade shows increased fine detail and sharpness,  while it's not on par with Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) on Blu-ray if you're a fan of the film, if you love DePalma, I can safely tell you this is worth the upgrade provided you are willing to shell out $35 for the Twilight Time edition. . 

Audio options include both the English 4.0 DTS-HD Master Audio and English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio with Optional English Subtitles. The 4.0 wins the contest quite easily with a pleasing dynamic range, dialogue and effects are nicely balanced. John Williams brassy Bernard Herman-esque score sounds nice and full, a definite upgrade from the DVD even if the surrounds don't get much of a workout.

Twilight Time have been releasing some recent Blu-rays stuffed with extras, check out Our Man Flint (1965), In Like Flint (1967), Christine (1983) and Major Dundee (1965), all of which are are dripping with great extras. Unfortunately, we don't get much in the way of extras with The Fury, what we do get is the signature Isolated Score Track, John Williams score is pretty fantastic, Williams is strongly channeling Bernard Herman and it's a joy to listen to. Also included is the Original Theatrical Trailer and an 8 pg. Collector's Booklet with Julie Kirgo's extensive liner notes which frame the film in a post-Carrie (1976) world with DePalma further exploring the occult and supernatural. While features are a bit anemic they are certainly appreciated, would have loved a commentary, interviews with the cast or crew, but the original Fox DVD had none and keeping with Twilight Time's business model they have not sourced new features, but we do get the nifty Julie Kirgo liner notes and a great isolated score.  

Special Features: 

- John Williams Isolated Score Track 

- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Collector's Booklet with Extensive Julie Kirgo Liner Notes

Verdict: Not a top-tier DePalma film by any means but an interesting supernatural actioner mash-up, it's fun to see DePalma further explore the occult following Carrie (1976), it's just not as successful a film. As usual Twilight Time's Blu-ray is limited edition of only 3,000 and available exclusively from www.screenarchives.com, so get it while you can. 3 Outta 5