FILM FRENZY

Lily-Rose Depp in Nosferatu (Photo: Universal & Focus)

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.)

CRONOS (1993). The Shape of Water Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro made his feature debuts as both writer and director with this trippy Mexican import. Jesús Gris (Federico Luppi) is a soft-spoken antique dealer who comes into possession of a centuries-old mechanical device that can bless its owner with eternal life but also curse him with a vampire’s thirst. The kindly old man succumbs to the awful allure of the object, but his troubles don’t end there — dying millionaire Dieter de la Guardia (Claudio Brook) craves the insect-powered gadget and sends his brutish and decidedly offbeat nephew Angel (Ron Perlman) to retrieve it. The first half is more original and thus stronger than the second half, but the picture retains its refreshing edge throughout, and Perlman offers a wonderfully quirky turn. The character of the coroner Tito would reappear years later in an otherwise unrelated, del Toro-less horror flick, 2010’s We Are What We Are, with Daniel Giménez Cacho essaying the role in both films

Extras in the 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by del Toro; audio commentary by producers Arthur H. Gorson, Bertha Navarro, and Alejandro Springall; interviews with del Toro, Luppi, Perlman, and cinematographer Guillermo Navarro; del Toro’s short film Geometria, begun in 1987 and finished in 2010; and, my favorite bonus feature, a tour of del Toro’s home, bursting at the seams with all manner of cool movie memorabilia (naturally, Forrest J Ackerman and his Ackermansion receive a loving shout-out).

Movie: ★★★

IMPACT (1949). This picture opens with a narrator citing a rather specific definition of the word compact: “the force with which two lives come together, sometimes for good, sometimes for evil.” I daresay Compact would have worked just as well as Impact, given that this is a tightly scripted and efficiently executed thriller with the usual noirish trappings. Brian Donlevy is Walter Williams, a wealthy industrialist deeply in love with his wife Irene (Helen Walker). They appear to be the perfect couple, but what no one including Walter realizes is that Irene has a lover in the uncouth Jim Torrence (Tony Barrett). Irene and Jim hatch a complicated scheme to murder Walter, but matters go invariably wrong and Walter escapes death. No spoilers here, but let it be known that Walter makes the acquaintance of widowed garage owner Marsha Peters (Ella Raines), the Williams’ housekeeper Su Lin (Anna May Wong) goes into hiding, and the detective (the always wonderful Charles Coburn) investigating the whole mess leaves no clue unturned. Writers Jay Dratler (co-scripter of the noir masterpiece Laura) and Dorothy Davenport offer several narratives surprises along the way, and director Arthur Lubin’s direction is unfussy and effective. Bonus points for the amusing and, given the era, perhaps unexpected moment when the detective asks a Chinaman (Philip Ahn), “Understand? You savvy English?,” to which he smoothly replies, “Also French, Italian, and Hebrew.”

Blu-ray extras consist of film scholar audio commentary and a poster & photo gallery.

Movie: ★★★

NOSFERATU (2024). The fact that F.W. Murnau’s 1922 Nosferatu has long earned my vote as the greatest vampire film ever made would seem to place this new picture at a disadvantage, destined to receive at best a lukewarm review. Yet the existence of Werner Herzog 1979 Nosferatu: The Vampyre drives a stake through that argument, as I’m also a fan of that interpretation. And then there’s the fact that writer-director Robert Eggers’ last two pictures, 2019’s The Lighthouse and 2022’s The Northman, landed on my 10 Best lists in their respective years. This is the least of the three Nosferatus as well as the least of Eggers’ four flicks to date, but it’s a disappointment as opposed to a disgrace. As before, this follows the general plotline of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, as Ellen Hutter (monotonous Lily-Rose Depp) is filled with dread as her husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) travels from their German village to Transylvania to conduct a real estate transaction with the cryptic Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård). It is the Count, not Thomas, who next turns up in the German burg, and the supernatural occurrences sparked by his presence bring the eccentric Professor von Franz (Willem Dafoe) to investigate. Eggers’ film looks great, but it’s art-directed to within an inch of its existence, thereby resulting in a horror yarn that is shockingly staid and never adds anything fresh to the vampire genre. Yet the biggest miscalculation is in the creation of Orlok, who looked truly frightening in the previous versions but here could be mistaken as the heavy in an ‘80s-era NWA wrestling bout. This earned a quartet of Oscar nominations for its cinematography, costumes, production design, and makeup.

The Blu-ray edition offers both the theatrical and extended cuts. Extras include audio commentary by Eggers and deleted scenes.

Movie: ★★½

SEPTEMBER 5 (2024). Given Paramount’s muted handling of its theatrical release and the subsequent lack of success — even a 20th anniversary reissue of Shrek 2 grossed more last year — this riveting drama from director Tim Fehlbaum could be considered a sleeper pick; certainly, it was one of 2024’s 10 best films. During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, the Palestinian terrorist outfit Black September took 11 Israeli athletes and coaches hostage; approximately 20 hours later, all 11 were dead, assassinated by the militants as the German police were bungling the rescue attempt. Several films have centered on this tragic event (including 1999’s Oscar-winning documentary One Day in September and Steven Spielberg’s 2005 Munich), but the unique slant here is that the story is told from the POV of an American television crew. ABC Sports president Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) and his outfit must cope with murky intel and disturbing developments, making massive decisions while figuring out how best to cover the momentous moment. Like the best news stories, this sobering drama allows the facts to speak for themselves … then lets the emotional chips fall where they must. This disappointingly only earned a sole Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay (Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder, and Alex David).

The press release lists a number of extras, but I found none on the Blu-ray. I have to assume these are only available via the digital copy, which is disappointing to those of us who prefer physical copies and don’t even bother with the digital codes half the time.

Movie: ★★★½

SUMMER RENTAL (1985). There have been several examples of old-school comedians working well past their prime in movies made during changing times: Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, even my cinematic god Mel Brooks with his directorial swan song Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Many would claim that Carl Reiner reached that point with his helming duties on 1985’s Summer Rental and 1987’s Summer School. I’m more charitable in that I don’t believe he reached his expiration date until the ‘90s, when he foisted such duds as Sibling Rivalry and Fatal Instinct onto an unsuspecting public. On the contrary, his two Summer flings (unrelated, despite the titles) were welcome respites from the sort of vulgar, sex-crazed teen comedies that too often dominated the eighties. Both were cheerfully inoffensive, and each was mild enough to avoid an R rating. The PG Summer Rental was particularly benign (Summer School earned a PG-13), with even a gag about a woman proudly showing everyone her boob job managing to be innocuous rather than sleazy. John Candy stars as Jack Chester, an overworked air traffic controller (a bit of unexpected topicality there) who takes his wife (Karen Austin) and three kids to Florida for a beach vacation. While there, he runs afoul of an obnoxious sailing champion (Richard Crenna) and befriends Scully (Rip Torn), a restaurant owner who fancies himself a pirate. The plotting is mostly perfunctory, but there are a few modest laughs and Candy is as likable as ever.

Blu-ray extras include film historian audio commentary; a piece on the film’s music; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★½

UNCLE BUCK (1989). After years of successfully carrying the baton for the younger generation with such efforts as Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, writer-director John Hughes decided to largely focus on crafting films featuring characters closer to his own age. His first post-Brat Pack feature in this vein was the best — 1987’s Planes, Trains and Automobiles — with subsequent efforts proving to be so-so or downright dismal. Uncle Buck was one of the more tolerable of the bunch, with Planes co-lead John Candy receiving sole above-the-title billing for tackling the title character. Uncle Buck is a jovial layabout whose slacker ways are beginning to irritate his longtime girlfriend (Amy Madigan). Averse to any form of responsibility, he’s nevertheless forced to heed the call when his brother’s kids need tending, lest they be left home alone as their parents suddenly leave town for a family emergency. The 6-year-old Maizy (Gaby Hoffman) and the 8-year-old Miles (Macaulay Culkin) respond to his charms — not so rebellious teenager Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly), who views him as a loser and resents the way he interferes in her personal life. The kids are cute and Candy is game, and it’s largely their personalities that allow the film to survive its series of underwhelming set-pieces. I’m willing to bet that it was Culkin’s precociousness in this picture that landed him the starring role in 1990’s Hughes-penned smash Home Alone. That following year also saw CBS attempt an Uncle Buck sitcom, starring Kevin Meaney in the title role; it didn’t even last a full season.

Blu-ray extras include two separate film historian audio commentaries; an interview with Kelly; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★½

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM: Best Picture Oscar Winners

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930) / GRAND HOTEL (1932). Here are two of the finest of the earliest Best Picture victors, with All Quiet on the Western Front winning at the third ceremony and Grand Hotel scoring at the fifth (for the record, we’re up to the 97th).

All Quiet On the Western Front has remained one of the greatest war movies ever made. Or, more accurately, it’s one of the greatest anti-war movies ever made, since this sterling adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel (with a script by heavyweights Maxwell Anderson and George Abbott) steadfastly avoids romanticizing combat in any way. Lew Ayres plays the green World War I volunteer who, along with his buddies, marches off to fight for the German fatherland and instead gets disillusioned by the brutal senselessness of it all. Even today, this decidedly unsentimental film still carries a wallop, most notably in its stunning conclusion. The 2022 German version won four Oscars — while a decent movie, it’s basically classic literature reconfigured for the MCU crowd and can’t compare to this masterpiece. Nominated for four Oscars, including Best Writing, this won for Best Director (Lewis Milestone) as well as that Best Picture citation.

The first truly all-star film ever made, Grand Hotel managed to pack five box office giants into one movie, a decision that resulted in a resounding hit for MGM. Set in a luxurious Berlin hotel, the film looks at the intersecting lives of five of its guests. Burned-out ballerina Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo) wails, “I want to be alone”; the penniless Baron (John Barrymore) has resorted to stealing to get out of debt; the nasty businessman Preysing (Wallace Beery) is trying to pull off a difficult transaction; the stenographer Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford) hopes to get ahead in life; and the dying laborer Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) wants to go out with a bang. Creaky in spots, the film still triumphs due to its neatly interwoven plotlines, strong characterizations by the leads, and the expected MGM gloss. Crawford’s rarely been my cup of tea — I’m Team Bette (Davis, of course) all the way — but here she’s positively radiant, and she steals the movie from her formidable co-stars. Grand Hotel was nominated for a grand total of one Academy Award, which it ended up winning: Best Picture. Thus, it’s the only movie to ever win Best Picture without receiving any other nominations, a designation it’s almost certain to never share.

All Quiet on the Western Front: ★★★★

Grand Hotel: ★★★½

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956). This adaptation of the Jules Verne novel has its moments, but infinitely more interesting than what appears on screen are the stories surrounding its maker. Before his death in an airplane crash at the age of 48, master showman Mike Todd had managed to marry Elizabeth Taylor, create the widescreen format Todd-AO, win the Best Picture Oscar for his only motion picture credit as producer, and reportedly coin the term “cameo” to refer to fleeting appearances by famous movie stars. 80 Days includes approximately 40 such cameos, including Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, and Buster Keaton (but not Gregory Peck, who was fired for not taking his cameo appearance as a Cavalry officer seriously; also MIA were John Wayne and James Cagney, who were bypassed when they also failed to approach that exact same role with the pomp Todd required). The star-spotting provides momentary distraction from what is too often a stodgy adventure yarn in which Phileas Fogg (David Niven) and assistant Passepartout (Mexican superstar Cantinflas) take a whirlwind tour across the globe for the sake of a wager. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Director (Michael Anderson), this won five, including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Score for Victor Young, who had been nominated a whopping 21 times before finally winning this one … posthumously. Along with Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet and the Apple production CODA, this remains the only Best Picture winner not yet available on Blu-ray. When it does arrive, I expect they’ll port over one of the more interesting features from the DVD: a 1957 Playhouse 90 telecast centering on the lavish party Todd threw to celebrate the one-year anniversary of his film’s release (with Walter Cronkite reporting from the scene!).

Movie: ★★½

GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT (1947). It may seem tame by today’s standards, but Gentleman’s Agreement was powder keg material back in 1947. When producer and Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck, who wasn’t Jewish, elected to bring Laura Z. Hobson’s bestselling novel about anti-Semitism to the screen, the other studio moguls, most of whom were Jewish, implored him to change his mind, preferring that the matter be left unaddressed. But Zanuck, who frequently turned his progressive passions into motion pictures, ignored the advice, and the resultant film proved to be a critical and commercial champ. Gregory Peck headlines as Philip Schuyler Green, a West Coast writer who, with his mother (Anne Revere) and his son (Dean Stockwell) in tow, moves to New York City to work at a major magazine. His first assignment is to write a lengthy piece on anti-Semitism, but he battles writer’s block until he stumbles onto a unique angle for the story: He will pose as a Jew and experience firsthand any prejudices that might arise. His family and his best friend, the Jewish Dave (John Garfield), support his endeavors, but he meets resistance from his high-society fiancée Kathy (Dorothy McGuire), who insists she’s not prejudiced but becomes squeamish whenever the subject comes up. The scenes involving Philip’s confrontations with bigotry — both subtle and out in the open — are powerful, and Garfield and Celeste Holm as a forthright fashion editor are both excellent. But the romance between Philip and Kathy is scarcely believable, more so as the film proceeds and she remains as unenlightened as ever. Nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Actor (Peck), Actress (McGuire), Supporting Actress (Revere), and Screenplay (Moss Hart), this won three: Best Picture, Director (Elia Kazan), and Supporting Actress (Holm).

Movie: ★★★

WEST SIDE STORY (1961). Produced in the middle of that period when Hollywood was smitten with expensive and extravagant (some would say overblown) adaptations of Broadway musical smashes, this tuneful takeoff on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet proved to be especially popular, emerging as a box office behemoth and Oscar darling. Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer play the star-crossed lovers Maria and Tony, whose mutual affection is threatened by the fact that he’s affiliated with the Caucasian street gang the Jets and she’s the sister of Bernardo (George Chakiris), the leader of the rival Puerto Rican outfit the Sharks. Wood and Beymer are bland as the central lovebirds (although Wood at least had the distinction of being excellent in her other 1961 release, Splendor in the Grass), and the frequently leaden dialogue is passable rather than inspired. But the Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim score contains some classic songs still suitable for humming (particularly the lovely “Tonight” and the witty “America”), most of the intricately choreographed dances still impress, and there are fine contributions by Chakiris, Russ Tamblyn as Jets leader Riff, and especially Rita Moreno, terrific as Bernardo’s feisty girlfriend Anita. Admittedly, I don’t love this movie like seemingly everyone else, but it would be churlish to ignore its excellent components as well as its contribution to American film. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, this won all of them except for Best Adapted Screenplay; its victories included Best Director (shared by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins), Supporting Actor (Chakiris), and Supporting Actress (Moreno). As the cherry on top, Robbins also won a special Oscar for his choreography.

Movie: ★★★½