FILM FRENZY

Groucho Marx in Duck Soup (Photo: Universal)

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.)

BLACK HAWK DOWN (2001). Mark Bowen’s 1999 nonfiction book, about the disastrous 1993 military operation in Somalia that left several American soldiers dead, was praised for its ability to provide an overview of the conflict and for allowing everyone to have their say, from U.S. soldiers to Somali civilians. This adaptation does nothing of the sort, as director Ridley Scott, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and novice screenwriter Ken Nolan opted instead to turn a complex situation into a simple-minded slice of unthinking, unblinking jingoism (it will surprise no one to learn that the U.S. military gave the project its blessing along with hands-on support). This crucially fails to provide much historical or political context to the proceedings — obviously, Scott et al wanted to recreate the wartime experience in all its shell-shocked urgency, but the movie exists in a bubble, hermetically sealed off from the emotional pull that helps define most of the great war flicks. Many familiar actors are on hand, including Josh Hartnett, Troy co-stars Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana, Sam Shepard, Tom Sizemore, Tom Hardy, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Ewan McGregor (the latter one of the few whose character’s name was changed for the film, since the real “hero” later served 18 years of a 30-year sentence for repeatedly raping his 6-year-old daughter). For the most part, the unflagging sound and fury make it impossible to identify with these characters as individuals, since their primary function seems to be to serve as anonymous slabs of American fortitude. Nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Cinematography, this won for Best Film Editing and Best Sound.

The 4K + Blu-ray Steelbook edition holds both the theatrical and extended versions; extras include audio commentaries by Scott, Bruckheimer, and others; a making-of piece; and deleted scenes.

Movie: ★★

A BULLET FOR SANDOVAL (1969). In its original Spanish-language version, this is called Los Desperados, while in the United Kingdom, it’s known as Vengeance Is Mine. Stateside, it’s mostly shown under the title A Bullet for Sandoval, although I much prefer the alternate U.S. moniker: Those Desperate Men Who Smell of Dirt and Death, which sounds like one of those actual genre-spoofing flicks such as Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood and Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th. A particularly grim Spaghetti Western, this one stars George Hilton as John Warner, a Confederate soldier who deserts his post when he learns that his Mexican girlfriend is expecting. When she dies during childbirth, Warner is ordered by the woman’s hate-filled father, Don Pedro Sandoval (Ernest Borgnine), to collect his baby boy and leave — since all the locals refuse to assist the child once he gets infected by cholera, Warner is set on a path of revenge once the baby dies. The storyline is old hat, but the picture is stylish enough to maintain interest, and there’s a good supporting turn by Leo Anchóriz as a padre who teams up with Warner and his gang. The climax would seem to be inspired by The Wild Bunch were it not for the fact that the films were released within months of each other, so perhaps Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was used as inspiration instead.

The Blu-ray and DVD editions from VCI offer both the English-language version uncut and expanded and the original Spanish version. Extras include audio commentary by filmmaker and Spaghetti Western expert Alex Cox (Straight to Hell, Walker) and the U.S. theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★½

CARLITO’S WAY (1993). While Al Pacino was mesmerizing as drug lord Tony Montana in Brian De Palma’s 1983 Scarface, it’s probably safe to say that this was the role that marked his transition from serious thespian to raging ham. Pacino would subsequently win the worst acting Oscar ever handed out for his awful playing-to-the-rafters-on-Neptune emoting in 1992’s Scent of a Woman, and the fact that he was reuniting with De Palma for his first post-Scent project signaled that Carlito’s Way would prove to be a major embarrassment for all concerned. Happily, that isn’t the case, as a certain measure of restraint is one of the driving forces behind this adaptation of a pair of novels by former New York State Supreme Court judge Edwin Torres. Set in the 1970s, the movie’s plot can be described by Pacino’s famous line in 1990’s The Godfather Part III: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” He’s cast as Carlito Brigante, a former NYC drug kingpin who, following an early release from prison orchestrated by his crafty lawyer Dave Kleinfeld (an almost unrecognizable Sean Penn), makes a genuine effort to go straight. His girlfriend (Penelope Ann Miller) encourages this new direction, but his devotion to his increasingly drug-addled attorney as well as his disdain for a young punk known as Benny Blanco from the Bronx (John Leguizamo) threaten to derail his best-laid plans. It’s awfully familiar material, but Pacino and especially Penn are terrific, and De Palma again masterminds a pair of superb set-pieces, one a slow-burn betrayal inside a pool room, the other a chase through the subway and into Grand Central Station.

Blu-ray extras include a making-of piece; deleted scenes; and an interview with De Palma.

Movie: ★★★

CHRISTOPHER STRONG (1933). With only her second film, Katharine Hepburn landed her first starring role in this important pre-Code drama from Dorothy Arzner, Hollywood’s only successful female director from the 1920s through the ‘40s as well as one of the few openly gay filmmakers of the era. Hepburn plays Lady Cynthia Darrington, a British aviatrix who has never had time for romance due to her devotion to the skies. That changes once she meets Sir Christopher Strong (Colin Clive, Henry Frankenstein in the Karloff Frankenstein), a politician happily married to Lady Elaine Strong (Billie Burke) and blessed with a now-grown daughter, Monica (Helen Chandler, Mina Seward in the Lugosi Dracula). Cynthia and Christopher find it hard to resist each other, and the opportunity for a love affair leaves Cynthia reconsidering her career plans. Although both the film and Gilbert Frankau’s source novel are named after the male character, Arzner, Hepburn, and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Zoe Akins make it clear that Cynthia is the central character, viewing her as a feminist figure who lives by her own rules and who attempts to reclaim her independence after she finds herself faltering. Clive is a bit too rigid as the older aristocrat who attracts the younger pilot — the 33-year-old actor was only seven years older than his co-star, but the severe alcoholism that would eventually kill him at 37 made him look far more advanced — but various visual innovations (Cynthia’s silvery moth costume, the bracelet as shackle, etc.) lend symbolic power to the film’s themes.

Blu-ray extras consist of the 1933 live-action short Plane Nuts, starring Ted Healy and His Stooges (i.e. The Three Stooges); the 1933 live-action short Tomalio, featuring the final performance of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle (this same year, he died of a heart attack at the age of 46); and the 1933 cartoon Buddy’s Beer Garden.

Movie: ★★★

THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961). Second only to West Side Story as the top moneymaking film of 1961, The Guns of Navarone also ranks as one of the best of all World War II dramas. Based on Alistair MacLean’s smash bestseller, it centers on a team of Allied operatives ordered to destroy a pair of enormous German guns housed in a fortress overlooking the Aegean Sea. Among the members are Captain Mallory (Gregory Peck), forced to take over when the mission leader (Anthony Quayle) is severely injured; Corporal Miller (David Niven), the sardonic explosives expert; and Colonel Stavros (Anthony Quinn), the pragmatic Greek patriot. Beautifully paced by director J. Lee Thompson and producer-writer Carl Foreman, this 156-minute classic allows enough time for character development, plot complications (including the requisite double-cross by a member of the outfit), and several exciting set-pieces. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, this won the Oscar for Best Special Effects. A lesser (yet still entertaining) sequel appeared 17 years later in the form of Force 10 From Navarone (reviewed here), starring Robert Shaw and Edward Fox in the Peck and Niven roles and adding Harrison Ford in one of his first post-Star Wars projects.

The 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital edition of The Guns of Navarone has been reissued as a Steelbook. Extras include audio commentary by Thompson; film historian audio commentary; an introduction by Foreman; a main title progression reel; a pair of making-of featurettes; a look at Dimitri Tiomkin’s excellent (and Oscar-nominated) score; archival promo pieces; and the interactive feature The Resistance Dossier of Navarone.

Movie: ★★★★

IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958). An alien creature, running loose on a spaceship heading toward Earth, begins picking off the crew members one by one. And all these years, here you were thinking that Alien was a complete original. Indeed, It! The Terror From Beyond Space has long been acknowledged as a primary inspiration for Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic, and, despite being produced on a low budget, it’s an effective thriller in its own right. Colonel Carruthers (Marshall Thompson) is the only survivor from the first manned expedition to Mars, and it’s assumed by the astronauts sent to pick him up that he murdered his fellow crew members after their spaceship crash-landed in order to make the supplies last longer. Even as he’s being transported back to Earth to face criminal charges, Carruthers insists that the others were killed by a Martian monster; most of his rescuers firmly believe in his guilt, but they soon realize their error when the creature sneaks aboard the craft while a door is open (shades of Aliens rather than Alien) and remains in hiding until it’s ready to start eliminating its prey. “It” was played by Ray “Crash” Corrigan, and this proved to be the final screen credit for the prolific stuntman, “B”-movie cowboy star, and Hollywood’s go-to guy for playing gorillas (since he owned his own ape costumes). Even with its rubber roots, the alien in this picture (created by visual effects expert Paul Blaisdell) is memorable, and director Edward L. Cahn’s occasionally leaden style can’t completely neutralize the tense standoffs between humans and humanoid.

Blu-ray extras consist of a trio of making-of featurettes; a piece examining the movie as well as other sci-fi cinema of the era; the theatrical trailer; and trailers for other films on the Kino label.

Movie: ★★★

MARX BROTHERS EARLY MOVIES (1929-1933). Back in 2016, Universal’s home entertainment branch released the Blu-ray box set The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Edition, featuring restored versions of the team’s first five films. Those five flicks are being reissued on Blu-ray, the difference being that this time they’re available individually. What’s distinctive about these efforts is that they not only star the Marxes we all know and love — Groucho, Harpo, and Chico — but also brother Zeppo, the outfit’s straight man who was part of the clan’s vaudeville act but eventually quit after their stage success and these initial five flicks.

The Cocoanuts (1929), set at a ramshackle hotel run by Groucho, and Animal Crackers (1930), in which Groucho’s Captain Spaulding and the others contend with a stolen painting, were both based on the team’s Broadway hits and squeak by on the top-notch comedy quotient; all other components, from the tepid musical numbers to the inert direction, mark them as the least satisfying Marx flicks until the team’s late-career slide. Monkey Business (1931) is more like it, with the boys cast as stowaways aboard an ocean liner. Watching each one try to pass himself off as Maurice Chevalier is a comic highlight. Horse Feathers (1932) is even better, with Huxley College president Quincy Adams Wagstaff (Groucho, natch) turning to two bumblers (Harpo and Chico, natch) to help the school’s football team win their big match against Darwin College; somehow, Harpo manages to incorporate a horse-drawn vehicle into their game plan.

Duck Soup (1933) is the masterpiece of the quintet, an outrageous anti-war satire in which Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) has no real justification to take his country into battle but does so anyway. Ranking fifth on the AFI’s list of the 100 greatest comedies, this was also featured in Hannah and Her Sisters, when Woody Allen’s angst-ridden character catches a screening and becomes convinced by the film’s sheer mirth that life is worth living after all. Certainly, true movie fans haven’t lived until they’ve caught its nonstop barrage of classic bits: the mirror sequence, Firefly’s treatment of Ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern), and the priceless banter between Groucho and perennial target Margaret Dumont. This exchange just might be my favorite in all the Marx flicks: “Not that I care, but where is your husband?” “He’s dead.” “I bet he’s just using that as an excuse.” “I was with him to the very end.” “No wonder he passed away.” “I held him in my arms and kissed him.” “Then it was murder!”

As mentioned above, each film is sold separately. Each also includes audio commentary by a noted film historian as well as the feature-length documentary The Marx Brothers: Hollywood’s Kings of Chaos.

The Cocoanuts: ★★★

Animal Crackers: ★★★

Monkey Business: ★★★½

Horse Feathers: ★★★½

Duck Soup: ★★★★

SCROOGED (1988). When this satiric update of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol opened in November 1988, it was greeted with hostile reviews from the majority of critics. Today, online film reviewers and clickbait publications routinely place it on their lists of the greatest Christmas movies. Does this mean it was merely ahead of its time? In a sense, absolutely. The strain of mean-spiritedness that dominates the picture (until the feeble finale, anyway) is merely the national norm in these deplorable times, marking it as the perfect Yuletide flick for the 21st century. It’s the sort of picture where it’s easy to understand the POV of both its fans and its detractors, and I myself have over the decades gone from believing it was slightly underrated to now believing it to be slightly overrated. Written by Saturday Night Live scribes Mitch Glazer and Michael O’Donoghue but radically reworked by director Richard Donner, this finds Bill Murray in his element as Frank Cross, a ruthless TV producer put through a modern rendition of Dickens’ timeless tale. The redemptive ending, which Murray improvised on the spot, stinks on (Hudson River) ice and couldn’t possibly be more unconvincing or embarrassing. But the film is peppered with both fine actors (Karen Allen, Robert Mitchum, Alfre Woodard, etc.) and amusing gags, and the numerous cameo appearances are inspired (I never tire of Lee Majors in The Night the Reindeer Died). This earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Makeup.

The big news when it comes to this 4K + Digital release is that it marks the debut of various extras that were meant for a 2006 DVD (the “Yule Love It!” edition) that failed to materialize. Among these never-before-seen-or-heard bonus features are audio commentary by Donner; a making-of featurette; behind-the-scenes footage with Murray; and a look at the visual effects.

Movie: ★★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

NIGHTHAWKS (1981). The big reveal regarding Sylvester Stallone’s career is that, excepting roughly half the Rocky flicks, there aren’t many quality films gracing his resume (I mean, do even fans of the Rambo sequels really believe those to be good movies?). With its troubled production history and plenty of slicing and dicing in the editing room (mandated at various points by the MPAA, the studio, and Stallone himself), Nighthawks would logically seem to be a dud for the loss column; instead, it’s actually one of the better efforts from the superstar. Besides, where else can one find the screen being shared by the who’s-who gallery of Rocky Balboa, Lando Calrissian, Roy Batty, the Bionic Woman, and the bald lady from the first Star Trek film? Stallone and Billy Dee Williams star as DaSilva and Fox, two undercover cops assigned to a special unit that’s been formed to track down Wulfgar Reinhardt (Rutger Hauer in his first American feature), an international terrorist who fled to New York after his brutal methods shocked even his fellow anarchists. Now only in touch with one colleague (Persis Khambata), Wulfgar seeks to continue his reign of terror stateside, not counting on DaSilva to interfere with every move he makes. Gutted by the studio initially to avoid an X rating for violence and then to pick up the pace (gone are several moments featuring DaSilva and his ex-wife, played by Lindsay Wagner), Nighthawks was further trimmed by Stallone to minimize the fact that Hauer was stealing the picture out from under him. (Note to Stallone: Sorry, it didn’t work). Even with these edits, the movie still works as a breezy action yarn distinguished by a finale that even today might catch some viewers by surprise.

Movie: ★★★