Category: EDITOR’S BLOG

Sam Fuller: Crimson Kimonos & Dead Pigeons

Two detective thrillers from very distinct periods in Sam Fuller’s career: The Crimson Kimono (1959) from Twilight Time on Blu + Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street (1972) from Olive Films on DVD & Blu.

Revisiting No Man’s Land (1987)

Review of No Man’s Land (1987), Peter Werner’s upper-B actioner, new on Blu from KL Studio Classics + links to vintage P.R. ephemera & the ridiculous bonus short ‘The Magic Beta Case’.

Jean Negulesco’s Tales of Three: Woman’s World (1954)

Review of Woman’s World (1954), Jean Negulesco’s lesser-known entry in his ‘Tales of 3 Women’ series, nicely mastered on Blu by Fox on MOD.

Tales From Below: Hell and High Water (1954) + Above Us the Waves (1955) + The Frogmen (1951)

This week, tales from below the ocean surface: Sam Fuller’s nutty Hell and High Water (1954) on Blu from Twilight Time, Ralph Thomas’ very intense Above Us the Waves (1955) from VCI, and The Frogmen (1951) from the KQEK.com archives.

Blaxploitation Horror: Blackenstein (1973) + Abby (1974)

Reviews of two blaxploitation classics: the newly mastered Blackenstein (1973) from Severin on Blu + William Girdler’s Exorcist knock-off Abby (1974), still missing on disc.

Podcast with Maurizio Guarini on scoring Dante’s Inferno / L’Inferno (1911)

Review of Italy’s first feature film, the surreal silent classic Dante’s Inferno / L’Inferno (1911) + a podcast interview with the film’s composer, Goblin’s Maurizio Guarini, plus related podcast links.

Podcast Interview with Do Not Resist Director Craig Atkinson

Review of the unsettling doc Do Not Resist + Podcast Interview with Director Craig Atkinson on the militarization of local U.S. police forces.

Podcast Interview with Age of Consequences Director Jared Scott

Review of the provocative climate change doc The Age of Consequences + Podcast Interview with Director Jared Scott.

Podcast on BSV 1172’s World Premiere + Tom Roston & Norman Wilner at Bay Street Video, Pt.1

New podcast featuring thoughts on the World Premiere at SDUFF of my experimental doc BSV 1172 + Part One of a conversation with I Lost It at the Video Store author Tom Roston & NOW magazine’s Norman Wilner, who discussed video store culture in-store at Bay Street Video back in May.

An Interview with Director and Editor Victor Kanefsky

Podcast interview director and veteran editor Victor Kanesfky on the art of editing, spanning Art Bastard (2016), his recent documentary on artist Robert Cenedella, and editing the classic indie horror Ganja & Hess (1976) + graffiti doc Style Wars (1983).

DVD: Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street / Tatort: Tote Taube in der Beethovenstraße (1973)

Around 1970, German director Hans-Christoph Blumenberg had flown to Hollywood with a camera crew to interview Howard Hawks and John Ford, but lacking the right contacts, Sam Fuller interceded, enabling Blumenberg to get the material for the series which ran on TV that year…

BR: Crimson Kimono, The (1959)

During the 1950s Sam Fuller managed to put his stylistic and idiosyncratic imprimatur on pictures for the major studios, often in big gorgeous CinemaScope productions for Fox (Hell and High Water, the Japan-shot House of Bamboo), but the succession of almost yearly films became a trickle, ultimately forcing the writer-producer-director…

BR: Woman’s World (1954)

Having already directed Fox’s second CinemaScope film, How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), Jean Negulesco reunited with that film’s co-star Lauren Bacall plus Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) headliner Clifton Webb…

Postwar Espionage: The Quiet American (1958) + Foreign Intrigue (1955)

Postwar espionage is featured in two unique productions: Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s The Quiet American (1958) from Twilight Time Blu + Sheldon Reynolds’ unusual Foreign Intrigue (1955) from KL Studio Classics.

BR: Quiet American, The (1958)

Although Graham Greene was less than pleased with the first film version of his 1955 novel, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1958 effort remains a haunting rendition, mostly due to the excellent performances by two leads and actual filming in the relatively new republic of South Vietnam…

LP: John and Mary (1969)

Written during his busiest period (1968-1970), Quincy Jones’ score for John and Mary was quite sparse, leaving obligatory space for the film’s myriad dialogue exchanges and source music, but the score is memorable for being atypical of the material Jones was writing at the time: action comedies (The Italian Job, The Hell with Heroes), comedies (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,Cactus Flower), and the funky style of They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!

CD: Runaway Train (1985)

For some soundtrack fans, it was a bit of surprise to learn the composer of pioneering synth scores had begun his career with large orchestral scores for John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981) and Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal (1982)…

LP: Bourne Identity, The (2002)

The first film in the enduring franchise gave John Powell the perfect opportunity to write what remains both his definitive action sound, and the definitive action score of that decade, blending large orchestral sounds with layers upon layers of electronics…

CD: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

In a radical move for director Tim Burton, the score for his latest film was written by the collaborative team of Mike Higham and Matthew Margeson, both skilled in composing, orchestrating, and arranging for a diversity of projects…

MP3: 1979 Revolution – Black Friday (2016)

No stranger to scoring video games, Nima Fakhrara’s music is as unusual as the interactive game’s design in which players can take several differing paths as they’re immersed in the world of the 1979 Islamic Revolution with turned Iran into a theocracy…