FILM FRENZY

Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrison, Hugh Laurie, Jesse Spencer, Lisa Edelstein, and Robert Sean Leonard in House (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.)

ALICE, SWEET ALICE (1976). A flop upon its original release, Alice, Sweet Alice has since been saved from complete irrelevance by film scholars and cultists, even if it still doesn’t quite enjoy the reputation it deserves. Writer-director Alfred Sole (scripting with Rosemary Ritvo) states that he was largely inspired by Nicolas Roeg’s superb 1973 thriller Don’t Look Now — certainly not a shabby source for ideas. Just as that picture featured a diminutive killer in a raincoat, so too does this absorbing effort in which young Karen Spages (an 11-year-old Brooke Shields in her film debut) is murdered at her local church by a masked assailant. Everyone except Karen’s divorced parents (Linda Miller and Niles McMaster) thinks that the killer might be Karen’s older — and obviously troubled — sister, 12-year-old Alice (Paula E. Sheppard). Religious imagery abounds in this gripping yarn that’s marked by at least one unexpected murder as well as a villain whose identity isn’t (contrary to the norm) readily apparent from the start. Briefly titled Communion before the shift to Alice, Sweet Alice, the picture was re-released in the early ‘80s (under the moniker Holy Terror) in an effort to cash in on Shields’ newfound fame post-The Blue Lagoon and post-Calvin Klein.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by Sole and editor Edward Salier; deleted scenes; interviews with Sole and McMaster; alternate opening titles; and a tour of the original shooting locations.

Movie: ★★★

BLACK EYE (1974). As in black private eye, although the ex-cop at the center of this actioner doles out enough facial contusions as well. Positioned in its day as a blaxploitation flick, it doesn’t quite fit the genre’s general definition: The private investigator in the source novel, Jeff Jacks’ Murder on the Wild Side, is (at least based on the cover art I found) white, a sizable number of the supporting characters are white (and not Mafia members, as was often the case in these films), and director Jack Arnold was a veteran journeyman best known for his string of 50s sci-fi classics like Creature From the Black Lagoon and The Incredible Shrinking Man. In other words, it isn’t exactly Shaft … although there is an elevator shaft that figures in one of the movie’s exciting set-pieces. Former NFL defensive back Fred Williamson (who, incidentally, played in the very first Super Bowl for the losing Kansas City Chiefs) was better than many other ex-athletes who turned to acting, and he delivers a relaxed yet confident performance as Shep Stone, who gets involved in a murder-mystery centering around a deceased movie star’s stolen cane. As Shep conducts his sleuthing, he crosses paths with Christian cultists, pornographers, drug dealers, and a high-society woman (Rosemary Forsyth) involved with his bisexual girlfriend (Teresa Graves, in the same year she made TV history with Get Christie Love! and then immediately gave it all up to become a Jehovah’s Witness). With quirky characters and interesting scenarios, it’s better than its practically nonexistent reputation.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★★

DAFFY DUCK’S QUACKBUSTERS (1988). The 1979 theatrical release The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, which took a buncha classic Looney Tunes cartoons and surrounded them with bridging sequences, was so popular that Warner Bros. quickly served up three more compilation films in 1981 (The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie), ’82 (Bugs Bunny’s 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales), and ’83 (Daffy Duck’s Movie: Fantastic Island). Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters was the belated fifth and final entry in this series, turning to Ghostbusters to provide a modicum of inspiration for the vintage toon tales spread throughout. After beginning with a new standalone cartoon, The Night of the Living Duck (in which Daffy entertains classic movie monsters with a nightclub routine), the story proper finds Daffy inheriting a ton of money from an eccentric millionaire. The money must be used for noble pursuits or else it vanishes, so the not-so-wise quacker opens a paranormal practice, with Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, and Sylvester as his assistants. The classic cartoons (alas, some modified to fit the new story) provide the agency with its cases — these include 1960’s Hyde and Go Tweet, with Sylvester confronting a monstrous Tweety, and 1963’s Transylvania 6-5000, with Bugs squaring off against the vampiric Count Bloodcount. Not all of the selected cartoons qualify as prime cuts, but there’s enough merriment to satisfy most toon aficionados.

Blu-ray extras include several more vintage Looney Tunes romps, including 1980’s Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century and 1992’s Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers.

Movie: ★★★

FRANKENSTEIN JR. AND THE IMPOSSIBLES: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1966-1967) / WAIT TILL YOUR FATHER GETS HOME: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1972-1974). Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny are household names; not so much Fluid-Man and Harry Boyle. Those are but two of the hand drawn stars of a pair of fairly obscure animated series, both offered on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection (each sold separately).

Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles was one of the countless shows created by Hanna-Barbera Productions for Saturday morning consumption by the kiddies. While it exhibits a certain clumsy charm, it’s not particularly good, with each episode consisting of three vignettes within a 22-minute span. The first and third stories center on three teenagers who are members of a rock group — like Charlie with his Angels, the mysterious “Big D” contacts them remotely with news of a crime, at which point they turn into the superheroes Coil-Man, Fluid-Man, and Multi-Man. The middle tale involves Frankenstein Jr. (voiced by Ted Cassidy of Lurch fame), a metallic super-monster who, with his young creator Buzz Conroy instructing him, also spends his time vanquishing villains. The series aired on CBS and lasted all of 18 episodes.

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home also hailed from the Hanna-Barbera team, but it clearly wasn’t meant for Saturday mornings, instead airing in syndication. The plot should sound familiar to anyone familiar with the name Archie Bunker: A conservative family man with a dingbat wife and hippie kids must conform to a rapidly changing world. Yet All in the Family is one of the all-time greats, immediately placing this at a disadvantage. For starters, Harry Boyle (voiced by Tom Bosley seemingly moments before landing the role of Howard Cunningham on Happy Days) isn’t as controversial as Archie, pretty much agreeing with his family’s progressive views before the end of many episodes. It’s neighbor Ralph Kane who’s far more radical than either Harry or Archie, constantly yammering about Commies and organizing armed vigilante groups (he’s basically the poster child for the January 6 terrorists). The animation takes a backseat to the storylines, which maintain minimal interest. Many popular sitcom stars appear as guests on various episodes, including Richard Dawson, Don Knotts, Don Adams, Phyllis Diller, and, from All in the Family itself, Isabel Sanford and Allan Melvin. This one fared a bit better than Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles, lasting two seasons and 48 episodes.

Extras on both consist of retrospective featurettes.

Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles: ★★

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: ★★½

HOUSE: THE COMPLETE SERIES (2004-2012). Hugh Laurie’s brand of dry, sarcastic, and even misanthropic humor could be maintained in smaller bursts (see Sense and Sensibility, The Night Manager, or some of his skit comedy), but could it be sustained — and, more importantly, could it entertain — over the course of eight years, 176 episodes, and 129 hours of American prime time television? As House emphatically proved, that would be a yes. Laurie is simply superb as Gregory House, a doctor at a fictional New Jersey teaching hospital. He’s as known for his insulting manner as for his brilliant medical deductions, and his controversial approach to his field leads to perennial confrontations with his superior, Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein). His best friend is his colleague Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), who’s a combo Dr. Watson and Jiminy Cricket, while his team (at least for the first few seasons) consists of the conscientious trio of Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps), Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer). There’s a certain template employed for most episodes — a patient is admitted and misdiagnosed before House et al figure out the real reason for the medical malady — but the writing operates at such a high level that it never grows stale. A hit in the ratings — it peaked at #5 in the Nielsens for Season 3 — its eight-year run earned four Emmy nominations for Best Drama Series and six for Laurie as Best Actor (alas, it never won in either category).

Extras in the 39-disc Blu-ray box set include episode commentaries with writers and producers; behind-the-scenes pieces; bloopers; and audition tapes.

Series: ★★★½

JOHN CARPENTER’S GHOSTS OF MARS (2001). Steven Spielberg’s Ghosts of Mars might have been a blast, and I would have paid top dollar to check out Merchant-Ivory’s Ghosts of Mars. But John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars? This one’s so atrocious that had the director of Escape From New York been playing fair, he would have named it Escape From This Theater so that unsuspecting moviegoers might have stood a chance upon its theatrical bow. Our friendly neighborhood Red Planet, which had already taken a beating in the previous year’s underwhelming twofer of Mission to Mars and Red Planet, receives even worst treatment here, as Carpenter has concocted a dull, gory, and shabbily plotted yarn set in 2176 AD. Natasha Henstridge plays an interstellar police officer who arrives at a remote mining colony on Mars to pick up a prisoner known as “Desolation” Williams (Ice Cube). Before long, the cop and the criminal (and lots of expendable supporting players, including ones played by Jason Statham and Pam Grier) find themselves squaring off against crazed humans who have been possessed by, um, homicidal vapors. Carpenter has always maintained that the picture was never meant to be taken seriously — I suppose a clue is that the leader of the “ghosts” is a Marilyn Manson lookalike billed in the credits as “Big Daddy Mars” — but that doesn’t excuse the general wretchedness of every aspect of this celluloid wart.

4K extras include audio commentary by Carpenter and Henstridge and a making-of featurette.

Movie: ★

JOHN CARPENTER’S VAMPIRES (1998). Before his career flamed out with Ghosts of Mars, John Carpenter spent the 1990s helming only five films, three of which proved to be colossal bombs (for the record, they were Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Escape From L.A., and the woeful Village of the Damned remake). Vampires (aka John Carpenter’s Vampires) was one of the lucky(?) pair — the other being In the Mouth of Madness — that broke even by grossing exactly what it cost. In the annals of bloodsucker cinema, the picture isn’t anything special, but by the standards of late-career Carpenter, it’ll have to do. James Woods is typically intense as Jack Crow, the leader of a team of he-men commissioned by the Vatican to wipe out all pockets of vampires that exist around the U.S. (similar outfits operate elsewhere in the world). But Jack has never before encountered a creature like Jan Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), a powerful vampire seeking an ancient relic that will allow him to move about freely in the daytime. The story (based on John Steakley’s novel) offers some intriguing ideas, but it’s hard to muster up much sympathy or emotion when the humans are as repellent as those they slay. Sheryl Lee, Twin Peaks‘ Laura Palmer, does remarkably well with her paper-thin role as a bite victim who holds the key to Valek’s potential downfall.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Carpenter; a vintage making-of piece; and interviews with Carpenter, Woods, Griffith, and producer Sandy King Carpenter.

Movie: ★★

KILL THEM ALL AND COME BACK ALONE (1968) / THE HELLBENDERS (1967). This double feature Blu-ray offers two sixties Spaghetti Westerns, each from a popular genre director and both involving the theft of riches from the Union Army by Confederate scumbags.

Directed by Enzo G. Castellari (The Inglorious Bastards), Kill Them All and Come Back Alone offers Chuck Connors as the cinematic clickbait, adding stateside marquee value to lure those Americans allergic to foreigners of any kind (alas, they remain legion in these MAGAt-infested times). He’s Clyde MacKay, an unscrupulous sort who must lead a group of crooks and killers on what appears to be a suicide mission. (Yes, it’s The Dirty Dozen with spurs.) The target is a Union stronghold filled with gold, and no one can trust anybody else. There’s some decent action, but Connors’ character isn’t enigmatic (like Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name) as much as he’s simply underwritten.

Helmed by Sergio Corbucci (Django), The Hellbenders nabs Golden Age star Joseph Cotten as the marquee filler. The Citizen Kane co-star is cast as a former Confederate officer who, after the war has ended, plots to use the millions he and his sons have stolen from a Union outfit to finance a new skirmish so that the South may rise (and presumably fall) again. Like Kill Them All, The Hellbenders is a moderately entertaining oater, and the gotcha at the end is nice.

The Blu-ray contains both the 99-minute English cut and 100-minute Italian version of Kill Them All and Come Back Alone. Extras on both films include audio commentary by filmmaker and author Alex Cox (10,000 Ways to Die: A Director’s Take on the Italian Western) and theatrical trailers.

Kill Them All and Come Back Alone: ★★½

The Hellbenders: ★★½

THE NICE GUYS (2016). On paper, the Russell Crowe-Ryan Gosling pairing at the center of writer-director Shane Black’s The Nice Guys might stir unhappy memories of such past what-were-they-thinking? twofers as Pat Morita and Jay Leno (Collision Course), Ted Danson and Howie Mandel (A Fine Mess), and Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds (R.I.P.D.). But the truth is that they turn out to be a dynamic duo, going together as well as peanut butter and chocolate. Their characters, the bearish Jackson Healy (Crowe) and the bumbling Holland March (Gosling), are private dicks who pool their hot-and-cold talents to track down a missing woman while subsequently investigating the murder of a porn star. And because it’s set in 1977 Los Angeles, unfortunate clothing and hairstyle choices abound, although Healy and March aren’t about to let sartorial suckiness and grotesque grooming stand in their way. Like practically all of Black’s scripts, the one employed here is cold and steely to the touch, with little warmth or sympathy to be found anywhere. And while his convoluted plot aspires to stir memories of the likes of Chinatown and L.A. Confidential, it’s really not much more complicated or polished than any given episode of Magnum, P.I. Instead, Black’s strengths rest elsewhere, particularly his facility with clever dialogue and his ability to set up hilarious gags. The picture also has a secret weapon in 15-year-old Australian actress Angourie Rice, excellent as March’s brainy daughter Holly.

4K extras consist of a making-of featurette and a piece on Black.

Movie: ★★★

PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM (1972). “I’m turning into an aspirin junkie. Next thing you know, I’ll be boiling the cotton at the top of the bottle to get the extra.” That’s one of the opening salvos in Play It Again, Sam, a hilarious comedy starring Woody Allen and Humphrey Bogart (well, sort of). The picture is directed by Herbert Ross (The Goodbye Girl), but it’s a Woody flick all the way, with the comic not only headlining but also writing the screenplay based on his own 1969 Broadway hit. The movie had the good fortune to retain the play’s four leading players in Allen, Diane Keaton (who earned a Tony nomination on stage), Tony Roberts (ditto), and Jerry Lacy, and the screen proved to be a better fit for the story’s salutes to Casablanca. Woody is Allan Felix, a film critic who’s been afloat ever since his wife Nancy (Susan Anspach) left him. His married best friends Linda and Dick (Keaton and Roberts) repeatedly try to set him up with single women, but he takes most of his dating advice from the ghost of Bogart (Lacy). Allan’s obsession with Casablanca is beautifully handled, with that classic’s climactic sequence lovingly reinterpreted by this film’s principals. As for the character of Allan, he’s prime Allen, with the hapless guy better at self-deprecation than at projecting any sort of studly image. Legendary exchange: “What are you doing Saturday night?” “Committing suicide.” “What about Friday night?”

Blu-ray extras consist of film historian audio commentary; the theatrical trailer; and trailers for other films on the Kino label.

Movie: ★★★½

SEA OF LOVE (1989). Over an eight-year stretch in the 1970s, Al Pacino earned an impressive five Academy Award nominations for his emoting; over the entirety of the 80s, he earned zero Oscar nods but did grab a Razzie Award nomination for 1985’s terrible Revolution. The critical and commercial failure of this saga of the American Revolutionary War so deflated Pacino that he stepped away from film for four years, only reluctantly returning for Sea of Love. It turned out to be a box office hit and revitalized his career to such a monumental extent that he even won his Oscar three years later for a terrible performance in a terrible movie (that being, hoo-ah!, Scent of a Woman). Sea of Love finds him in more reliable shape, sparingly employing his over-the-top tendencies only when it makes sense for his character. He stars as Frank Keller, an NYC detective who’s trying to identify the serial killer who’s been murdering men who place specific types of ads in a newspaper’s dating column. Working with a detective (John Goodman) from another precinct, Keller decides that the killer is most likely female, leading him to pretend to be a lonely hearts gent himself. The sexy Helen (Ellen Barkin) emerges as the prime suspect, a fact that Keller ignores as he falls for her. The identity of the killer is obvious almost from the character’s first introduction, but Richard Price’s script is packed with compelling characterizations and memorable exchanges.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by director Harold Becker; a making-of featurette; and deleted scenes.

Movie: ★★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM: Best Picture Oscar Winners

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951) / GIGI (1958). The film industry has produced a substantial number of truly transcendent musical masterpieces — Singin’ in the Rain, Top Hat, and A Hard Day’s Night are but three examples — yet rarely have these types of films won Best Picture Oscars. Instead, the Academy’s taste in musicals has always tended to run toward lavish, overproduced extravaganzas that often lumber rather than waltz across the screen. MGM’s two Best Picture musical winners from the 1950s are entertaining enough, but they represent neither the finest of their respective years nor the movie musical genre itself.

An American in Paris is the better of the pair, with Gene Kelly as Jerry Mulligan, a struggling Yankee artist living in the title city. Jerry agrees to allow his work to be promoted by society woman Milo Roberts (Nina Foch), who clearly has an interest in more than just his paintings. Unfortunately for her, he’s smitten by a lithe Parisian girl named Lise (Leslie Caron) who, unfortunately for him, happens to be engaged to a popular singer (Georges Guetary). Oscar Levant adds the comic relief as Kelly’s sad-sack best friend, while George & Ira Gershwin provide the classic tunes — the climactic “An American in Paris Ballet” sequence is the film’s most famous, although I’ve always had a soft spot for Kelly singing “I Got Rhythm” with the assistance of a group of children. Still, the story is thin, Jerry’s treatment of Milo leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and Kelly and Caron don’t exactly set off fireworks as a couple (Kelly would find a much better match the following year with Debbie Reynolds in Singin’ in the Rain). Nominated for eight Academy Awards, this won six, including Best Story & Screenplay; Kelly also won a special Oscar that year for his versatility as an actor, singer, director, and dancer.

Gigi reunited much of the principal talent from An American in Paris, including director Vincente Minnelli, producer Arthur Freed, scripter Alan Jay Lerner, and leading lady Leslie Caron. This finds Colette’s novel about a young woman trained to become a courtesan sanitized into a story about a young woman trained to become a society lady. Caron is delightful as Gigi, and the score by Lerner and Frederick Loewe contains numerous familiar standards — while it’s a tad unsettling seeing 69-year-old Maurice Chevalier singing “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” while surrounded by playground children, he’s at his best accompanying romantic lead Louis Jourdan on “It’s a Bore” and matching memories with Hermione Gingold in the wonderful “I Remember It Well.” But after an enchanting two-thirds of a movie, Gigi not only loses its fizzle but also ceases making narrative sense, as a movie about individuality in the face of conformity oddly turns into a movie about embracing conformity with both arms. This wowed ’em at the Oscars, going nine-for-nine; victories included Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Also the same year, Chevalier was given an honorary award for his longtime contribution to cinema.

An American in Paris: ★★★

Gigi: ★★½

BEN-HUR (1959). For well over a half-century, this mammoth production has held the record for the most Oscar wins with 11, a feat later tied by Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. From a technical standpoint, It’s the most impressive of the bunch: While the newer films relied heavily on CGI, this epic had to do it the old-fashioned way, with blood, sweat, and that proverbial cast of thousands. MGM rolled the dice on this one, investing a wad of dough as the studio teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. But the movie proved to be a resounding success worldwide — even its hefty 222-minute running time didn’t deter audiences from reveling in its widescreen splendor. As the Jew whose skirmishes with the Roman conquerors fuel his anger until his soul is saved by Christ, Charlton Heston wavers between stiff indignity and genuine pathos — more consistent is Stephen Boyd, whose underrated turn provides the right measure of suave sadism as Ben-Hur’s antagonist Messala. And yes, according to some sources, the obvious homosexual vibe between Ben-Hur and Messala was largely intended: Boyd, director William Wyler, and co-scripter Gore Vidal reportedly all discussed it before shooting, although they didn’t tell Heston for fear he would freak out! One of the best of the 50s glut of Biblical epics — and far superior to Heston’s other gargantuan religious flick, 1956’s The Ten Commandments — Ben-Hur is an impressive undertaking anchored by that incredible chariot race. This went 11-for-12 at the Oscars (its sole loss was Best Adapted Screenplay), including Best Actor (Heston), Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith as Sheik Ilderim), and Director.

Movie: ★★★½

DRIVING MISS DAISY (1989). Driving Miss Daisy became the first film since 1932’s Grand Hotel to win the Best Picture Academy Award without its director being nominated (Argo later repeated the feat). But more than the slighting of helmer Bruce Beresford, this adaptation of Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play (scripted by Uhry himself) is infamous in Oscar history for exposing the Academy’s white roots in a year that saw two superior films about race relations not even receive Best Picture nominations. Spike Lee’s inflammatory Do the Right Thing was the real best picture of 1989, while Glory, about heroic black soldiers during the Civil War, was also a sterling achievement; naturally, the organization elected to ignore those works and honor the one in which a black man is subservient to a white woman. Set over a span of 25 years, the movie details the relationship between the crotchety Daisy Werthan (Jessica Tandy) and her jovial chauffeur Hoke (Morgan Freeman) while also noting their reactions to the social changes happening around them. A sleeper hit at the box office, this is a pleasant piece which derives much of its juice from the turns by Tandy and especially Freeman, but it’s hardly Best Picture material. Dan Aykroyd co-stars as Miss Daisy’s patient son Boolie; he’s affable in the role, though scarcely believable. Nominated for nine Academy Awards (including nods for Freeman and Aykroyd), the film won four: Along with that Best Picture designation, it also snagged Best Actress, Adapted Screenplay, and Makeup. This was followed a year later by the porn flick Driving Miss Daisy Crazy — needless to say, the plot was far different.

Movie: ★★★

HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY (1941). This is best known among cineasts as the movie that beat Citizen Kane for the Best Picture Oscar, but that really shouldn’t be held against the film (just against the petty and myopic Academy). Putting aside Kane for a moment, How Green Was My Valley also didn’t deserve to triumph over the likes of The Maltese Falcon, Sergeant York, and The Little Foxes, but on its own terms, it’s no disgrace, as it sympathetically focuses on the members of a family living in a Welsh mining town. Mr. Morgan (Donald Crisp) is the patriarch, sharing a home with a devoted wife (Sara Allgood), a demure daughter (Maureen O’Hara), and several sons, the youngest of which is the sensitive Huw (played by 13-year-old Roddy McDowall). The arrival of a liberal priest (Walter Pidgeon) sparks controversy in some quarters, but more damning is the fact that the mine owners have begun cutting wages and laying off workers, business decisions that irreparably damage this proud community. The film’s politics remain topical, as many of the workers sensibly decide to unionize in order to stand strong against the uncaring upper management (“Socialist nonsense!” barks Mr. Morgan, preferring not to make waves). Even at two hours, this isn’t long enough to adequately flesh out all the principal players (especially O’Hara and Anna Lee as her sister-in-law), but there are many memorable vignettes strewn throughout. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Allgood) and Screenplay, it won five, including Best Supporting Actor (Crisp) and Best Director (John Ford).

Movie: ★★★