FILM FRENZY

Dale Fuller in Foolish Wives (Photo: Flicker Alley)

By Matt Brunson

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.)

ANGEL FACE (1952). Film buffs smile knowingly at the mere mention of this title, for two reasons. The first is that it was on this set that Otto Preminger, under orders from studio head Howard Hughes to torment Jean Simmons (in retaliation for spurning Hughes’ advances), instructed Robert Mitchum to slap her in take after take for a particular scene until a fed-up Mitchum turned and walloped the director instead. The second is that it features an ending so sudden, so unexpected, and so violent that I practically leaped off the couch when I first saw this noir eons ago. Simmons is terrific as Diane Tremayne, a daddy’s girl whose beauty masks a psychotic urge to murder her stepmother (Barbara O’Neil). She decides to make ambulance driver Frank Jessup (Mitchum) her unwitting accomplice — for his part, he suspects something’s not quite right with Diane but allows his ambitions to override his common sense. This isn’t in a class with Preminger’s Laura — merely one of the two or three greatest noirs ever made — but its Freudian underpinnings and sharp swerves place it in its own class.

Blu-ray extras consist of film historian audio commentary and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★½

THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (1954). Hollywood has seen better directors than Joseph L. Mankiewicz, but it’s arguable whether it’s ever seen better writers. His Oscar-winning script for All About Eve is just one of the reasons that 1950 classic still reigns as my all-time favorite film, and traces of that picture’s wit, wisdom, and caustic dialogue can be found in Mankiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa. Humphrey Bogart plays director Harry Dawes, one of the very few people who genuinely cares about Maria Vargas (a well-cast Ava Gardner), a Spanish dancer who’s groomed for big-screen stardom but perpetually finds herself at the mercy of men who prove to be soulless, sexist, and/or secretive. A cynical and sour piece, the film is best during the first half, when Bogart, Edmond O’Brien (as a profusely sweaty press agent), and Warren Stevens (as a cold-blooded producer) keep melodrama at bay — one-note Rossano Brazzi, on the other hand, practically drowns in it once he takes over the second half as a count who woos Maria. O’Brien won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his fine performance, with Mankiewicz earning a nomination for his original screenplay.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★★

BEST SELLER (1987). Two compelling lead performances charge this otherwise sloppy crime procedural about the relationship between a cop and a killer. Dennis Meechum (Brian Dennehy) is a veteran police officer who’s enjoying a second career as a novelist until the cancer-related death of his wife understandably paralyzes him with writer’s block. Out of the shadows emerges Cleve (James Woods), a seasoned assassin who promises Meechum that his life story would make for an automatic bestseller. Cleve claims that he used to work for David Madlock (Paul Shenar), a respected businessman and pillar of the community who, according to Cleve, stealthily built his reputation via murder and corruption. Meechum is initially skeptical of Cleve’s claims but finally comes around — it’s problematic, though, since Meechum has both personal and professional reasons to loathe Cleve but nevertheless finds himself drawn to this sleazy killer. Both actors are in their element — Dennehy playing dedicated and dependable, Woods playing angsty and immoral — but there are too many dopey developments to ignore, and the climax is particularly awful and unconvincing.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★½

ENDANGERED SPECIES (1982). One of director Alan Rudolph’s occasional if ill-fated attempts to make a mainstream movie, Endangered Species comes across like a mix between a holdover from the “paranoia thriller” subgenre of the 1970s and a muckraking made-for-TV movie of the 1980s. Inspired by a real-life incident, it centers around a series of unexplained cattle mutilations in Colorado. The local yokels think the animals are being killed either by extraterrestrials or Satanists, but Sheriff Harriet Perdue (JoBeth Williams) comes up short on tangible clues. Enter Ruben Castle (Robert Urich), an alcoholic ex-cop from New York who’s come to the area with his resentful teenage daughter Mackenzie (Marin Kanter) in tow; with his help, the sheriff is able to stumble onto the right path. The sequences involving the mystery are far more convincing than the scenes focusing on the adult leads’ testy romance.

Blu-ray extras consist of film historian audio commentary and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★½

FOOLISH WIVES (1922). Writer-director Erich von Stroheim never met a film length he didn’t like: The man (or “the man you love to hate,” as he was often tagged) whose first cut of 1924’s Greed ran 9½ hours previously had mounted the comparatively restrained 6½-hour Foolish Wives. The studio tsked-tsked the run time, the scissors worked overtime, and the final release version ran a mere 117 minutes. Attempts at restoring the movie were undertaken over the years, and Flicker Alley, in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, has now released a Blu-ray + DVD edition that contains the most complete version possible at 147 minutes. Billed as “The First Real Million Dollar Picture” (that amazingly detailed Monte Carlo set? Built completely from scratch), Foolish Wives finds von Stroheim playing a Russian con artist who passes himself off as Count Karamzin and his two equally deceitful lovers (Mae Busch and Maude George) as his regal cousins. A complete degenerate, Karamzin concentrates on duping an American diplomat’s wife (Miss DuPont) but also finds time to swindle his lovelorn maid (Dale Fuller) and fantasize about raping a mentally challenged teenager (Malvina Polo). Men and women, Yanks and Europeans, the blue-bloods and the have-nots — no one is spared in this fascinating and frequently lurid silent feature.

Extras include a making-of piece; amazing behind-the-scenes footage; and a restoration demo. A booklet is also included.

Movie: ★★★½

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (1958). Before Bruce the shark, there was Fish the marlin. Like most productions involving waterworks — not just Spielberg’s Jaws but also Cameron’s The Abyss and Costner’s Waterworld — there were production problems aplenty on this adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s classic novella. Delays in shooting, expensive fishing expeditions that proved fruitless in obtaining the desired footage, the use of an unreliable mechanical fish, and the purchase of reams of oceanic footage (including that owned by the man who had set a record by catching a gargantuan marlin) resulted in the budget ballooning from $2 million to $5 million. The result is a real curio, a thoughtful movie that entertains without ever really convincing. Spencer Tracy is cast in the central role, and it’s a testament to his considerable skills that this well-fed, Milwaukee-born-and-bred actor scores as an impoverished Cuban fisherman trying to land an oversized fish. Dimitri Tiomkin won the Best Original Score Oscar, with the movie nabbing nominations for Best Actor for Tracy (although he’s even better in the same year’s The Last Hurrah) and Best Color Cinematography for James Wong Howe.

Blu-ray extras consist of footage of Hemingway on a fishing expedition, and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★

STORMY MONDAY (1988). Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) made his feature writing and directing debuts with this smoky, jazzy mood-ring of a movie. Set in the downtrodden English town of Newcastle, the film centers on the intersecting lives of four disparate characters: Frank Cosmo (Tommy Lee Jones), the ugly American hoping to acquire local real estate by any means necessary; Finney (Sting), a club owner who refuses to be intimidated into selling his property; Brendan (Sean Bean), an agreeable young man hired by Finney; and Kate (Melanie Griffith), who unhappily works for Cosmo as arm and eye candy but unexpectedly finds real romance with Brendan. Backed by evocative camerawork courtesy of the great Roger Deakins (the 16-time Oscar nominee who finally won statues for 2017’s Blade Runner 2049 and 2019’s 1917), Stormy Monday has more style than substance, but here’s a rare example of when that proves to be just enough.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★★

THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998). Who could have guessed that it only required a couple years for The Truman Show to prove prophetic? The “reality TV” craze didn’t really hit stateside until the grand opening of the 21st century, further elevating the worth of a picture that was already a resounding success from the moment it premiered. Jim Carrey delivers one of his more grounded performances as Truman Burbank, a likable, 30-year-old businessman who has no idea his entire life has been nothing more than a television show that’s proven to be a ratings smash around the globe — much to the delight of its quietly menacing creator (a superb Ed Harris). The script by Andrew Niccol is endlessly inventive, and director Peter Weir finds just the right tone for the project, providing it with a welcome buoyancy but never letting us forget its darker underpinning  — namely, that Truman is the ultimate victim of our nation’s voyeuristic tendencies. This earned three richly deserved Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Harris), Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

DVD extras include a making-of featurette; a piece on the visual effects; deleted scenes; and a photo gallery.

Movie: ★★★½

WILL PENNY (1968). Considering the number of classic films that featured Charlton Heston — from The Ten Commandments to his Oscar-winning turn in Ben-Hur, from Touch of Evil to his iconic turn in Planet of the Apes, from The Greatest Show on Earth to his career-capping turn in Bowling for Columbine — it’s interesting to note that the actor picked his role in this Western as his favorite. He’s solid as the title character, an aging cowboy who in rapid succession lands a job under a fair-minded ranch foreman (Ben Johnson), gets ambushed by a religious lunatic (Donald Pleasence) and his three sons (one played by Bruce Dern), and finds himself nursed back to health by a feisty woman (Joan Hackett) with a young son (Jon Gries, son of the film’s writer-director, Tom Gries) at her side. Less elegiac than many such Westerns about men entering their twilight years, it’s not a lament for a passing way of life as much as it’s a look at the limits enforced by such a lifestyle. As Will’s friend Blue, Lee Majors earns an “Introducing” credit.

Blu-ray extras include film historian audio commentary, with further contributions by Will Penny script supervisor Michael Preece; two vintage behind-the-scenes featurettes; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

THE IN-LAWS (1979). With the recent passing of Alan Arkin, it’s time to revisit this minor comedy classic that boasts a clever premise, a witty script (by Andrew Bergman) that’s packed with choice dialogue, two beautifully matched lead actors in Peter Falk and Arkin, and a supporting performer who almost makes off with the picture like a bandit in the night. Arkin plays Sheldon Kornpett, a meek dentist who gets caught up in the misadventures of Vince Ricardo (Falk), a maverick CIA agent who also happens to be the father of his daughter’s fiancé (Penny Peyser and Michael Lembeck play the betrothed). Both stars are in glorious form — Falk with his positive energy and tireless motormouth, Arkin with his deadpan demeanor and barely contained rage — while Richard Libertini is an absolute hoot as an eccentric Latin American dictator with a hand puppet (literally; his hand is the puppet) named Señor Pepe, a hilarious riff on Señor Wences’ ventriloquist act immortalized on The Ed Sullivan Show. And always remember: Serpentine! Avoid the awful 2003 remake with Michael Douglas in the Falk role, Albert Brooks in the Arkin part, and a grotesquely miscast David Suchet playing a bastardization of Libertini’s character.

Movie: ★★★½

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Review links for movies referenced in this column (all links open in new window):
All About Eve
Blade Runner 2049
Bowling for Columbine
The Greatest Show on Earth
The Last Hurrah
1917
The Ten Commandments
Touch of Evil