FILM FRENZY

Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair (Photo: Kino & MGM)

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.)

THE BIG COUNTRY (1958). Director William Wyler and leading man Gregory Peck, who had worked beautifully together on Roman Holiday, didn’t share such a rapturous relationship during the making of this excellent Western, although their squabbles thankfully aren’t reflected by what ended up on the screen (for the record, the two men made up a couple years later). A sprawling epic that was also co-produced by Peck and Wyler, this stars the former as a retired sea captain who settles out West, only to find his manhood questioned by everyone from his ranch foreman (Charlton Heston) to a contemptible cowpoke (Chuck Connors) to even his own fiancée (Carroll Baker). In the midst of all these challenges, he finds himself drawn to a headstrong neighbor (Jean Simmons) and caught in the middle of a feud between two rival landowners (Burl Ives and Charles Bickford). Ives, whose performance earned him the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, is particularly memorable, as is Heston (Wyler would direct Heston to his Oscar win the very next year with Ben-Hur). Jerome Morris’ Oscar-nominated score is one of the all-time greats, standing in the company of Elmer Bernstein’s The Magnificent Seven theme and Ennio Morricone’s Spaghetti Western contributions as the genre’s best.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by film historian Sir Christopher Frayling; a vintage behind-the-scenes featurette; the 1986 American Masters episode “Directed by William Wyler,” featuring interviews with Peck, Heston, and other stars; separate interviews with Peck’s children (Cecilia Peck, Carey Peck, and Tony Peck), Heston’s son (Fraser C. Heston), and Wyler’s daughter (Catherine Wyler); and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★½

CABIN IN THE SKY (1943). Vincente Minnelli made his feature directorial debut with this all-black musical based on the Broadway hit. Two of the leads, Ethel Waters and Rex Ingram, were imported from the stage show; another, Dooley Wilson (Sam in Casablanca), was not, but he receives a fine replacement in Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. Anderson plays Little Joe, a gambler who finds himself trapped in a battle between Good and Evil on both the physical front — his devout wife Petunia (Waters) vs. the sultry Georgia Brown (Lena Horne) — and the spiritual plane — the heavenly General (Kenneth Spencer) vs. the devilish Lucifer Jr. (Ingram). The comedy is broad but effective, and despite the tomfoolery on view, the story still manages to build to a moving finale. Louis Armstrong appears as one of Lucifer Jr.’s minions, while tap dancer John W. Bubbles serves up a sensational “Shine” (choreographed by an uncredited Busby Berkeley). Both Horne and Armstrong perform renditions of “Ain’t It the Truth” that were cut from the film, but both are available as extras (see below). Those who believe the practice of adding one or two new songs to an imported or established score, often solely for awards consideration, is a fairly modern concept (see Evita, Chicago, Nine, Les Misérables, and on and on), might be interested to learn that “Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe” was written specifically for the movie and nabbed an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

Blu-ray extras include archival audio commentary by Evangela and Eva Anderson, Anderson’s wife and daughter, Fayard Nicholas of The Nicholas Brothers, black cultural scholar Todd Boyd, and film historian Drew Casper, with interview excerpts of Horne; the 1946 live-action short Studio Visit, which contains the cut Lena-Horne-in-a-bathtub number; and an audio outtake of Armstrong performing “Ain’t It the Truth.”

Movie: ★★★

A DAY AT THE RACES (1937). “I took four years at Vassar,” states Dr. Hackenbush. “Vassar?” questions Mrs. Upjohn. “But that’s a girls’ college.” “I found that out the third year. I would have been there yet, but I went out for the swimming team.” And so it goes in one of the Marx Brothers’ best films, part of the string of five consecutive classics they made between 1931 and 1937. In this one, Groucho is Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush, a horse doctor masquerading as a real M.D., while perpetual foil Margaret Dumont is Mrs. Upjohn, the clueless hypochondriac who helps him retain his post at a sanitarium run by the sweet Judy Standish (Maureen O’Sullivan, the mother of Mia Farrow and the Jane to Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan). When some disreputable sorts try to swipe the facility from Judy in order to build a casino on the spot, it’s Hackenbush and two other goofballs, Tony (Chico) and Stuffy (Harpo), to the rescue. While the musical numbers are always the low points in all the Marx movies (Allan Jones is the snoozy crooner here), the climactic “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm” is a cut above the norm and earned an Oscar nomination in the short-lived category of Best Dance Direction. But never mind the melodies: Comedy is king, and the boys are in terrific form. This is particularly true when they’re insulting each other (and poor Mrs. Upjohn) — I especially like when Hackenbush gives Stuffy the once-over and cracks, “The last time I saw a head like that was in a bottle of formaldehyde.”

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by author Glenn Mitchell (The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia); the 2004 documentary short On Your Marx, Get Set, Go!; the 1937 Oscar-nominated short A Night at the Movies; and a trio of vintage cartoons.

Movie: ★★★½

MCCABE & MRS. MILLER (1971). This early 70s effort from Robert Altman is a bleak, bruising beauty — small wonder, then, that its soundtrack is primarily comprised of moody Leonard Cohen tunes. Warren Beatty is John McCabe, a fledgling entrepreneur in a fledgling mining town in the Pacific Northwest. McCabe opens a brothel, but it doesn’t take off until he acquires a business partner in Constance Miller (Julie Christie), a savvy prostitute who becomes the establishment’s madam. The bordello becomes too successful, since it draws the attention of the heads of a powerful mining company — men who plan to take over the whorehouse by any means necessary. Altman and cowriter Brian McKay (adapting Edmund Naughton’s book McCabe) have made a revisionist Western that strips the genre bare: Instead of gallant heroes and beautifully choreographed gunfights, there are only stupid men and sloppy shootouts, nothing worth turning into the stuff of legend. Christie earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination — the movie’s sole bid — but I was more impressed with Beatty, who mutes his matinee-idol appeal in order to emphasize his character’s social awkwardness and often sluggish mental capacities. Also exemplary are the cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond and the production design by Leon Ericksen.

Extras in the 4K UHD + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary (from 2002) by Altman and producer David Foster; a making-of piece; a vintage behind-the-scenes featurette; archival interviews with Zsigmond; excerpts from a pair of 1971 episodes of The Dick Cavett Show featuring Altman and film critic Pauline Kael; and a gallery of stills from the set.

Movie: ★★★½

POLICE STORY III: SUPERCOP (1992). I haven’t seen all seven films in Hong Kong’s Police Story franchise — after recently suffering through the entire Police Academy catalogue, I’m hesitant to watch another series numbering seven entries and with the word Police in the title — but the first three installments are routinely included in lists of the best martial arts movies ever made, sometimes even cracking countdowns of the all-time best action flicks. Certainly, Police Story III: Supercop (released stateside as simply Supercop) knows a thing or two about martial arts and even more about action — with stars Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh performing their own stunts, CGI complacency has no place at this table. Chan reprises his role as Hong Kong Inspector Chan Ka-Kui, the titular supercop who’s instructed to work alongside Chinese Inspector Jessica Yang (Yeoh) as they seek to bring down drug lord Chaibat (Ken Tsang). Posing as siblings, Ka-Kui and Yang manage to infiltrate the kingpin’s organization, but complications arise when Ka-Kui’s sheltered girlfriend May (returning Maggie Cheung) unexpectedly enters the picture. Chan is as loose and limber as ever, and he milks plenty of humor out of the sequences in which Ka-Kui has to pretend to be a yokel who hails from a small village and a large family. The action flows like a stream throughout, but the biggest set-pieces are saved for the end — these include close encounters with a speeding train and a high-flying helicopter.

The 4K UHD edition offers both the 96-minute Hong Kong Cut and the 91-minute International US Cut. Extras include audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng; pieces on Chan, Yeoh, and director Stanley Tong; a 2004 interview with Tong; outtakes; behind-the-scenes footage; a 1984 Guy Laroche watch commercial with Chan and Yeoh; and US TV spots.

Movie: ★★★

THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER (1937). Given Errol Flynn’s star billing as well as his importance to the studio, it wouldn’t have been entirely surprising to learn that Warner Bros. completely bastardized Mark Twain’s classic story by turning the 9-year-old title characters into a pair of 28-year-old swashbucklers. But fear not, traditionalists: Warner does all right by the Twain tale, casting real-life lads Billy and Bobby Mauch as the leads and placing Flynn firmly in support. In 16th century England, Prince Edward Tudor (Bobby) and the impoverished Tom Canty (Billy) meet by accident and are startled by the fact that they look exactly alike. For fun, the pair exchange clothes, but a case of mistaken identity leads to Tom finding himself being pampered in preparation for his ascension to the throne as King Edward VI while the real Edward finds himself trying to survive in the London slums, eventually requiring the aid of soldier of fortune Miles Hendon (Flynn). Claude Rains, who would play the corrupt Prince John opposite Flynn’s forest denizen in the following year’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, here portrays an equally devious nobleman, a court politician who alone knows Tom is a fake and plans to use that intel to his advantage. This was also the first film with both Flynn and Alan Hale — they would ultimately co-star in 13 movies, with Hale almost always playing Flynn’s buddy / sidekick. Here, though, he plays the dastardly Captain of the Guard, ordered by Rains’ scheming earl to murder Edward to prevent his return to the palace. As for Flynn, he doesn’t even appear until around the 50-minute mark, but it’s the court intrigue more than the crossed swords that propels this spritely period romp.

Blu-ray extras consist of the 1937 cartoons Plenty of Money and You, Streamlined Greta Green, and A Sunbonnet Blue, and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★

THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING (1966). From the same school of wacky, overblown, sixties comedies as It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Great Race comes this wacky, overblown, sixties comedy whose greatest asset is Alan Arkin in his memorable film debut. He delivers a perfectly modulated performance as Yuri Rozanov, the second-in-command on a Russian submarine that gets stuck on a sandbar off the New England coast. The captain (Theodore Bikel) sends Yuri and a small team of men ashore to find a way to free themselves before they’re discovered and an international incident occurs. Yuri and company try to pass themselves off as Norwegian sailors to vacationing writer Walt Whittaker (Carl Reiner) and his wife (Eva Marie Saint) and kids, but that charade doesn’t last long and the Russians are forced to take the American family hostage. From there, matters only escalate, as Yuri heads to the nearby town, Walt escapes and tries to warn everyone, and a youthful Russian sailor (John Phillip Law) and the Whittakers’ babysitter (Andrea Dromm) fall for each other. There are a handful of worthy comic situations in director Norman Jewison’s busy flick, but too much of the picture merely finds the American townspeople (including local lawmen broadly played by Brian Keith and Jonathan Winters) running around and bellowing at each other. A sizable box office hit, this earned four Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Actor (Arkin), Adapted Screenplay (William Rose, working from Nathaniel Benchley’s novel The Off-Islanders), and Film Editing (Hal Ashby, later the director of Harold and Maude and the recently reviewed Coming Home).

Blu-ray extras include film historian audio commentary; an archival making-of featurette; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★½

SCARLET STREET (1945). In 1944, director Fritz Lang gathered Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea together to create The Woman in the Window, which was such a rousing success that they reunited the very next year for Scarlet Street. The quartet knocked another one out of the park, producing a film noir so potent for its time that it was banned in Atlanta, Milwaukee, and the entire state of New York. Robinson stars as Christopher Cross (no, not that Christopher Cross), a lonely and unhappily married clerk who falls for a brassy prostitute (Bennett), not realizing that she’s in love with her pimp (Duryea) and that the pair are milking him for whatever cash he can earn or steal. (The film doesn’t explicitly identify them as prostitute and pimp — the ratings board would never have allowed that — but c’mon, it’s made pretty clear in scene after scene.) Robinson is typically excellent as the humiliated patsy, while Duryea oozes sleazy charisma out of every pore. Still, the men’s roles are similar to those they essayed in The Woman in the Window, marking Bennett as the film’s showcase star. A sympathetic character in the previous picture, she’s a duplicitous femme fatale in this outing, callously wrapping Cross around her finger and eventually becoming involved with the most noteworthy ice pick until Basic Instinct came along decades later. It’s a dynamic performance; it’s no surprise that in his book Alternate Oscars, Danny Peary names her his Best Actress winner for 1945 (over actual winner Joan Crawford for Mildred Pierce).

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition consist of a pair of film historian audio commentaries.

Movie: ★★★½

THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968). Here’s one of those rare instances when I have to confess that I enjoy the remake much more than the original. The 1999 version of The Thomas Crown Affair is a delight, with smart writing, an intoxicating visual style, and immeasurable chemistry between Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. The 1968 original, on the other hand, features two top stars who don’t always click, shallow treatment of its characters, and a meandering storyline that ultimately peters out. Although this was reportedly Steve McQueen’s favorite of all his own movies, he never seems completely at ease — he’s not quite miscast, but he’s also not quite a natural fit (first choice Sean Connery would have been better). McQueen’s Thomas Crown is a bored millionaire who decides to mastermind the perfect bank robbery. He succeeds, but while the cops investigating the theft prove to be ineffectual, he meets his match in insurance investigator Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway). The specifics of the heist are interesting, but the cat-and-mouse game that develops between Thomas and Vicki is never that compelling. Haskell Wexler’s cinematography is an asset, and director Norman Jewison and film editor Hal Ashby employ split-screen imagery in eye-catching ways (it dates the film, but it works). Composer Michel Legrand’s drowsy tune “The Windmills of Your Mind” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, with his original score also securing a nomination.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Jewison; audio commentary by film historians Lem Dobbs and Nick Redman; an interview with Jewison; an interview with title designer Pablo Ferro; and a vintage on-the-set featurette.

Movie: ★★½

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957). Along with 1945’s And Then There Were None, this is the greatest of all the Agatha Christie adaptations that have been brought to the screen. This sensational drama (with copious amounts of humor) may no longer have the ability to fool most audiences with its shocking plot twist, but the film is so absorbing and so splendidly acted that this potential debit ultimately doesn’t matter in the least. Working from a script that he penned with Harry Kurnitz, director Billy Wilder keeps the courtroom shenanigans popping in this murder-mystery in which amateur inventor and professional heel Leonard Vale (Tyrone Power) is accused of murdering an older woman with whom he had been keeping company. The crafty barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Charles Laughton) believes he’s innocent and takes the case, but his defense gets more complicated when Vale’s only alibi, his wife Christine (Marlene Dietrich), proves to be a most unusual witness. Opening up Christie’s stage hit for the screen, Wilder delivers a riveting thriller that’s blessed with superb dialogue (“Touching, isn’t it, the way he depends on his wife.” “Like a drowning man clutching at a razor blade.”) and packed with showcase performances. Power (who would die of a heart attack the following year, at the age of 44) and Dietrich are both excellent, but top honors go to the formidable real-life husband-and-wife team of Laughton and Elsa Lanchester, the latter cast as Sir Wilfrid’s fussy nurse Miss Plimsoll. This earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Actor (Laughton), and Supporting Actress (Lanchester).

Blu-ray extras include an interview with Wilder and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

EYE OF THE NEEDLE (1981). In John Sturges’ exciting 1976 film The Eagle Has Landed, Donald Sutherland plays an Irishman who works as a spy for the Nazis. Five years later, the Canadian actor again toiled under Hitler, this time portraying an actual German agent. In this fine adaptation of Ken Follett’s bestseller, Sutherland is Heinrich Faber, an undercover operative nicknamed “The Needle.” Skilled with his trusty switchblade, Faber is tasked with discovering where exactly the D-Day invasion will take place; once he’s armed with the Jeopardy!-worthy answer of Normandy, he attempts to hop aboard a U-boat and hightail it from Britain back to Germany. Instead, he finds himself stranded on the aptly named Storm Island, spending time with the lovely yet lonely Lucy (Kate Nelligan), her paraplegic and perpetually angry husband David (Christopher Cazenove), and their little boy. Faber strikes up a romance with the neglected Lucy, even as Inspector Godliman (Ian Bannen) and other British authorities attempt to ascertain his whereabouts and stop him from delivering his info to Der Fuhrer. Aided by excellent work from both Sutherland and Nelligan, director Richard Marquand, whose next project was a little picture called Return of the Jedi, and scripter Stanley Mann, who would subsequently adapt bestsellers by Stephen King (Firestarter) and James Clavell (Tai-Pan), have fashioned an appropriately low-key film that works as a thriller and functions even better as a tragic love story. The penultimate score by composer Miklós Rózsa (Spellbound, Ben-Hur) is an added bonus, and keep your eyes peeled during the final half-hour for an appearance by an impossibly young-looking Bill Nighy, making his film debut as a squadron leader.

Movie: ★★★